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is overgrown and underutilized.
RAY: We have a huge fig tree here
that kind of wants to take over the yard.
We can't hang out back here.
AIDAN: There used to be grass but now it's just dry.
Well, whose fault is that?
His.
So we're wiping the slate clean
and creating distinct entertainment areas...
This is my favorite right here. This is great.
and incorporating Asian-inspired features...
Are you ready for your Asian garden?
that will take this yard from desolate wasteland
to relaxing family hangout.
Oh, my gosh.
This is my not-so-lovely backyard.
I hate my yard.
It's basically a big desert with no character at all.
WOMAN: Everything about the yard we hate.
It's just embarrassing.
I don't think you could pay me to come up with one thing
I like about it.
ANNOUNCER: When a yard's this bad,
you need all the help you can get.
That's where top landscape designer Sara Bendrick
comes to the rescue.
Now we can get going.
This might take longer than we thought,
so maybe just angling a little bit that way.
ANNOUNCER: Tough, creative, and determined,
Sara can turn that yard you hate
into an outdoor space you'll never want to leave.
That was amazing, I was blown away.
SARA: I've never seen something like this.
I don't know about you, but I'm home right here.
I'm good.
RAY: My name is Ray.
I have two little girls, Aidan and Kai.
They are 10 and 11.
We live in this house and we've been here for about 7 years.
I've got this backyard that sort of has leftovers
from the previous owner.
It's stark and dirt.
It has so much potential
and it's just sitting here doing nothing.
It's a beautiful space that just seems like
it's just not being used.
We need help.
SARA: So let's see this yard.
This is our backyard.
Yeah.
Well, you have nice trees... that's about it.
Yeah. Yeah.
So what do we have going on here? What is this?
It's all dirty.
Uh-huh.
It looks like they have put this on afterwards.
Do you use this space?
It seems like it's not quite big enough,
so we're not sure how to use this.
We've got this here that looks ugly.
Well, we're going to have to figure out
what to do with this.
We have over here a little succulent garden.
This is our favorite part of the garden.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
These are gorgeous.
I really like it.
We'll definitely want to keep some succulents
and try and put them in your yard.
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
There used to be grass but now it's just dry.
Yeah, it's all dry.
Well, whose fault is that?
His.
What's this all about?
This is an abandoned garden box.
I know. We had some stuff in here,
but everything died, everything fell down.
We harvested--
What did we grow in here?
Different types of lettuce and--
RAY: Squash.
So you guys like to garden, don't you?
Yeah, it's really fun.
What's happening over here?
I can see not a lot.
Yeah, we have a huge fig tree here that kind of wants--
is competing to take over the yard.
Okay.
We can't hang out back here.
Right.
You have what looks like a great orange tree.
Yeah. It gives us a lot of oranges,
so we'd like to keep the orange tree I think.
Okay.
This corner over here just looks a little--
Boring, there's some shrubs.
There's a Chinese fruit-- I think it's a jujube.
Twig tree.
Well, this space I think could be something really cool.
Right now it's just kind of not being used.
So overall, what's the theme you'd like to see back here?
Have you thought about that?
Sort of like an Asian theme,
like the Japanese garden theme is really great.
I want it to feel more comfortable so that we can hang out more.
You want it comfortable, relaxing,
and maybe a little bit of an Asian flair.
Yeah.
Since I've taken a yoga class at my school,
I'd like there to be a place
where I could meditate or do yoga.
Okay. That would fit very well into an Asian-inspired backyard
but the trees are great,
so I really want to use those as anchors in this design.
Other than that I want to redo everything.
Yes.
All right.
I'm super excited to see what Sara's gonna do,
and how she puts it all together,
and transforms our backyard.
ANNOUNCER: Here's Sara's plan.
She's scrapping the old concrete pad
and pouring a more spacious one to house
a large yet cozy seating area
that hides the ugly air conditioning unit.
Overhead, she'll build a pergola
that features a moon-shaped gate
leading out to a reflection pond.
Concrete stepping pads will lead the way back
to an Asian garden featuring multi-tiered floating decks
which create a walking path.
And finally, Sara's building a meditation deck
centered around the existing fig tree.
The budget for this project is 20 grand.
So now we're ready for demo.
The first thing we need to start on is the concrete pad.
Next thing up is to thin out the fig tree.
As much as I love your tree,
it really could use some trimming.
Like this branch right here, it's really coming out
and intruding on your yard, especially now
that we're gonna have this awesome deck here.
So I'm gonna mark out
some of the branches we want to cut.
Branches like this one right here.
I know this is such a beautiful branch
but it needs to go. It's in the way.
And your tree is actually
really gonna like this pruning.
The less branches it has, the less it's going to focus
on the foliage and more the fruit.
So you're going to get bigger, juicier fruit.
Excellent. I like that.
Nice.
Another one. Gee.
All right.
All right, so that's two. Oh, sorry.
I am going to knock you out.
It's just by shed.
I got two of them.
Nice.
Before construction gets too crazy in the backyard,
I want to save as many succulents as I can.
I'm going to have Aidan and Kai
help me transplant some of the succulents
so we can use them later on in the design.
So the nice thing about the succulents
is that the roots are not very extensive,
so we can dig fairly shallow.
Let's put them in these plastic bowls over here.
It'll be a temporary home
until we find their new home, okay?
Okay.
Aidan, which succulent is your favorite?
I like the furry one because it feels soft.
Yeah.
What about you, Kai, which one is your favorite?
I like that one, too, and I also like this one over here.
Uh-huh.
That's called the aeonium.
Cool.
All right.
Today was a busy day.
I had Ray help me remove concrete.
We pruned up his fig tree.
The girls and I transplanted some succulents.
The concrete forms are going in right now,
and as long as those are set, we're good for tomorrow morning.
Now it's time to start slatting your deck
and walkways.
Put the nose down.
You shot right through.
ANNOUNCER: After a day of demo,
things are beginning to take shape in Ray's backyard.
SARA: We've been really busy.
We set all the forms for the concrete.
We poured all the concrete...
and we set the posts for the meditation deck and all the walkways.
Check out your new patio area.
Oh, my gosh, it's awesome. It's huge.
Isn't it crazy?
This is my favorite right here.
This is great.
Right where we're standing, we have a lot more to do.
Today I'm gonna show Ray how to build a moon gate.
We're gonna take plywood, cut a circle out of it,
and it's going to be the entrance to his pergola.
So it's a 7-foot circle, inside diameter,
so we need to measure out 3 1/2 feet from the center.
You want to get up there and I'll measure it.
So 3 1/2 feet is almost to the edge here.
Okay, so I'm gonna measure out 3 1/2 feet.
Okay, go ahead and mark the string.
We're just going to make a giant circle here.
All right, looks like
we're done with the first circle.
Now we're going to measure this out
a little bit further.
Right at 11 there.
Nice.
And now I am going to show you how to cut it out with a jigsaw.
You want to give it a shot?
All right.
( shouts )
Half moon.
Right.
So we have to cut the other half,
and we need to cut two more of these.
We're going to stick them all together
so it's going to be a nice, thick moon gate.
Awesome.
Now that we have the three circles cut out,
we're going to glue them together.
This goes a lot quicker than cutting, huh?
That's just so much faster.
So these are exterior deck screws,
so they're not going to rust.
Cool.
Let's carry it to the back and see how it looks.
All right, Ray, let's set it
right in front of the reflection pond.
Okay.
Let's bring it right up here.
Isn't this a rad?
This is gonna be so neat.
So now all we have to do, Ray,
is we're gonna cut the bottom off,
so you don't need to step above that.
So it's going to be flush with the ground.
We're going to sand the inside and then we're gonna paint it black.
All right, Ray, so now it's time to start
slatting your deck and walkways.
Square this off on the edge here.
Now this side needs to be lined up because we're gonna leave this,
but this side, we're just gonna cut it.
I have not.
All right. It's really easy.
We basically just need to put the nose down right here
and we pull on the trigger.
All right, you wanna give it a go?
Put the nose down.
All right, you shot right through.
That's okay.
Pull the trigger.
Nice.
All right, now we just have like 30 more of these to do.
All right.
SARA: Ray and I are using a speed square
to find consistent spacing between each 2 x 6.
Yeah.
I feel great after today. We got a lot done.
We worked till the sun went down.
Now we can use these end cuts right over here
on our new paths over there.
Great. Not wasting anything.
Excellent.
So today, it's raining. We had a lot to do today.
And I'm kind of worried
we're not going to get it all done.
ANNOUNCER: The floating walkways have been completed,
and Ray's backyard renovation was right on track, until now.
So we showed up today and it's raining.
I'm worried what that's going to do to our schedule.
There's so much to do, and I am really worried about
all this rain putting us behind.
Are you ready for your Asian garden?
I am.
SARA: When you're doing an Asian garden,
you want to have different elements.
You want to pull from the natural elements.
So we want some rocks, we want some plants,
water in this general area,
which is the awesome reflection pond.
So I am going to let you dig out under it a little bit
and this will make it appear more natural, like it wasn't
just plopped here by you and I.
We want to make a mini-landscape in your backyard here
that represents a much larger landscape,
so when replacing the plants around it,
we want to also think how those interact.
What I want to do is
I want to add a couple of these guys.
And of course when we plant these, these are going to be a lot lower.
So this plant right here, instead of plopping it in,
Okay.
Grow this around, so it looks like it's growing
around the rock here, so we have low,
Excellent.
Okay.
You don't want to dig deeper than the container
'cause we don't want our plant sinking.
This is a high-carbon soil amendment.
Basically it has some burnt-- charred pieces of wood.
It also has some organic matter and some nutrients in it.
It's going to help the structure of your soil.
It's going to help your soil hold water as well as nutrients.
Ray and I are going to make concrete planters
out of everyday materials
you might have around the house.
So what we have here is basically two trash cans.
You can use any two containers.
A large one, and then we have a smaller one that will fit in the center,
so our plants can go in that center area.
All right, so what we want to do first
is we want to go ahead and mix up some concrete.
Mixing concrete is really not that hard.
You just want to get the right consistency,
so it's not too watery or not too stiff.
All right.
We're coating the inside of the trash can
with vegetable oil
so it's easier to take the concrete planter out
when we're done.
All right.
I'll start shoveling in.
As long as we have at least 3 inches on the bottom.
Once we put the smaller container in to create a void
where the soil will go,
we'll place rocks in the smaller container
to weigh it down.
After it sets up, we're going to go ahead
and stain the outside with an acid stain.
So while those set up, I've already made one.
Okay.
Nice.
There we go. Yeah, it's not sticking at all.
It's just--woohoo!
Oh, yeah, this is really neat.
And this is actually pretty easy.
All we're going to do is paint on an acid stain
and then we're gonna wash it off.
Making your own concrete planter
is a great do-it-yourself project.
You might buy a planter for $50 or more at a nursery,
but it cost us less than $10 to make our own.
All right, Ray, I have something fun to show you.
These panels right here are going to be
the new supports for a vertical garden.
Nice.
This is a self-contained product
which is really kind of neat.
You open it up, you water it,
the water collects at the bottom,
and then it will pull itself back up.
So let's go ahead and attach our first one.
Okay.
All right, so now that we have that attached,
we just flip it down and there you go.
Looks cool.
Stick that in.
Stick it in like that.
So when it takes root,
it'll really grow into that area.
So beautiful, Ray, yeah?
There we go.
It looks really good.
What are we going to do with the AC unit? What were you doing with that?
I know. Isn't that so ugly?
It's very ugly.
You do?
But I am not telling you what I am doing with it,
and in fact it's time for you to leave,
and you're going to see it when I am done.
Okay, but I want to know what's going on with that.
Please.
It's awesome though.
It really is.
No.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh.
ANNOUNCER: There's been a flurry of activity as Sara and her team
work to complete Ray's backyard makeover.
The crew is working on the finishing touches,
and Sara has got one more project on her "to do list."
I have Aidan and Kai, and together
we're going to plant their old succulents
into the new concrete containers that Ray and I made.
All we have to is add soil and add the plants
however we want to organize them.
You guys did really good on these
succulent containers here.
I have to finish up some stuff in the back,
so if you can get your dad and you guys get ready,
I'll come get you when I am ready to show you guys.
Okay.
SARA: I am putting the finishing touches on right now,
and it looks really great.
It brings the whole yard's intent together.
Adding a few accents of color really bring the yard to life.
ANNOUNCER: Before, this yard had overgrown trees,
patchy grass, and a patio too small to do anything on.
Now it's a sleek, serene space with distinct areas
to relax and hang out.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh!
There's grass.
I know, it's grass.
And hopefully your dad can keep it alive,
but we have irrigation now so it'll be easy.
The patio is so much bigger, so now we can actually use the patio.
It's like perfect--
This is great.
Look at the pond.
Let's go to the pond.
Check out the reflection pond here.
RAY: It's alive again!
Oh, cool.
Look at the plants over here, Aidan,
SARA: Yeah.
Asian garden over here.
We have these walking decks for you guys to walk around.
Oh, my gosh.
RAY: Hey, another place to hang out.
Oh, my gosh,
This is so beautiful.
Guess who made that moon gate.
Him.
RAY: I made the moon gate.
Are you proud of yourself?
I am super proud.
I had no idea it would look like that.
Yeah.
Aidan, this is your place.
This is your meditation deck area.
AIDAN: I love it.
So what are you guys going to do back here?
We're going to meditate and do yoga.
Yeah?
Read books and climb the tree too.
Dad, we can be on a magazine cover now.
Oh, you know what, Sara? These are brilliant.
I know, they are really cool, aren't they?
Yeah.
Where is my air conditioning unit?
I know, right?
Where did it go?
SARA: This bench and table is completely movable,
so when you need to access it,
you just need to pull it out.
So you cover it up,
and you're not gonna see it anymore.
We have your brand new succulent wall.
Built the seat a little higher than usual,
so if you want to pull a dining table in here
or if you just want to lounge and hang out,
you can totally use this area hanging out,
This is nice.
We're gonna hang out back here now.
I really love how you incorporated all of the plants,
because one of the things Aidan really loves is growing things.
You got all the plants out here.
It really feels like an Asian garden.
It's so serene and set apart.
And this area is completely different.
This tree is now the centerpiece
of a completely different room. It's like--
Yeah.
ANNOUNCER: Ray and his daughters now have their
dream back yard, and the total cost
was less than a grand over budget.
So do you guys still hate your backyard?
No, we love it.
Yeah, I love it.
I am so happy.
This is great.
It's time for you guys to enjoy your yard
and time for me to go.
But I really enjoyed working on this yard,
and you guys were so helpful.
Thank you. Thanks, Sara.
Bye.
Thanks.
Yay, this is awesome.
Uh-huh.