6 Genius Landscaping Tips

All right, guys. In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you some unexpected hacks and just basically genius tricks that I've picked up after decades of being a contractor. These are the types of things that I've learned that helps you design landscaping without busting the bank to do it. So, without wasting any time, let's just get right into today's video and start sharing some tips and tricks with you guys. [Music] We're going to put some of our finished landscape rock in place. And that's just to get a visual. And yeah, I'm going to use old rugs cuz it's better than throwing them in the bonfire. >> Yep. >> Could have grabbed some filter fabric, but those got to go someplace. Might as well go there. never recommend installing old carpet below landscaping for a customer, but there is a time and a place where old carpet can become a very valuable asset. Let's just talk about that right now. All right, let's say you're at home and you're building your own patio and you're doing the excavation and you notice that the base it's kind of soft and compressionable. Maybe you got some squishy parts to it and you're like, I don't know what to do. Well, if the whole base gives you that wavy, I don't know what to do feeling, the best thing you can do is separate the new material subbase that's going to go down over the top of the old stuff. Now, technically, you should use a road separation fabric, but let's just pretend you're 30 mi from the closest place and you don't have an extra $500 to $1,000 to invest in buying a giant roll of road separation fabric, but you've got a carpet store with some old remnants laying around. And this is in your own backyard. Grab it. Absolutely. Slap that carpet down because what you want to do is you got this bad stuff. You want to put the carpet over the top of it because it acts like a snowshoe. So you put the carpet over the top of the bad soil and then on the top of the carpet you put a deep base of good solid material. And this deep base will now float. It'll it won't if you if you don't have the carpet there, the broad base will pulver will permeate below into the nasty soil and it can still create a depression. But with the carpet there, it can't permeate. So the entire thing will now float, letting you even out an area. So yeah, old carpet, it's not as bad as you think it is. It doesn't look like much, but it begins to set the stage for the aesthetics of all the other components of the job site. So, by just accomplishing little things, it allows us to start to see the bigger picture and how we want that all to tie together and what the look is. All right, guys. Pro tip here for you. When you're laying out a patio or any structure for landscaping, the best thing you can do is use a garden hose. They don't use paint. A lot of people go to the store and they buy upside down paint, but they can't change the layout of their design. With a garden hose, you put it out one way, you lay it out, you take a look at it, and then if you have your furniture available and the things that you want to put into that space, put them in that space even before your structure is down. And then actually try to use that space a little bit. Get a feel for it. Sit around. B. Yes. If you're going to have a conversation center, is this wide enough? Do you need a table here? What about this slope? Is this coming down? You want to experience all of the nuances of the situation so that when it comes time for you to put your hard surface down, you have it all dialed in and you know exactly what you're going to be getting. If you just rely about it, leaving it on paper. Well, paper will give you a good visual, but it doesn't allow you to actually feel to adjust to rearrange. Now, we'll rearrange this a number of different ways. And then we'll go up top and we'll take a look at it from that area. And then we'll go to this area and we'll take a look at it from there. So, we'll look at it from all the different angles before we decide on anything. So, this is tentatively what I'm looking at laying out as a patio. None of this And Frankie, I'd like to do something if we can if we're going to go with wood. I'd still like to be able to add some curves to it. >> You know what I mean? >> Yeah, we can do it. >> Curve, but corn corners. >> Well, if we can, we could make the frame straight, but we could overhang the top just enough that we could make a >> put put a circle in it. The reason why we're talking about making everything curvature because that's the point of landscaping. Typical architecture is very angular. Let's take a look. Because that's the easiest way to actually build. So everything's angular. And that's where your landscaping comes in to soften the curve. That's where you can get that flow and that rhythm down. So we'll see what this ends up being. Not always up to me. I'll let the boss do some deciding, too. What do you guys think so far? When you I know you guys I know some of you guys have pro tips when you're out talking with customers. Love to hear them. What are they? Put them in the comments down below. I'd love to hear your pro tips. So, I can already see that this space is basically too tight with the shower in place, the two chairs, and there is a table there that would go between the two chairs. This very small table, it's just cramped. It does it makes no sense. But if we rem I can see that if we take the shower out, we can move the chairs over to this area right here, put the table there, and then everything will float. And then the shower we clean off the sidewalk. We could put right tuck it right in that corner right there as if the shower went the sidewalk went up to the shower on purpose. Let's play with some stuff and see if any of that works out. I like this idea. I love having the garden hose. It allows me to let my wife come out here and change things and make it the way it's actually going to be. I just like to be able to have it here to give a to get an idea. So when I'm talking with Frankie, I can say, "Hey, I want to make a semicircle. I want it to curve up and I want it to dive right into the front door." Just like just like that. And if I didn't like that, we can change the shape and we all are on the exact same page. Paint, you can't do that. All right, guys. I'm going to jump in here with another pro tip. And I've got to change things up because this pro tip makes me rethink my strategy. Here it is. A hard surface in landscaping should not go next to another hard surface if at all possible. And that's because you want the landscaping to soften things up. And when I mean hard surface next to hard surface, we don't want to put a concrete retaining wall next to a timber deck. That's a hard surface next to a hard surface because it creates this almost industrial feel. Even though it's landscaping, we need to use landscaping to soften the curvature of uh our spaces and to soften the feel of our spaces. So, we want this balance uh between different elements of our landscaping. And when you put a hard surface next to a hard surface, that tends to throw the balance out. Let's just show you an example of a soft surface next to a hard surface. If we look right down here, here we've got a house, a hard surface shrouded by plants and landscaping, soft surface. So, we're softening that up. Um, and I know that doesn't look very good, but it gives you the gist of what I'm talking about with a hard surface next to a hard surface and a soft surface next to a soft surface. Basically, long story short, guys, it means putting a deck here would break our cardinal rule. So, we've got to change this up somehow. We've got to make this more naturalistic. So, building that deck is probably going to be a no-go at this point. So, let's go with plan B. See what that h what that comes up with. All right. We're not trying to bust the break the budget with this thing. So, let's just see what we have on hand. We're trying to make a meal with leftovers. So, I do not want these PA patios underneath there. Too much hard surface. That single stone might make a great accent piece though. Sometimes less is more. We don't have a big space. We've already got a lot of deck and a lot of material down there. We've got more naturalistic that could make a naturalistic patio, but again, it's a more of a hard surface. And here's your standard. No, we don't want any of that. And we've got a cool step right here, but this doesn't look this looks like it's made out of concrete. So, we'd have to put that side down. And that just doesn't look quite as natural as I'd like it to look. Travertine tiles, too much hard surface, natural granite, stone. What would you pick out of all that? PA patio. I want to know what you guys would do. Would you do a wood deck, pavers, stones, blue stones? I think I'm going with the less is more. I'm just going to grab this single one here, pop that into place, see how that looks, and then start to design from that element outward. But I'd love to hear what you what you guys would do cuz man, there's more than one way to skin a cat. And some of you guys are absolutely phenomenal designers. Look like we got some things that will help lift it for me. Now you get to see what it looks like from inside the cab trying to load. These forks give you a nice nasty blind spot. Sometimes you got to sneak in from the underside right there. I can't see crap. Neither can you. But we're both blind. >> So there are times when you're unloading one pallet off another pallet just like this. You basically are completely blind. This is your view. Nice. Rock and roll, baby. All right. Well, I can't drive down the load with my tail end that heavy, so [Music] for that load. See if I get her right over the axles and a little on the bumper. Sweet spot. Nailed it. Nailed it. My load's right where I want my load to be. It looks like it's upside down. I wonder if we can flip it without doing any lifting. Let's see. [Music] I don't know. I don't know. I don't think so. Son of a D. So close. Doesn't always work out right. That's not getting lifted by hand. All right. It looks like a mess till it doesn't look like a mess. Now, I had to flip it upside down and then rotate it so that this side is to my machine cuz I'm guessing I'm going to have to reach in, kind of leave it over and put it in place. What is going on here? Ants. I I can't am I going to hit you drive forward at all? >> All right. All right. Let's try and see if we can move it ourselves. Try it while we're still hooked up. >> Yeah. Well, yeah. The wall with the sheet is still there. That's tight. It's a finger wet. All right. You didn't hit it. >> No, I know. It's just about there, though. >> Not bad. >> Well, that's level. >> That's level side to side. That's >> And that you want to slope away from it anyways. >> Yeah. You want a slight slope down. >> Just get a couple more of them stepping stones like you got up there. Them cut ones. Put a smaller one here. No, a little bit smaller. Then a little bit smaller. And then that just that's it. Then that'll walk over to whatever you're going to do over here. >> All right. You want to help me carry it down then? >> Yeah. >> All right. Let's go. >> Let's go right down. Let's go. Go a little bit further. We'll go straight down the hill then. That way. This ain't that heavy. That way we ain't got nothing to trip over down that way. Something like that. >> Small one there. >> What do you think? That does make a nice step up. I'll level I'll move that stone. I'll I'll grade it down so that it's a little more flush. >> I'll just do it with a rake. I'll flip it over and rake it and then let it set. Yeah, that's what I was just that's what you and I are speaking the exact same way. >> All right, guys. Here we are pretty much wrapped up. In the last video, we showed you how we did this landscaping for pennies on the dollar. And today, we utilize the construction tips and tricks that I've learned over the decades to be able to create a landscape for next to nothing. And let's go over some of those tips and tricks. Now, one of those tips and tricks to allow you the most flexibility is to use a garden hose to lay out your design. Number two, once you have your garden hose and where you think the design is going to be best done, place your furniture. Even if you don't have furniture, place any furniture. Try to utilize that area before you actually come out and have a designer uh install anything. Number three, try to keep soft surfaces next to hard surfaces. Try to avoid a hard surface next to another hard surface. Here's one that I didn't uh util tell you about. Less is more. Constructor tip number four. Sometimes you don't need to have more in an area. You need the negative space to accentuate the positive space. Number five. Actually, I don't know if I'm five or not, but whatever the ne next number is, use pictures. Take your phone, find a picture you like, and then hold that up, and then try to look at where you're at. Put the picture up. Use this to try to visualize your area. So, if you're landscaping over there, put the phone down, look at it, hold it up, try to see what it is. And then, I think last but not least is probably the most important tip that I can possibly share with you. Whenever you're designing a landscape, always have a flying squirrel safely tucked into your shirt. These guys help you come up with the best absolute landscape designs you possibly can have. Get back in there. Backup is key when you're coming up with good ideas. Actually, I raise flying squirrels, and the best way to raise a flying squirrel is to tuck them in their shirt when they're babies because it makes them feel like they're right at home with you. And then wherever you go, you become their living tree. So, I can be out in the yard and he can jump out, sees me, becomes my living tree. But that's not what you've tuned into this video for. I hope the tips and tricks that you have seen in this video have helped you out. And as always, I just want to say God bless and go get them. And I hope you guys know what that means by now, but it means that I hope God blesses everything you do. And while you're waiting for that to happen, don't wait. Go get them. See you on the next one, guys.