most common homeowner mistakes

dont u just love it when they do thier own landscaping, and it always comes out looking sooooo stupid, and they think it looks good. what are the most common mistakes u noticed a homeowner makes when they do their own landscaping?

 

Great post

We're gonna have a few giggles as this thread progresses.......

 

Most common would have to be the big round dead spots from weedkiller, sometimes with "drip-paths" from one dead spot to another, from the hose-end sprayers.
Crawdad

 

Planting things too close to buildings, each other, etc. I especially get a chuckle when I see people plant trees within a few feet of their houses. They never allow for growth and a few years down the road everything looks cramped and confined. I also see a lot of shade tolerante plants planted in the full sun, and vise-versa. Then the homeowner will ask " Why is my plant not doing well". Another is people planting so much stuff that the place looks like a jungle. I could go on, but I'll let others take over now....

 

Just saw this the other day.Guy is doing his own retaining wall.Not very big mind you,but man is it looking like crap.He's got the first row done.No base and not one block is level.I can imagine what it's going to look like when he starts with the second row.I give till spring before it all comes tumbling down.His home is in a riverfront neighborhood.Just built.Around 350,000 to 400,000 dollar home.No lawn,just dirt that he's "tried" to level out.
Been thinking of handing him a card,but since my folks live in the same neighborhood,they've had a chance to speak to him.He's not a person I would want to do business with.

 

Where to begin. Roses in full shade, hostas in full sun. Underwatering/overwatering with irrigation systems. Pruning trees 1/2 way down the limb.

Ill think of more.

 

my favorite, is when they put up a flagstone "wall", and dont backfill, and cant get the joints to fit close. then they plant their stupid rhodies, right next to a sargent juniper, and they are so low behind the wall, u can barely see them. then little mindy drives her tricycle into the wall, and it falls apart. and still, they think it looks good. i have a customer, in spring he wanted to reseed his back yard. not a blade of grass there, he brought in topsoil, seeded it, and grew a field of crabgrass. saw him last week, and said, "i told you so", hes like, "what do u mean, i think it looks great."

 

New homeowner went to home depot and got those short white plastic picket fences.

Put around the front lawn. Just stuck it right into edge, couldn't get a w/b in there, unless removed one.

Rang the bell and showed them the problem. They were like, can't you lift the machine over? No........... what about a smaller machine............Ah good idea..............OK that will need 2 people to lift it over, one does the cutting, then it will need 2 people to remove the machine from the lawn. OK we can do that, now your weekly just doubled in price...............What?.....................What do you mean double?.........................the fence looks nice, can't you figure out some way to cut it?......................Nope I can't, tell you what, you figure out a way and let me know by next week.

Next week the fence is gone..................:blob3:

 

Have a customer that wanted to put in some pacysandra in front of their house (full sun, not a bit of shade). Recommended to them not to. Customer say "Why? I thought ground cover like this loved the sun?" I said, "nope, it does better in shaded area". And then to really make him think about not doing it, I added, "and snakes like to go in there and cool themselves"...he's got a few little ones.

End of story. Guy puts in 38 flats (with mulch). Mulch survived, can't say so much for the 38 flats of pacysandra...LOL

 

Guy insisted on not letting us install his shrubs he pruchased at the garden center he wanted to do it himself. well he put to weeping cherry trees within a foot of each other and then the rest...... lets jus put it this way....it wasn't what it woulda looked like if we had installed it.