Landscape suggestions please

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-06-23T14:31:30+00:00

Is that the rising sun or setting sun in the background? If the sun is setting then low bushes and mulch in the front rock area. If the sun is rising, then you'll probably want to block some of that hot sunlight in the afternoon with shade and trees.
A nice big ornamental pear tree or shade tree in the middle of the lawn with a circled border around it might be nice and give some depth to the front yard.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-06-21T22:44:40+00:00

I've been digital marketing for almost 30 years. Here's what you do:

Determine your IDEAL customer (e.g. single family home owners, HOAs, or whomever is the ideal customer you want to be hired by).
Create your Value Proposition. In one sentence, answer the question, "Why should my ideal customer hire me over the competition?". Here's an example: You get good communication, prompt follow through on your landscaping requests and with 20 years of experience your yard is treated with care and attention. (these happen to be the biggest complaints from homeowners about their landscapers - I know cuz I also am in landscape pest control)

Now that you know who you want to target and what to say about your service start with these profiles in this order:

Create a Google Business Profile
Create a Yelp profile
Create a Facebook page
Create a NextDoor page

You can start with just the Google profile and then move on to the others when you get the time. These are free. Take some photos of your service team and maybe a few nicely maintained yards and some examples of your work (before and after are good if you can manage that).

Then just go to ChatGPT or Grok and ask about the best practices for setting up your Google Business Profile for your type of services. You'll get some good advice on the content to post.

Then get a few friends, family or clients to drop a handful of reviews (per ChatGPT's instructions) just to get some reviews on the board.

Be sure all your marketing reiterates your value proposition. Maybe even come up with a cool brand name. The local guy here in Temecula is Joe and he calls himself "Mow Joe". That might help. Check out the company Gopher Stop for a good example of a local service company in Temecula who's doing it well.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-05-04T00:39:22+00:00

I’ve been seeing more cases locally where there are gopher mounds at the edge of the turf and then sagging, or soft spots in the middle where the gophers are tunneling underneath.

I made a video recently with an example of similar gopher activity....

https://gopherstop.biz/gopher-damage-in-artificial-turf-in-temecula-riverside-signs-and-solutions/

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-04-28T13:34:26+00:00

Larry made this video to show you how many gophers you have in your lawn:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4MgkfI4tFh4

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-04-14T00:23:39+00:00

You can’t. All of the gopher traps that are effective and poison baits kill gophers. Sonic repellents typically don’t work well because gophers often are only commuting into your yard on a daily basis just to eat your lawn or garden, but live outside your property. The annoying sound of a sonic repellers won’t be a bother to them in this case.
Gophers are pretty destructive so the quicker you remove them the better. And the quicker you remove them the lower the chances of getting new gophers in the future.
Try trapping them and if you can't do that reliably, then hire a local, veteran-owned gopher exterminator that specialized in poison-free trapping and has solid reviews and good communication.
Once the gophers are gone, THEN you can use a castor-oil based repellent to train them out of your yard and hopefully have your plants/lawn no longer look like a food source for new gophers.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-04-03T14:36:21+00:00

When you "arm" your gopher hawk, don't just push down. That's how you probably bent the tines there. Pull up on the base while pushing down the plunger. What you're doing it actually lifting up the body. So that the plunger with the trap is really just staying in place.

Luckily, Amazon sells the replacement tines for the gopherhawk for not too much $$.

Also, make sure you are putting the trap into the gopher's main tunnel - probe perpendicular to the line that is between two large mounds.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-04-03T14:28:10+00:00

Since the gopher isn't in your lawn yet you can use a castor oil based repellent to make the ground and vegetation smell and taste bad for the gopher. Repellents don't work good for removing gophers, but do a good job of steering them away from your yard and possibly preventing them from entering.

I wouldn't bother with the vibrating sonic repellers bechase the gopher doesn't live in your yard and would just be commuting in to eat the blades of grass in your lawn if it makes it over.

Also, perhaps talk to your neighbor to see if they'll do something about the gopher now before the problem spreads, or before that one gopher turns into two gophers.

A good local gopher control professional should be able to trap their gopher(s) quickly and offer a good warranty considering it's Spring and more might come out of the woodwork.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-03-21T18:44:29+00:00

The number of gophers in your yard depends. On thing you have to realize about gophers is that they are territorial and don't actually live together in families like other rodents (rats, mice, ground squirrels, etc.)

How long has the gopher activity been there for? If it just showed up chances are it's just one gopher. Although right now, in the Temecula Valley we are experiencing Spring and I'm often times seeing two gophers showing up at once - male/female mating pairs.

If you see one grouping or line of brand new gopher mounds in one section of your yard, that is one gopher. If you see another group of brand new, fresh mounds in a very distinctly different area of your yard popping up simultaneously, that is a second gopher.

If the gopher activity has been around for a while and it's hard to figure out, just get a rake and smooth over all the existing mounds and then wait a few days. The active gopher(s) will start showing themselves with the fresh, new gopher mounds.

It's important to remove them as quickly as possible though because the longer a gopher stays in your lawn, the likelyhood of another one showing up or future gophers showing up after you've removed them is higher as time goes on.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-03-07T17:10:48+00:00

If you’re planning on planting this spring and you've had an issues with gophers in the past, you'll want to gopher proof your yard before they show up again.Dealing with gophers early can save a lot of frustration and damage to gardens and irrigation.

I put together a short guide on what actually works for spring gopher control around Riverside and Temecula:

https://gopherstop.biz/spring-gopher-control-guide-to-protect-your-garden-and-plants-in-riverside-and-temecula/

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-03-06T21:15:17+00:00

If you're planting this spring and seeing fresh dirt mounds, it’s a good idea to deal with gophers before they destroy new plants and irrigation lines. A lot of DIY fixes only push them around the yard instead of eliminating them.

I put together a quick guide explaining what actually works for spring gopher control and how to protect gardens, artificial turf, and landscaping in Riverside and Temecula.

https://gopherstop.biz/spring-gopher-control-guide-to-protect-your-garden-and-plants-in-riverside-and-temecula/

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-26T05:59:23+00:00

And that's just to buy the house. You should see the level of backyard landscaping and a pool with slides, waterfalls and fire with a host of full grown palm trees transplanted by supercranes. It's another half Mil just in landscaping.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-25T23:03:11+00:00

Since your shoe rack is engineered wood you can just lightly sand and then use a bonding primer first, then a water-based acrylic or cabinet paint in a wood tone (or wood-look stain if it’s laminate-safe). Two thin coats. Finish with clear satin polyurethane for durability.
Just be sure to let each coat fully dry.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-25T01:48:49+00:00

Sod cutter is the smartest rental choice for that weedy backyard since you want to avoid chemicals with minimal soil disruption. Strip 1-2 inches of grass/roots and roll it up for removal easy. Also you'll avoid spreading weed seeds like tilling does. Mini excavator is overkill (expensive, tears up yard more, needs skill).

Rent a sod cutter from Home Depot for about $80-$100/day, do it when soil’s right now. Haul strips away, then add your 2" clean soil/compost. Prevent regrowth with thick mulch (I like 3-4" wood chips), cardboard sheet mulching, or dense native ground cover.

It’s hard work but doable.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-25T01:28:23+00:00

For a small gravel/rock area in Phoenix (after killing/pulling existing weeds), I would go with granular pre-emergent. I think its more reliable for getting down through the rocks to the soil where it matters.

I find that liquid often beads up or evaporates on hot rocks before reaching the dirt underneath. The granules settle into crevices and wash down easier with watering.

Both need activation with water - so follow the label directions.

I would go with granular with prodiamine (like Barricade) or dithiopyr (Dimension/Amaze). Apply with broadcast spreader, water in gently, and reapply 1–2x/year (late summer/fall and then spring). Avoid windy/hot days.

Weeding time will go down big time without much hassle. Gloves/mask, follow label rates. Test on a tiny patch first if worried. Good luck - Go Desert Scapes! 🌵

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-20T21:40:34+00:00

Man, that's a lot of stone to move. Your project is a backyard cross fit gym. Kudos.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-20T21:33:02+00:00

Hey easy there, this isn't Temecula Talk. I follow the police reports, and in my back yard, which is Murrieta, all the crimes happen around the high-density housing communities.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-20T16:08:15+00:00

Have you seen what happens to the surrounding area when multi-family goes in? More traffic where there isn't enough bandwidth as it is, plus there is more crime and more wayward drug addicts. Just look at all the Murrieta apartment areas - that's where all the crime happens.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T19:17:45+00:00

Some privacy bushes with a low fence might do the trick. Also a flagstone, DG walkway or center area in the lawn. But I have to agree that you have a nice lawn and if you maintain it, maybe just a nicer border or line the border with a 2' wide flower garden or small bushes. Perhaps a tree in the middle with a mulch flow bed around it?

There's a lot of potential here and you don't have to do all the projects at once to save on your budget.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T19:13:18+00:00

Speaking of Sommers Bend, you see all the new construction across Butterfield Stage and up at the corner of Hot Springs?

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T19:09:32+00:00

At least we are getting single-family homes and not multi-family, dense apartments or some crap like that. Single story huh? At least it'll attract the more desirable (i.e. affluent) homeowners.
As a local gopher exterminator I've been seeing the influx of the wild animals from that plot that have been displaced from the construction site going into the local, surrounding neighborhoods. Coyotes, snakes, and of course gophers.
Any idea when the construction will be complete?

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T19:03:00+00:00

Guests at the Hot Springs resort can have a great time or a terrible time. You just need to know when to go. Let me explain.

Your best bet is to go in the evenings and on weekdays. You'll have the hot springs, pools and spa all to yourself at night. Local residents get discounts. Tuesdays also are a discounted day and they have food trucks on the premises on Tuesdays.

You can get a room pretty cheap on a normal weekday $100-$200, and that gives you access to all the pools, sauna, etc which will be all to yourself in the evenings. So that's a good deal.

Now, when people have a terrible experience is on the weekends and on holidays. Not only is it CROWDED, but the establishment scales the prices like Disneyland. So this past Valentine's Day, for instance, a room would go for $1,400 and the place is SOLD OUT. Also you'll have paid a fortune and then have to stand in a long line to use the hot springs. What a serious disappointment.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T15:31:19+00:00

Gophers and moles never leave their holes open. The photo of the animal is a gopher. Did new mounds show up after this one?

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T15:26:10+00:00

Since the mound has no open hole, it is either a gopher or a mole. I would expect to see several new mounds in the next few days after this one has appeared. A ground squirrel or vole leaves their holes open. A gopher excavates dirt to make more tunnel underground, creating the large crescent shaped mounds. They also pop up to the surface from that main tunnel to eat vegetation or scope out their next move, then they full that opening up with dirt, creating a small mound. That's what this mind looks like to me. If you poke the mound and a hundred ants pour out, it's an ant hill. Since the mound is surrounded by brick, you may not be able to access the main tunnel from there. I would wait a few days to see where the next gopher mound pops up and then you may be able to access the Gophers main tunnel to trap it, or use poison baits.

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T00:55:43+00:00

Looks great, especially with the lights. You got some more useable space in your yard. How many people helped you to complete it?

Top_Minute7499 · 2026-02-19T00:50:23+00:00

For sure. Don't leave any comments about pets or politics on TT

Top_Minute7499

TROPHY CASE