New wall is done
The wall in my front yard is now done and ready to accept plants. It took over 80 “bricks”, 21 bags of drainage rock, and 4 2cubic foot bags of topsoil. (And about 7 trips to Lowes).
Azaleas will be planted in there, with pachysandra on the rest of the yard, but I’m waiting until it’s warmer to do the planting. (And hopefully, I can get some of my more plant friendly friends to monitor me so I don’t kill them).
I’d like to thank Brian for helping me finish this Saturday (before noon!)
If I’m in town, I am happy to help you do the planting.
How did you build the wall? Are the bricks just stacked, or are they mortared together somehow? I’ve been thinking about doing my small front garden — currently it’s got wood ties, but they’re not doing so well, and I think it would be happy if it were replaced by something sturdier.
The bricks are the Lodgestone model from Oldcastle (http://www.oldcastleeaston.com/oldcastle_retail_edgers.htm) – I got them from Lowe’s
They have a little lip on the back that just stacks and the pressure from the stuff “inside” the wall pushes against it to keep it in place. You have to dig the first level into the ground and place it on leveling sand (which I’ve still got half a bag if you need it for any reason), then you just stack
I was a little lazy on the half bricks, and just turned the bricks sideways, but you can supposedly use a chisel to cut them easily (I have no idea what the instructions were smoking).
The actual ground behind the wall is sloped away from the house, then the wall is filled up with drainage gravel until 7″ from the top, then it’s “tree & shrub” topsoil on the top 6″. I know I’ll have to mulch the plants, so I left about an inch to put the mulch.
The plants have been ordered (42 pachysandra and 4 blue moon hydrangeas – I like the blue!), so they should be here this weekend or next. I need to do a little bit of work on the other side of the door to make it look normal, and I need to do something to prevent the pachysandra from taking over my neighbor’s yard as well (any suggestions?)
How lovely!! I’m impressed! laura, i think you’re an all around renaissance woman!!