bregan
06-19-2009, 10:22 AM
The Story:
I had two bradford pears split in my back yard. There were three total and I always said I wanted to cut them down (I like grass, not dirt). There are three other large trees back there as well. After they split, I had someone walk in and offer to cut them down for 140 dollars so I said go ahead. The past 3 weeks I've been cleaning up debris and bundling the stuff up. After I cleared it all out, I began the painful raking of dead leaves and piled them all up in the corner. As you can see from the pictures, I have a lot of DIRT! It's relatively hard dirt that seems to be in little balls on the surface.
I have a few questions for you pros.
1. Based on the pictures, should I level out this back yard and put in a french drain where there appears to be a ditch? I do have some erosion under the house but I think its from the gutters missing their drain pipes? The ground does appear to be sinking since the gutter drains are pulling away from the gutters.
2. Can I get grass to grow on this dirt without having to put down topsoil?
Basically, I'm trying to get grass back there, and ease the movement of water near my house in the cheapest way possible.
I had two bradford pears split in my back yard. There were three total and I always said I wanted to cut them down (I like grass, not dirt). There are three other large trees back there as well. After they split, I had someone walk in and offer to cut them down for 140 dollars so I said go ahead. The past 3 weeks I've been cleaning up debris and bundling the stuff up. After I cleared it all out, I began the painful raking of dead leaves and piled them all up in the corner. As you can see from the pictures, I have a lot of DIRT! It's relatively hard dirt that seems to be in little balls on the surface.
I have a few questions for you pros.
1. Based on the pictures, should I level out this back yard and put in a french drain where there appears to be a ditch? I do have some erosion under the house but I think its from the gutters missing their drain pipes? The ground does appear to be sinking since the gutter drains are pulling away from the gutters.
2. Can I get grass to grow on this dirt without having to put down topsoil?
Basically, I'm trying to get grass back there, and ease the movement of water near my house in the cheapest way possible.