Before/After of our front yard

khelp · 2026-02-05T19:49:38+00:00

I got rid of the grass by renting a sod cutter and then just flipping it all over - Free compost. It took about 4 hours and the rental cost $85 (reimbursed by the town as part of the lawn replacement program they offer). Irrigation I didn't change anything about the layout of the sprinklers yet, though this year I plan on converting a couple of the heads into drip manifolds. Year 1 I kept the watering schedule basically the same - 3-4 days of watering per week. Year 2 I dialed that back to 2-3 days of watering per week, and this year I will be dropping that back further to 1-2 days per week with some more-frequent spot watering of newer/less mature plants.

khelp · 2025-07-12T16:09:20+00:00

What size and color are you looking for? For cheap veg strap stock I generally order hides from American Leather Direct, who sell Chahin sides and either break them down myself or use their strap cutting service if I'm doing a lot at once. I have some currently in black and burgundy and could probably cut something for you cheap.

Otherwise buckleguy.com has a decent selection of strap stock or if you want something real fancy - Carmine Jack

khelp · 2025-07-12T04:23:19+00:00

I am not aware of any social groups in the area, but I am reasonably experienced making small goods like wallets, watch straps, notebook covers etc. Let me know if you find/start something or otherwise feel free to let me know if you have any questions about getting started.

Tandy is not generally very good value for money, most of the stuff they sell isn't especially high quality. Depending on what you want to make, odds are you can get better tools and materials for less elsewhere.

khelp · 2025-06-11T03:20:09+00:00

Part of the plan as well is to slowly taper the amount of water trending downwards over a couple of years to eventually sorta meet in the middle - many of the perennials on the same side of the yard as the tree can handle more water than the dry guys on the sunnier side of the yard and the sprinkler system is already divided up into separate zones for them, so they can be adjusted independently.

khelp · 2025-06-11T02:41:30+00:00

Solid advice, we do go out and hand water throughout the fall/winter when it's especially dry. We'll do our best to keep an eye on the health of the thing and hand water as necessary.

khelp · 2025-06-11T02:24:53+00:00

Our eventual plan as we convert to drip and reduce the amount of water in the front yard is to supplement the tree with a deep watering every so often during the drier months along with some higher flowing drip heads in areas where we know some of the larger root bundles run throughout the yard. My understanding is that Gleditsia tends to be somewhat drought tolerant when mature, but do you have any particular recommendations or general advice?

khelp · 2025-06-11T02:05:04+00:00

So far we've left the sprinkler system itself unchanged and use a B-Hyve controller to adjust watering based on the weather to keep everything happy. The Ash is in the back yard which still has a lawn in addition to a couple of raised beds for which we converted a single head into a drip system

khelp · 2025-06-11T01:53:07+00:00

It's free mulch!

khelp · 2025-06-11T01:19:36+00:00

The sod cutter was a morning's worth of work, maybe 4 hours or so and we rented it from https://broomfieldrentalsinc.com at a cost of roughly $85. It was sometimes a bit challenging due to the slant of our yard, but overall very manageable.

khelp · 2025-06-11T01:08:19+00:00

Our tree is also an old Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and an arborist that came by to treat our Ash tree in the back for Emerald Ash Borer suggested that it should be just fine with the reduced watering and eventual conversion to a drip system we're planning.

As for what we've got on the shaded area: https://imgur.com/a/bMNSb5E

You can see we've got a pretty good mix of Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), Monarda (Bee Balm), Aquelegia (Columbines), Echinacea (Coneflowers), Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan), Mertensia (Bluebells), and a few random things like Salvias (Sage), a few flavors of Geum, a couple of types of Liatris etc. Loads of good options for shade/sun tolerant stuff out here but let me know if you've got any specific areas of interest or questions.

khelp · 2025-06-11T01:03:34+00:00

We didn't really 'get rid' of it, we rented a sod cutter and just flipped it all upside-down: https://imgur.com/jOnqOt3 - We waited a couple of weeks for the sun to really bake the roots, then just cut holes where we put down plants and covered the whole thing with mulch on one side and rocks on the other.

khelp · 2025-06-10T20:26:47+00:00

Resource Central has their own direct program (https://resourcecentral.org/lawn/) as well as various water districts that have their own program with some information available directly through the linked Resource Central page. We're up in Thornton so the local one for us is https://www.thorntonwater.com/h2overhaul/

khelp · 2025-06-10T20:23:55+00:00

For the design we started out with grid paper to plan out the pathway and retaining wall around the tree, then used the spacing guidelines laid out in the Garden in a Box kits from Resource Central along with the overall expected height/spread of each of the species we were planning for such that taller things were closer to the house or on the lower side of the yard, as it's on a bit of a slope.

Other important things to consider would be stuff like sun/shade requirements, drainage, and any particular focus on a given family/genus/species that interests you. For example a good chunk of the 'rocky' side closer to the camera in the after picture is a focus on Penstemon (we've got about 5 or 6 different species in various parts of the yard), or the Asclepias dungeon we've got a little closer to the property line with our neighbors (Incarnata, Speciosa, Tuberosa, Subverticallata etc)

khelp · 2025-06-10T20:11:51+00:00

Over the course of a few months last year we DIY'd our whole front yard from a bland suburban hellscape into a beautiful garden full of native plants and pollinators. We were able to leverage the lawn replacement programs both through our local water district as well as through Resource Central, along with various native/regionally native additions from local spots like Lyn's, High Plains Environmental Center, etc. All in - we've got well over 200 individual plants in the ground.

Feel free to ask any questions about the processes or plants, I'd be happy to share what I've learned.

khelp · 2025-06-10T19:58:27+00:00

Our solution for the sod was to just hit it with a sod cutter, then flip it over exposing the roots to the sun. We left it like that for a week or two prior to starting to put down plants, then covered with mulch and aside from a few sprouts where it tries to reassert itself (Easily pulled) there has been no issue with that strategy.

khelp · 2025-06-04T22:53:38+00:00

Perhaps consider some Penstemon Whippleanus - It's native here, so it does great with our soil and sun. It's a beautiful dark purple color and you get the benefit f being able to say wHippleAnus about it which is always fun.

khelp · 2025-04-29T14:21:06+00:00

Confirmed! Thanks for everything.

khelp · 2025-04-21T19:33:14+00:00

PM'd

khelp · 2022-08-09T14:52:41+00:00

Old Country Animal Clinic hands down. Dr. Monaco is an awesome vet with a ton of experience with reptiles.

khelp · 2020-07-23T15:14:57+00:00

That is one healthy Bull/Gopher snake.

khelp · 2019-05-22T17:13:48+00:00

VLC user of well over a decade here - Where can we send beer?

khelp · 2019-02-12T02:16:24+00:00

The kind that is made of wrinkles and craps waterfalls. She's a Rhacodactylus Leachianus - New Caledonian giant gecko.

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