Say Hello: Reaching Sunday Backyard and What to Send

This page explains how to reach the owner of Sunday Backyard, what this site can and cannot help with, and what to put in a message so one note is enough.

The routes this site really offers

This site has no contact form, so there is no box to type into, and this page prints no email address or phone number. I would rather say that plainly than point you at a form that is not there. What the site does offer is its pages. Each one answers a single question, and most of what you would write to ask is already on one of them.

Start with the page that matches your question, and most of the time you will not need to write at all.

Find the guide that fits your question

Use the menu to find the page for your question, and read its first section.

What you can settle on your own first

Most questions here are about timing and order. Read the one guide, check the one thing in your own yard that it names, and send a note only about what the guide did not answer.

What stays with you

Your town’s rules, your own ground and your own drainage. The guides send you to the building department for those.

What this site cannot help with

I cannot quote a job, name a builder, or tell you what your own wall or patio will cost. A quote needs someone in your yard, and a permit answer comes from your own town. This site can explain what the question is and what to check before you ask it.

An empty garden bistro set beside a stone house, with daylilies and a wooden fence — An empty garden bistro set beside a stone house, with daylilies at the edge of the yard.

What to have ready before you write

Name the town, the kind of work (a patio, a wall, a lawn, a deck, a shrub or a tree) and roughly how big it is. Say what the ground does after heavy rain, if you know.

Keep the message to one question. A note about a patio, a deck and a lawn at once is harder to answer than three separate questions. Say which guide you have already read.

A tool question is usually a timing question

Long-handled shears are the easy part of pruning. The season decides when a cut is safe, so read the timing first.

Long-handled pruning shears cutting bare tree branches — Long-handled pruning shears cutting bare branches. The season decides the cut.