Most of you probably didn’t notice the humble beginnings of a little wall in the side of the photo below.
See it? With the giant arrow pointing to it?
You might be wondering “Why, Katie Bower, do you need a little wall?”
Because I am neurotic. The yard is uneven and I want the flower beds on either side of the porch to be remotely level.
Jeremy had previously cleared the area of bushes. You can see that redneck boyfriend action here.
And we decided to go the easy route: stackable retaining wall blocks.
They are made for creating curved retaining walls.
My hunk-a-hunk o’ burning love loaded them in the green goblin Takeuchi.
And Eric the Yard Dude took a dump. heehee.
Then he helped us out by removed one remaining rhodendrum root.
and he roughed up the ground for the beginning of the wall.
The first layer of blocks need to be partially below ground level. If you don’t have a Takeuchi, then I would recommend that you find a pregnant woman to do this. They have crazy hormones going on. And I think that prenatal vitamins actually enable this kinda manual labor.
Either that or you can hand your nearest hot male a shovel. Hello Mr. Calf muscles!
A hand trowel might be necessary as well.
After you or the baby mama digs your ditch, then you get your lay on. As in lay your first layer of blocks. This is the most important layer…so we made sure it was completely level. Both side to side and front to back.
Slight adjustments were necessary.
Jer-bear continued the first row of bricks until the foundation row was leveled.
Then came the fun part. The stacking.
These blocks have a little lip on the bottom near the back. It keeps that block in place. They just sit right on top and are the perfect position to hold back the dirt.
The back of the wall – see how it is slightly angled toward the house?
Yeah – makes it better for retaining.
and sustaining.
and refraining.
from falling down.
We filled with topsoil until we had about a four inch drop from the top – we wanted enough room for mulch.
After the dirt settled, we planned out our plantings.
Now the left side matches the right side…it’s out of this world (unlike Lance Bass) what a little dirt, some plants, and a few retaining blocks can do!
So have you ever used these building blocks? Ever built a wall? Yeah…me neither 🙂
It looks so good and give me inspiration to finish our yard. You should make a short little video so can see your yard in all of its glory. 🙂 By the way – why don’t you have any weeds? That seems unnatural – we live on the West coast and our weeds – LITERALLY – grow several inches in height daily!
Great transformation! It is amazing what a few bricks and some soil can do!
wow that looks like a lot of work. good thing your hubby has muscles (unlike my scrawny guy)!
Looks fantastic! Glad I didn’t have to do the work. Jeremy looked very hot, sweaty, and tired. We’ve been working on landscape at home too, hubby and his dad tore up/shoveled/weeded/raked smooth an completely overgrown part of our yard, and then planted grass. It looks amazing! Now we just wait for the grass to grow . . .
That looks GREAT! WOW!
looooove this!!! great job!
ps I am also neurotic and wouldn’t have been able to stand not having them close to level either! ; ) if you’re doing all the other yard leveling, might as well put the icing on the cake, right?!
The wall and the flower bed looks great! Your husband is so handy and does great work 🙂
Love the Boston hat!
dude, you guys have made such a huge difference! it looks awesome! and ummm, when do those boys rest? it seems they’re always sweaty and dirty and being manly…not that i’m complainin’ or anything 🙂
i helped build a retaining wall with old tires in Mexico once… does that work?
we were lacking hot males and pregnant woman, however…
That looks beautiful!
Always looks awesome!! 🙂
That looks SO nice! it makes your house look high class!
wow.. that looks so great.
MAN, ya’ll have been BUSY!!
Holy cow! This looks great! You guys are doing an awesome job.
Your yard is looking great, you guys have been so busy. All the work you are doing is so inspiring. I wish the weather wasn’t so bad here so we can get more done in our yard. xx
Great job. I totally hear you on wanting your front garden bed to be even leveled on each side! That looks like hard work!
wow wow wow, amazing transformation. it is truly impressive.
1) can you post a pic of the new landscaping from farther away, so we get the full effect? 🙂
2) just curious… and this might sound jerky of me but i mean it in no such way: do you plan to do anything about the white paint at the top of your brick? since you’re so handy and fancy and all, i was wondering if you’ll be leaving it as it, or trying to somehow make it less paint-y. you can tell me to go to you-know-where for even bringing it up. 🙂
but again, FABULOUS job on the landscaping so far.
Those bricks are great, we tore up existing front landscaping and had a ton of these, so we used them to make a fire pit. An 8ft round firepit. It’s huge, but it is so fun to sit around and have bonfires with friends.
Have I told you you’re a genius today? No? Well you are. LOVE. IT.
xo,
s
I am on a desperate hunt to match blocks in our 1950s wall- your pics are the closest I’ve found! Do you know the manufacturer, store, type of block name, anything!? We can’t find truly rounded ones like these anywhere!