Last week Carl finished the rock wall project. He dug a ditch that was about a foot deep on one end and two feet on the other ending in a dry well. He put in a layer of gravel which he had been collecting as he had screened dirt in our garden the last two years. Then he laid a drainage pipe and more gravel so if water melted and ended up below the rock wall the wall would not fall. He put cloth on the back of the wall to keep the weeds out but allow water through. The pictures show the beginning of building the wall. Before the rocks had been stood up on their sides. He laid them down so the wall would be more stable. It took some time to fit them all together. The first layer is rocks he could not lift himself but could slide if on a wood piece so he would lever them up onto the wood and then slide the wood into place.
After digging the ditch and digging a dry well, Carl used the gravel gleaned from dirt in our garden over the years to fill in a layer and then added a drain pipe. Then more gravel until it reach the top where he was now ready to start building the rock wall.
Starting to put the first layer of rocks in.
The finished wall. It is nice in the picture and even nicer in person. Carl honed his skills in New York where we also had lots of rocks to build with.
Now the fun part. Our potentillas are starting to bloom.
This Potentilla has the most blooms but they are all beginning to bloom now.
Unfortunately the blue flowering vines behind are weeds and we are digging them all out. There are also some in the trees in the back of our house and we will leave those. The flowers are nice but they are short lived. Our potentillas should bloom all spring, summer, and fall. All ten are doing well so we hope they will survive our dry hot summer and then winter and keep progressing as the years go by.
This was a lot of work for Carl but he did such a nice job. Our neighbors have all commented on how lovely it is.