Landscaping For Dummies. Lance Walheim

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      1 Plug in the surface-area dimensions of the project area.Say, 10 × 20 feet; 3 × 6.1 m

      2 Insert the size of the pavers.Say, 4 × 8 inches; 10.1 cm × 20.3 cm

      3 The calculator tells you how many you need.In this case, you need 900.You can insert the price per brick to get the total cost in U.S. dollars.

       For planting perennials, annuals, and bulbs: Square-nosed shovel, long handle pointed shovel, garden spade, stiff-tined rake, hand trowel, hand pruner, and a hose and spray attachment. Optional equipment includes garden gloves, knee pads, plant labels, soaker hose or other irrigation system, bucket, and a bulb planter.

       For planting trees, shrubs, and vines: Square-nosed shovel or garden spade, hoe, stiff-tined rake, and a garden cart or wheelbarrow.

       For hardscape: Posthole digger, pick, digging bar, hammer, handsaw, square, nail set, chisel, plane, circular saw, power drill, power sander, power screwdriver, caulking gun, sawhorse, and stepladder. Also get a level (traditional carpenter’s level or one of those spiffy, efficient, but more expensive laser levels).

       For planting lawn seed or sod: Sharp knife, roller, broadcast spreader, and soil preparation equipment, including a rotary tiller and heavy rake.

       For maintenance: Lawn mower/riding mower, weed whacker, hedge clippers, hand pruner, loppers, pruning saw, hoe, lawn rake, and stiff-tined rake.

       Buy from the source. Eliminate the middleman and you’re likely to get a bargain. Look for brickyards, paving makers, stone and slate quarries, gravel yards, and other nearby sources of raw materials. Ask around or find them online. Do some comparison shopping. Make sure you know how much you need — before you ask for a price.

       Find a friend with a pickup truck. Don’t strain the springs of your own or a friend’s truck with stone or other ultra-heavy materials, but do haul your own lumber and anything else that you can safely carry to save on delivery charges. You can also do a short-term truck rental from some stores.

       Combine brick with concrete. Instead of installing costly all-brick walks, combine brick with concrete. Use the brick as decorative strips in the walk.

       Eliminate mortar between pavers or bricks. Set the materials into a frame made of rot-resistant lumber or strips of concrete. Set bricks or pavers into a sand base between the edges of the frame and brush sand into the cracks. The frame prevents the paving from shifting.

       Salvage cool stuff. Visit architectural salvage dealers for real deals on fencing, arbors, ironwork, and attractive decorative touches. It’s a matter of chance what you can find, but we defy you to come away empty-handed. Estate sales and Facebook Marketplace are also good places to trawl.

       Make a faux stone wall out of free concrete. Pieces of broken concrete sidewalk can look a lot like fieldstone when you stack them for a dry wall. Next time you see a sidewalk being ripped up, stop and ask if you can have the broken pieces. Most contractors will gladly dump the stuff in your yard so that they don’t have to haul it to the landfill, where they pay a fee for dumping.

       Seek out free or cheap wood chips and mulch materials. Places to ask include tree services and utility companies or road crews clearing roadside right-of-ways. You can often get a truckload for zero cash. Use the chips for path surfaces and for long-lasting mulch. Also, many municipalities have free mulch pickup areas, but be take a careful look first: these may contain bits of unwanted plants, such as invasive weeds.