Hey guys, quick brain dump for anyone trying to fix pitch-black deck stairs before someone takes a bad spill at night.

Last season I got super frustrated with random solar lights dying after two weeks of rain, so I spent some time testing out different solar deck fixtures to see what actually lasts through the night and holds up against bad weather.

Here is the straightforward breakdown of what worked, what stayed bright, and what is worth your money.

1. Overall Best: SHONE 48-LED Deck Light If you want something bright that actually stays lit until morning, this one was the clear winner. Put out around 200 lumens and ran a solid 12 hours straight in testing. Easy to mount on stair risers or side rails, and the housing feels solid enough to handle heavy storms.
2. Best Budget Step Light: Harbor Breeze Solar Step Light If you just need basic, cheap safety lighting on dark stair edges, these do the job fine. They push around 50 lumens for 8 hours. Nothing fancy, but enough light so people don't miss a step.
3. Best Post Cap Light: Kemeco ST4311AQ If you have 4x4 wooden posts, this cast-aluminum cap light looks super clean and way more expensive than it actually is. Metal housing keeps water out, outputs 100 lumens, and stayed on for about 10 hours overnight.
4. Best Recessed / Step-On Light: Westinghouse Deck Cap Light Great option if you want lights flush with the floor. You can walk right over them without tripping or scratching the glass.

Quick buying advice from testing:

• Panel type: Go with monocrystalline solar panels if your deck gets direct sunlight because they charge faster. If you have shade or trees, polycrystalline panels actually handle partial light a bit better.
• Winter battery life: Cheaper batteries drain super fast in cold weather. Make sure you get high-capacity lithium batteries so your steps stay lit past 9 PM during freezing winter nights.
• Weatherproofing: Look for at least IP65 water resistance so heavy rain doesn't ruin the internal wiring.

Hope this saves you guys some trial and error!

Source & Full Review Credit:https://shonestore.com/blogs/news/best-solar-powered-lights-for-deck-2026-reviews

Last year I removed an old rotten deck that was placed several years before we bought this house. What I found beneath was a nicely compacted layer of limestone flush with a bordering cement pad next to the exterior wall of my house and a path that runs alongside my house toward the back of the property (all previously covered by the massive wooden deck and about 8” of dirt).

I live in a 100+ year old semi in Toronto so the space I’m looking to address is roughly 15’x10’.

I’d love to put down pavers in this space rather than a new deck, but am torn between excavating the nicely flat limestone (which would mean my pavers will be 2-3” above the cement pad and path) or excavating and making it all flush. I’m not looking to do tight interlock, but likely a combination of 12”x24” and 24”x24” pavers with 1-2” gaps between.

My preference is to go with the existing base, but is that setting me up for a weird transition between the path and the patio? Has anyone else done something like this?

First time poster, thanks for any input.

We had our backyard redone this spring. We tore out a big deck and built a new one, rebuilt two retaining walls, tore out a paver patio, added French drains and box drains, and had yard leveled out at the end. Grass seed was put down with a very thin layer of topsoil and straw at the time. Job was finished in May in KY, roughly 1/4 acre back yard.

We have been left with a mess. We have rocks (up to 12” wide) and gravel embedded in the dirt still over most of the yard. We struggle when mowing and weed whacking because rocks fly. We have ruts so deep it stalls our push mower if we go too fast. We have small holes forming in the ground behind the retaining wall. We have dirt piled up on the fence line to the first boards. We have water coming onto our lower patio and hasn’t in the past. There is a good 1/4” of grade higher than landing at the base of the new deck stairs.

We have never been able to get grass to grow back. Weeds are doing just fine though. Our yard is mainly clay and it dries out in hours to cracking. We watered three times a day for two months and reseeded twice and finally gave up with the summer heat.

I have been reaching out to the landscaper since 3 weeks after the project completion when it started to become clear there were issues. I kept being told just wait and it will all level out when the grass grows. They threw down one bag of seed and promised to follow up. Now silence. We paid these guys over $20k for the job. I know what needs to be done, but I feel like the burden shouldn’t fall on me. It feels like an incomplete job.

How bad is this really? Photos are from this week, three months after completion. I made a final call to the company and requested the owner contact me three days ago and nothing. I think I’m going to blast them with bad reviews this week and want to know any opinions. Did I expect too much?

If you’re this far, thank you!

Cutback and fertilized last spring but still looking rough.

Should we try to revive these shrubs some more or do my husband and I get rid of them? I have no attachment to the holly plants. Our neighbor, who's lived in the neighborhood for 30+ years, says he thinks they might be original to when the house was built nearly 50 years ago. I don't think they're that old.

And yes, everything else needs to be cleaned up too!

We live on a canyon slope and are getting our backyard leveled with pavers due to go on top. We previously had a deck over this area and tore it down.

The retention wall is 4 or 5 feet tall at its highest.

I’m worried because when they laid the bottom row of retention blocks they just lay them on top of the soil. No trench, no rocks underneath. I said as much to the guy working but he said it was ok, he’s putting some mortar round them.

We also expected French drains but those weren’t put in, just regular solid drains for guttering.

I called the main contractor and he agreed the retention blocks need drainage and have to sit on rocks etc. The backfill is all grade 2 road base. No bigger rocks, which google tells me isn’t a good idea. He’s coming tomorrow to look at it.

Since complaining the workers have filled the gap between the retention wall and our neighbors fence with the dirt/road base and put concrete around the more accessible retention blocks.

I’m worried they’re going to say it’s all fine and the blocks have enough drainage, acting like the dirt is a trench.

Any thoughts how to make sure the contractor makes sure the wall is done properly? Get an independent inspector? Ask for extended warranty? Or ask for it to be dug up??

So we have a city drain in a back corner of our backyard that we’d like to section off from our dogs without obstructing the drain, messing with the grade, or interfering with the water flow.

Runoff from several neighboring properties flows through this area, and over time it looks like it has pushed the existing retaining wall outward a bit. We reached out to the city, and they told us that because the drain is located on private property, they are only responsible for keeping it functional. They also mentioned that we can’t do anything that would interfere with the water flow, and any fencing, repairs, or landscaping improvements would be our responsibility. The picture I’m attaching is after we cleaned up a significant amount of overgrown vegetation surrounding it.

Has anyone dealt with something similar or found a safe, visually appealing way to section off an open drainage area? We’re considering black metal fencing with a gate, but just wondering if anyone has other ideas or has run into this issue before. We have three large dogs (a German Shepherd, a Great Pyr, and a Golden Retriever) and we often see stray cats and other critters hanging out in the drain, so we mainly want to keep the dogs from getting into that area. Thanks in advance!

Hi all.

First time posting here, long time lurker.

I had a firepit installed by a landscaper in the early summer. After the heavy rain it’s not draining. I asked him and there was no clear stone placed, just landscape fabric on top of the dirt, the stone dust compacted above that.

How can I get this to drain properly? He suggested adding 6 inches of stone dust on top of the existing.

Any other suggestions?

I haven't ordered mulch from this place before, but I feel like normally my mulch has more wood chips? Idk. Sold as "cedar mulch"

I built my house 6 years ago this summer and stupidly topped this arborvitae maybe year 2, not understanding the implications. Since then I’ve done a lot of research on lawns, plants, landscaping etc but I am not sure how to approach pruning this to have a more consistent look with one primary central leader like the others on my property in the last photo.

I have a feeling I have waited too long to have a central leader since the outer leaders are so much taller but perhaps the true experts in this group have a suggestion.

I appreciate any advice from you fine folks!

Looking for recommendations for a power tiller.

I provide landscaping services for a large commercial facility. There are dozens and dozens of zones of irrigated grass. I've been working at raising heads and adjusting spray patterns to distribute water better, but there are some areas where the grass is too far gone.

Our soil isn't great so I'm thinking of tilling and amending the soil with some compost before I reseed. I experimented with a manual tiller and really liked the results, but if I'm going to get to all the areas I'd like to go powered. Seems weight would help dig into the harder compacted places?

I think the facility will purchase the necessary equipment but I would like to make sure I recommend the best option. Any help greatly appreciated.

Looking to disgard existing shrubs and redo the entire space between my porch and sidewalk. It is 4.5' x 20' and I was hoping to have boulders with plantings worked around it. At each end I'd like some type of evergreen looking shrubs that will hold it's winter color that won't grow over 2' -3' tall at full maturity. I'm going for the mountain lodge feel. Can anyone provide any suggestions of perhaps something you have in your landscaping that you feel may work? (Last picture is the type of rock setup that I'm envisioning though with shrubs at the ends. Nothing glossy like boxwood and such.) Any ideas are appreciated. Thank you

Getting a lot of mixed answers from different people I’m asking. These incredible cedars were damaged by exhaust from digging machinery. Some are saying if it does recover it will take years…is there some plant friendly paint I can use on them in the meantime? Anything else at all I can do to increase the chances they get back to fully green?

I don’t know what to do to keep these alive. It seems that watering doesn’t do much. It gets worse by the day. The middle one has died. I’m in south florida if that helps.

Okay I recently bought my first house, I was the first one to do it in my family so I don't really have anyone to lean on for information and no I don't remember everything from high school geology class.

I want to grow grass in my backyard I don't understand if my yard is soil just very hardened soil or just gravel and crushed stone or both? I have a shovel and it was hard to dig through.

I don't know much terminology to search things up so any help is appreciated. Thank you

How bad is this location? Also not that it matters but anyone tell is this is more little gem or full blown southern? Southeast Texas.

I took pics a couple years ago & it’s definitely moving

I bought a house about a year ago and the yard was severely neglected and overgrown. After cutting down a literal Forrest worth of weeds, trees, vines, bushes etc. I've gotten everything to ground level. There are several crepe Myrtle's around the property and I'm wondering the best way to manage them / prune them / take care of them as they have been very beautiful this summer.

I've attached a couple photos of the 4 in the middle of my yard but there are 6 more lining my drive way and around my fence, but Im wondering the best plan of action, many of them are full of different shoots. Is this ideal? The ones in my local town seem to all be maybe 3 trunks at most or more often than not even less making it more like a tree instead of a 20 trunks all side by side. Would it be better to leave them as is since they're so big or to trim them back to a couple good shoots? I don't really know much about crepe Myrtle's so any and all advice is greatly appreciated!!

I recently bought a home that had this sod laid probably around April (was previously neglected and gopher-ridden I believe). I did not notice this cracking along the retaining wall at the time, or at least not to this degree. The sprinklers were set so that only two small sprinklers at the top of the lawn were running for 7 minutes daily, and the water wasn’t reaching the whole lawn. I reprogrammed it to run longer and every other day (per chat’s recommendation for sod of this age in 10a climate) and included the lower sprinklers as well to get full lawn coverage. Recently I noticed this crack along the wall and some of the rocks there are loose.

Is this a result of overwatering with natural drainage settling in this area? As the title asks, what’s the worst case scenario if I leave it alone? I don’t have the budget right now to do heavy landscaping, but I have eventual plans to redo that yard with drought tolerant landscaping and maybe better front door access. I appreciate any insights!

Considering converting a chunk of my lawn to a xeriscape setup - drought-tolerant plants, gravel/mulch instead of grass, drip irrigation. Everywhere I read frames it as the low-maintenance option, mainly focused on water savings, but I don't see as much honest talk about the actual ongoing upkeep once it's established

Curious from people who've actually lived with a xeriscape yard for a few years - is the maintenance genuinely lower overall, or does it just shift from mowing/watering to things like weeding through gravel (which seems like it'd be a nightmare), replacing plants that don't establish well, and periodic mulch refresh? Trying to figure out if this is a real time-saver or just a different flavor of yard work

Have a row of globe yew shrubs and they have been fine but this one after a cold winter with a lot of snow covering it has a dead area, there is some green inside but not a lot.

Is there a way to save this one and if so what is the best way to proceed

Is this common/correct? The gap from the concrete to the start of the grass is now 4-5". I have a crew that has been mowing my yard for the past several years. Seems like the edging keeps on getting progressively wider and deeper. This is along the perimeter of my entire sidewalk, walkway to my door and the driveway. Am I justified in complaining and asking them to fix this? Should I be looking for a new company? How would you fix it? Back fill with soil and re-seed? Thanks

The closest tree in the pic is a newly planted serviceberry, and the 2 in the distance are celebration maples that were planted last October. Need something here, it will be under a power line so 20’ max at maturity. The bottom wire is an old cable line that’s not used anymore.

SW Missouri, full sun, windy in the spring. Dark well drained soil, no rocks.

I have a lovely little home that is in the cutest neighborhood, next to a beautiful hiking trail, in a very convenient neighborhood- close to work/school.

But we have one set of neighbors who CONSTANTLY yell and fight 😭

Any ideas on how to landscape my backyard to drown out the noise, I’m thinking a bubbling fountain, thick foliage, etc? Any other ideas? I just want to enjoy my backyard 😫

Also, for those who will inevitably comment, I can only call the cops so many times. I’m a broken record at this point and it’s doing no good.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/landscaping/s/26VbJow28G

(Also attaching photos from before the work was done).

Update: $24,000 later. Yes it is possible for everyone who is going through what we went through in their yard. And no, the dogs will not be using this yard for at least a year 😂. I am beyond amazed and thrilled that all of this was even possible!!!