Hahahahaha this red mulch thing, I've always thought it looked tacky as well. Nice to know others agree

I agree about the red mulch. It looks terrible but, with some color schemes I could see it looking alright. As for mistakes, I dug a whole for a fire pit, then found out on the next rain storm the area floods making it less than ideal. I also have trouble deciding where things should go in the backyard. Something about how to design a layout could be good.

Just found your channel. Good stuff. What I would like to see is more of this, but have a bad design and good design for each concept. I think it would help alot of people. Maybe a drawing pad to circle the areas too. Good to have someone doing landscape design though.

Thank you! I’m a waterproofing expert (heavy commercial). Moisture at the foundation is BIG TROUBLE! Thank you for your recommendation to get the water AWAY fr the house. Repairs are extremely expensive and will tear up the landscaping to address. I love the privacy fence comparison and may implement your “good” example. Lastly…. I HATE red mulch. Nothing natural looking about it. I use the brown mulch. It’s beautiful and looks like dark rich soil from the street and doesn’t compete with my Cordylines, Crotons, and Gold Mound plants (I’m in Florida). Thanks so much for your content! I ripped out my hideous plastic edging thanks to you… HUGE improvement 😎

Love your videos, great advise! Almost done building our home on 1.4 acres and there is just so many different ways to design our front and backyard it’s a little overwhelming!

Hi Bobby, Just found your videos popping up on my feed and I love the content. Clear and concise and great tips. My wife and I want to do a section in our backyard with dwarf carpet if stars and my wife likes the idea of bending board for the edge but now that I’ve seen some videos of yours haha I wonder what other ways we could approach it without too much money or issues with the dwarf carpet of stars impeding on other landscaping. Thanks for all of your great videos!

Love you input I'm currently working on redoing my front yard and I'm totally lost and been watching your videos for some info thanks

Hey Bobby I am watching 👀 . Burying your downspouts makes a world of difference. Thanks for the info.

Thanks for your videos - bought an old neglected house last year, looking at landscaping ideas now. Appreciate your forthright advice!

You're exactly correct on all pictures. In fact, what bugs me the most is when people buy perennial plants and don't READ the tags. First, perennials cost more, so plant them right the first time. Second, plan out your design and take the time to choose plants for the amount of sunlight and water the plants need to grow properly according to your specific soil and yard. Look, we all make mistakes, but if it looks bad, then try again and fix it. And please STOP planting under your eves/windows, give the roots some room, and READ the tags.😊

Great advice! I was planning to buy six sky pencil holly on Monday but your comments on them made me rethink. Neighbor built a house above mine and I lost all privacy so I need something fast. Planning on arborvitae where I have room but I’ve got 20-30 feet long stretch at the top of my property where I’ve only got 2-3’ wide space to fit a 12-15’ tall trees. Sky pencil is about the only thing I can find that’ll fit that space. Thoughts?

I am loving your videos with the tips and things to think about for us gardeners. I am starting to put flower beds in our backyard so your videos are useful! Thank you I appreciate your knowledge and experience! 🏆

Just found your content, love it! We are building a house right now and I’m starting to plan out the foundation gardens. Can’t wait to dig in to more of your videos for inspiration!

I completely agree about the drain pipes from the house and I currently have my 91-year-old mom wanting me to fix her broken plastic drain pipe and I just wish she would invest in a good landscaper to fix the issue as she has the funding. So exhausting. And she loves red mulch. I hate it. Thank you for hating it. Lol.

I’m new to your channel and gardening. I really like your photo examples illustrating your points. If you can, more specific points on what to do. I like knowing you hate something (red mulch, blech) but it’s more important to me to know why something works, why you like it (eg arbor vitae create a lush rhythm, the stained wood is rich and provides a backdrop for the featured plants). I will keep watching and learning! Thank you. Your kids are darling BTW!! 😊

Hey Bobbi, great video. You’re insights are amazing. I find that contractors are all agreeable before you give them the job, then they show up and randomly do what they want, without even measuring. It drives me nuts, and it’s expensive because stuff needs altering afterwards, which can cost a lot of $. It makes me frightened to have anyone else to the house now, and quite a bit more needs doing. 😯 Any tips on that?

Thanks for the tips! Love these videos! Keep em coming please

We've done our backyard 3 times over. Now we're going for the gold. Built a beautiful deck and dug out the little patch of grass we had and will start landscaping this patch that runs up against the deck. We have a statue fountain I'd like to incorporate into the design. Your video's are very helpful by the way.

Love your videos! I feel like I'm about to make a ton of mistakes lol! as we have just moved into a fixer upper and the back yard is one disaster after another. Ex, the gate opens to a view of ugliness under the deck. The deck is too low to walk under comfortably, but too high (4 feet to 6 feet) with windows to the basement and garage that we do not want to obstruct. Any ideas? thanks

Just found you and I love your videos. Great tips and advice! I need help with my backyard I have an existing pool and small pad that I need to design around and I’m clueless. Hopefully I learn and get some inspiration. If you want to help and make a video about it I would be so grateful!

Fantastic video! I love that you hit so many of the design components that I’ll be working on in our new homes garden. We purchased a new home last fall, so we start off by installing new patio, But it’s very squared often very boring and I want to add some flowerbeds mulch beds things like that. Would you consider if I sent you a few pictures in my backyard would you be willing to use them as an example of what you should do and what you shouldn’t do?

I'm not a fan of red mulch but have been using it because the cypress mulch was the only one I could find at my garden center that mentioned being termite safe. I live in the SE, and termites are no joke. Would love to know if there are other options/ how to choose a mulch. Thanks for the great videos!

Can anyone else appreciate the BOB ROSS mug he has in the background?! 😂 Classy 😎

Thanks for the great videos, just found you tonight and already 6-7 videos deep into my binge!

My mistakes is I piece meal my DIY projects and by the time I'm ready to do the next part, the materials that I initially used to do the completed section are no longer available. I'll bet you anything that's what happened with the red mulch design. lol Thanks so much for your videos. Love them

great video - new sub here! I have a bank that quickly falls to my driveway and originally had a ditch with rip-rap rocks put in to help with drainage. I used to mulch the bank but Overtime the mulch would fall into the rocks and stop all water flow. What would you recommend as a better drainage solution and what should I do with the bank? Thanks for your videos they are so helpful.

Glad I found this channel. I just bought a house with over half an acre of flat dirt mixed with overgrowth and weeds. And I have no idea where to start. Earlier tonight I was thinking I would hedge the entire chainlink fence around the property with rose bushes and then I realized I might be having a nervous breakdown and came on KZfaq instead. Cheers!

I'm so happy to hear I'm not the only one who doesn't like red mulch. My brother likes it.

I bought a house in December and have been waiting for Spring to plant. I was planning to put in a River bed from the front downspout that makes the small front yard a swamp- I’ll make sure to get some big boulders to balance it out 😊👍 thanks!

good video! I just closed escrow and here in Arkansas, they have simple lawns with whitewashed wood fences. I love it and intend to do it at my new house. how do you get that old whitewashed look?

Great Videos. Thanks for the ideas.

One of my mistakes is over planting my flower beds in the backyard and making them too crowded, but not planting enough in my front yard flower bed and it looks kinda bare and boring. Mostly because I spend WAY more time in my backyard than I do my front yard. But, I need to give my front yard some more attention because having good curb appeal really gives you that good feeling when you pull up in your driveway when you get home from work and see how nice everything looks. I had it looking good last year, but we had a tree cut down and it looks kinda plain out front now.

Great advice! Thank you

great video BobbyK - very inspiring!

This is great. Very helpful Bobby!

I just hired a landscape designer for my backyard and am super excited to see what they come up with! I gave them the added challenge of using Florida-native plants and not the boring nonsense you see at Home Depot.

Solid advise! Thank you!

Thank you for your great comments and ideas. Have a couple of mistakes to fix. ;-) With our area constantly in some level of drought we collect water for our gardens. How would you suggest doing this without the UGLY water catchment barrels? This is really needed on the SW side of our house as there is no other accessible water? Need the trees so the house stays protected.

Nice content, I am similar to you....have been a landscaper for 10 years now studying landscape architecture and going down the design route. I enjoy your videos

Thanks for the videos. As far as the yard in the one above with the red mulch: They clearly put a lot of hard work in and the color does detract from the overall visual. I thought the other end of the patio would feel better on the eye if it were rounded at the left corner that meats the plantings as well. We have a 1900's house in New England that comes with so many issues (with older landscape and retaining walls), I mean opportunities for learning, that are tripping me up. I'm new to your feed and hope to find some videos on dealing with old landscape redesign. So far- Good stuff- keep it up!

Do you have a video on botched cement jobs? Any ways to fix them? And what to look out for? I think my cement has to be redone, I have no idea what happened in between it curing but it looks awful.

Will be pushing out our backyard fence so we'll have a lot more room in our yard and we're trying to figure out how to landscape it definitely want native plants as well

I’m in Wi, still planning on my landscaping game, I’m afraid to make anything permanent and not like it, I have a side yard with mature trees and nothing can grow under the canopy, what can I do to make that area more interesting?

Great video Bobby!

Hey Bob. I just found your channel. Great stuff. Very entertaining and great ideas. We just moved to a new house last year that has great potential but the truth is that the work the previous owners did is bad. I'll be busy over the next few summers fixing stuff. Last summer I brought back to life the lawn. This summer I will be staining a deck and fence that was never stained over the last 10 years. Anyway. I like your videos. Thanks.

Trying to figure out if I should have a paver brick border between planted bed and lawn. Want to stop grass from spreading, be able to mow, and keep it tidy. I don't like those plastic or metal edges but mulch from the bed spreads too easily into lawn if there's no separation. Maybe just dig out the edge like my British friends do? But that's high maintenance. Just found your channel, good stuff.

Hi Bobby. I totally agree with you about red mulch. Actually, over the years I have purchased different types of mulch from box stores. They usually have all sorts of garbage mixed in it. I’ve come across nails, plastic, pieces of metal, rags, and even a dead rat once. I have red brick pavers. I like the black mulch as a contrast but can’t find a quality black mulch. Now I put in 100% natural cedar mulch. It costs a lot more but I like it better. Your videos are great. I only have a 60 x 100 property but we do what we can with it. My big problem now is a tree root lifting up the pavers on a side path.

After one video I knew I had to subscribe. I see many videos that can help me. Bought a,115 year old home with terrible landscaping 😊Thank You

great tips! i can't stand red mulch either and just bought a house with every garden bed full of red mulch 😬 can't wait to get rid of it!! What's a better alternative?

Just discovered you and haven’t made it through all your videos yet but here is one thing I’d love to see more pointers on: how do you select the colors of pavers, gravel, boulders etc? I currently have an existing concrete patio, a recycled asphalt parking area, and some existing river rock, pea gravel, and decomposed granite areas. Color of house is warm gray (SW Peppercorn) and we are in Denver area. We paid for a master design and are doing DIY install.

I just found you and I'm loving your vids. I'll be watching everyone for your GREAT ideas. Thanks for sharing your talent and knowledge. Your kids are adorable.

I’m curious what you think about using river rock instead of mulch for front yard landscaping. Good? Bad? Ugly? How would you edge the beds? Pavers? Nothing?

Enjoying your videos

😂 totally purchased Japanese hollies the other day and husband wanted to line them up on driveway (not really for privacy screen) but I got a better idea with making it symmetrical and balanced after watching this videos and some before. It’s chef kisses 😘 now!! I decided to line up my narrow garden bed leading up to my door and flanking in front of my column posts without obstructing my view out into the hills - such nice flow! 😂 Thanks Bobby K- you’re making this DIY’er on a budgets’s landscaping look better! Also, would you happen to know what kind of creeping plants those are that are hanging over the retaining wall/garden bed?! 😍

I like the rustic flagstone look. But I love your videos and thank you for the channel!

I don't like red mulch either. I just found your site and enjoyed those videos I've watched...will watch more. I say I have a yard and property. I have a hard 'yard' to landscape for several reasons. 1. Rock, we had to blast to put in our house and can't put a trowel in w/o hitting rock. 2. Deer, + other critters and we have 1200+ acres conservation land adjacent to our 5 acres. 3. Hill, our lot is 750' deep x 350' wide and about a 30-35% grade 4. Trees, it is 85-90% trees, oaks, hickory, maple, black walnut, elm, dogwood and cedars +; we took out only the necessary trees for building access and lots of less than 12" diameter cedars wherever they were. Our house is built in the upper 1/3 of the property but approximately 75' from the road. We have been forced/blessed, more or less, to use that 'blasted rock' for terraces, walkways, steps, defining areas, placements, etc. Created two dry/seasonal creeks to try and direct/control down hill water. We had to purchase top soil to fill terraces and raise the area to create space for grass and ease slopes. My 'yard' is an irregular 100' circumference around the house. I don't do much of anything to the lower 3.5(?) acres of woods except to try and keep invasive Asian honeysuckle at bay and a trail for my 4x4. Extremely little 'full' sun, mostly part and dappled. I live in the Midwest a zone 6A. I am VERY grateful....most of the time. But boy do I need your experience, knowledge and ideas!

Hello! First time watching. We purchased a home about 4 1/2 years ago with a blank slate yard. It’s overwhelming, but I’ve researched and watched lots of videos! We have 1.25 acres, with approximately 1/3 woodlands. We have added many smaller trees, shrubs, a shed, and a large fenced in garden. Now I am connecting some of those trees and shrubs with beds for less mowing. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Hate red mulch too. Any advice for trying to visualize when the existing yard you want to change is super busy. So when there are so many things happening you can’t focus on what you can do to change it.

We have a new pool and need to landscape around the perimeter of the travertine pool deck. Mulch vs river rock? What are your thoughts? Concerned about mulch ending up in the pool but river rock seems odd with travertine. Would love your opinion. Thanks.

I am new to your channel. I find it very informative. Question, I live in a rural area next to a road (1 of 4 properties)and I am trying to make a flower garden as a buffer between the two (road and side front yard). Can you offer any advice. Because I’m the 1st house I want something that definitely looks natural with car repeal as walkers go up and down the road I do have pictures I can share with you if you like I have already laid down garden fabric and cleaned the area and have planted a few plants. It’s the finishing touches that scare me I have a pile of rocks and three boulders. I just want to make it look decent and not like a pile of Doodoo 😂like you explain it in one of your episodes.

New to your channel- loving it!!

Question we have a back yard with one side sloping 6 ft into a culvert. We were thinking about a hedge walls verse fence? Ideas. Also the down spout what side pvc do you get and how far from the house. We are thinking as t least the culvert side we could have drain come out on the slope?

Great video! I have made most of those mistakes you showed. I have way too huge of dreams about my backyard, as such as I am blocking myself from ever getting started. I am proud of the things I have done so far so I know I can get what I want eventually but I am WAY OFF from even close to having a good design in my head. I have too many different uses in mind in think. Well... I just dunno. :0)

Can you do a video of how to bury downspouts effectively/cheaply? I don't have the time or money to dig trenches super far. Wondering how that pop-up valve works, etc. Thanks! (new subscriber).

I have a deck made from a product called trex (a plastic composite) It was here when we bought the house in 2012. My question is how can we revive it? It's faded and stained black in places. Can it be painted? What paint should we use that it won't flake off?

You are keeping me from making mistakes!

Absolutely hate red mulch. Tacky! Love how you coordinate colors, and up the look and appeal. New Englanders have so much brick on walkways. Tradition here, but newer designs are more appealing. Thank you.

My landscaper when he cuts my backyard all the grass goes into my garden and all I have is a lot of grass weeds my question for you would it be better if I took all the grass out of my backyard and make it a full garden?

Your experience and insights are so valuable. I would appreciate a video on managing storm water via a rain garden, trees and shrubs that love water, naturalizing, etc. Thank you!

Not doing anything because I can’t decide and afraid of doing wrong thing

I'm watching...I have a red slab patio in my back yard at my new house...the owners put this rather large area in and thats it...it looks so unfinished..I want to fix it but im not sure how. It would be a great area for furniture, I want to use a sail shade over it. Ideas??

Hi this video was very helpful. I just found your videos and love them. I been watching one after the next. I've got a great topic that I hope you feel its great enough to do a vid on. First off, I live in the high desert in Littlerock California. We get all the seasons and we get alot of high wind. 2nd I got 1 acre of land thats completely FLAT. and its dirt everywhere. I'm a DYI person but I like to hire out if I know its gonna look like crap..I'm a stickler for professionalism..I want my house to look amazing despite the majority of people in Littlerock seem to like this sandy dirt. They don't do anything with their acreage. Anyways I'd like you to address on how would you use landscaping to make a flat land have some beauty..I want a ranchy/ country style blend if that makes sense.

Like your videos… we are getting close to finishing a new home and will be starting our landscape… where are you located?

Hello from Ontario Canada! This video came up on my feed & I watched it. I liked it & have subscribed.

id like to know your thoughts on rubber mulch.

We're hoping to update our house with a localscape more fitting to our intermountain region fauna and water-consumption (especially since we're heading into another year of drought). The Localscapes group (FB) recommends that when you put mulch down, you don't walk on it so you don't create places for weeds to grow and to instead use pavers of some kind. I think I want to use flagstone pavers in the areas we either currently have mulch or will put mulch but that we walk on (like around our fruit trees), but now I worry if I will install them wrong. I also wonder about mulch colors (and honestly that part is embarrassing since my bachelor degree is in interior design). Is there any mulch color that goes well with the existing grey concrete-paved areas we have in our yard that the previous owners put in?

Do you have any videos about terraced and/or xeriscaped landscaping that’s NOT all rocks and cacti? The house we just bought has a terraced yard (read: 20% lawn, then brick retaining wall and the rest is rock and clay soil with nothing done to it). We live in Colorado and I want to landscape responsibly but I want something that looks lush without using a lot of water. Any thoughts?

Just found you- in the nick of time. Just bought a new home and hoping to apply your tips. Thank you for these.

I need to re-stain. Yard is without a plan as I am removing an in ground pool!

Aw, I really like the "hodge podge" flagstone! 😆 But I'm all about overgrown ground cover, moss, wildflowers... guess it's good we're in the country! 😅

Recently came across your channel so I don’t know if you even get notifications of messages but wanted to let you know I’m watching! My issue with my landscape is that our family lives in a pine forest. The variety of potential growing areas is very wide as we get some sun in select areas (filtered morning light, some afternoon sun in other areas), shady spots by the tree line and behind the house’s shadow, rock wall, lakeside, etc. I am the only one “working” on our landscape. I’m only planting the immediate areas closer to the house but with the manpower of a tiny female, it takes a long time to get projects done and I don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to have a contractor transform it all to my vision. Thoughts, suggestions? Turn my yard into an experimental project from afar (I’m located in MA)?

Hi ! I have a question , in my backyard one side has wood fence and the rest of the neighbors have small fencing so it looks off , how can I make it look nice? Also i have a large bed in the back . I been putting perennials but , iam in the point were I don't know how to fix it.. have lots going on but if i add more looks more busy if I take stuff out looks empty 😕

I'm laughing because I have the downspout with the plate because it came with the house 8 years ago, lol! Thanks for raising awareness.

do work in nyc, by Westchester & do u charge for first consultation?

The housing development I live in EVERY home has a 'Y' shaped rock 'river' of medium size rocks and some boulders in their front yard. This is surrounded by loose dirt mounds covered in gravel. This landscaping makes for treacherous footing and I take my life into my hands every time I've tried to clean up fallen leaves that collect in between the medium size rocks, and forget cleaning them out it if it rains. They planted a tree on the side of a loosely packed mound so as it's grown over the past 7 years it now it threatening to fall over during one of our many windy days we get here. Then there's all the plants with thorns and serrations that threaten to cut my legs if I try to clean up the front yard. I can't think of a worse landscape design. Then, in the backyard is a 4' block wall behind which is an up slope covered in loose medium size rocks and a few bushes. Along the top of the block wall they planted rosemary bushes spaced between with roses. The rosemary is as bad as a ficus in growing like crazy. You cut it back and within months it's grown twice as big. I have to pay $500 - $750 for someone brave and sure footed enough to go up on the slope and do any work like pulling weeds or trimming a bush. Being that I live on a retirement check I can't afford to do that more than once every year or two. I wish I could find some affordable way to make working on the slope safer and easier. I could spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to fix these poor landscape designs. I wish I knew this when I was looking at houses.

Garden Day May 1, 2022 found your channel just in time. I was just about to f*** up too many colors of non-plant landscaping. Thank You BobbyK💕💕

Hi! I have a blank canvas HUGE backyard half an acre. Can you do a video on big spaces??

My mistake was in trying to hide the view from my neighbors, I planted 5 camellia yuletide - which I think was 'good' and I planted them all together -- the problem is they were only 1-3 gallon plants so it will take YEARS to build privacy --- wheras I need to have a strategy where I get mature plants so I can have 'instant privacy'. I hate the red mulch too. I really liked what you shared about the PVC pipe for drainage -- our drainage issue is what got us thinking about how to transform our back yard. Awesome video Bobby!

Just starting to make plans to dress up our front yard. Already stuck on question number one. What do we want it to look like? Lol We live in Florida. And we want to incorporate something with our Plumeria's. Any ideas to help kick-start this project? I have no direction! Lol

Nice tips!

I'm guilty of red mulch! Lol....off to home depot to get dark brown. Awesome channel, learning alot.

Well I was already hesitant about trying to do my own DIY but now I’m scared … ThAnks

What size PVC pipe should it be for drainage? Since our yard is flat, taking the pipe out 10' or so would only create a huge pond in the back yard! Love your enthusiasm!

How do you do a plan I am taking all my lawn out and putting plants in how do I start the design

Love your videos!!!! Just bought a new home and have awful yard. Back yard we will need to re-grade next year as surrounding yard pool in ours. But in the mean time, trying to not do anything that loots like doo doo 💩 Do you have a video about fence lighting. How far to distance, do you centre between posts or on them, how much is too much/busy?

What is the software you use to try prospective designs on a property?

I just finished completely redoing my front garden bed on a house I bought 2 years ago with rocks and raised garden boxes and literally just realized I didn't account for the downspouts. No idea what to do now :(

Asking from Western northern prairie Canada, our winter roof melts get frozen under ground. Our spring to fall downspout goes down to a cistern. We need a solution for redirecting winter over the primary sidewalk at 8 feet high. Thinking of an Arbour, or decorative sculpture post support. We have a metal artist in the family.

Zone 10 here watching!

I am afraid to ask you this because I just put this down in my front yard flower beds. What is your opinion on using black rubber mulch in flower beds?