White Gardens

[White Gardens]

I thought I would put together a thread on work done. I need something to do on days like today when it has rained almost everyday for the last two weeks. There is only so much office stuff to keep me occupied.

[White Gardens]

A couple of pics of the garden.

One pic is of my potatoes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, onions, and radishes. Luckily we had a dry day on Easter, so I got my early season stuff planted.

I'm still waiting for the rest of the garden to dry out before I till in the rest of my passive mulch pile (worm food) and get my warmer season vegetables in.

The first pic is a close up of the soil, If you look closely you can see the multitude of holes where the worms have been coming to the surface at night to dry out.

[White Gardens]

Short free standing wall. (not retaining much) I used Mortar on the back half of the blocks so that the mortar won't show in the front making it look like a dry laid wall.

Everyone is welcome to comment or ask questions.

[White Gardens]

Few More.........

[Smallaxe]

Looks like a fun project. I'm afraid to start something like that because it would be only to the second step by end of summer.
That tree seemed high in relation to the foundation of the house.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

Looks like a fun project. I'm afraid to start something like that because it would be only to the second step by end of summer.
That tree seemed high in relation to the foundation of the house.

Yes, very high. I really wanted it to go, but they decided to keep it. The wall has been causing me fits because of the weird grade.

[Whitey4]

That grade sure is funky. Even tougher to do I imagine, given the uneveness of the stone selected. Where exactly is the mortar? I don't follow that part of the install.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by Whitey4

That grade sure is funky. Even tougher to do I imagine, given the uneveness of the stone selected. Where exactly is the mortar? I don't follow that part of the install.

The mortar is between the back 2/3rds of the wall, so you can't see it in the front to give the apearance of an old-world dry laid wall. I just new in that location, next to the driveway, that it needed to be solid. Also, if the block was a little more flat and uniform, then I would have done a base and used block adhesive for each course.

The base is three inches of concrete with re-bar running the length of the base for extra support. I didn't want to do a deeper base as I was running into massive tree roots.

Yes, the uneven block sucked hard. They look great, but I had to use a firm mortar to keep as level as possible with each course.

All in all I like it. I can't decide if I should continue the last course to the garage or not. With the step-down on the upper end, I think it looks O.K. the way it is.


Any thoughts????


Here are the current pics, the wall is going to look great when it's washed down. Right now there is a lot of dust from my cuts.

[White Gardens]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

That tree seemed high in relation to the foundation of the house.

Also, I just realized that the tree was probably there before the garage was added. Behind the garage there is a 30 foot steep hill.

[Whitey4]

I think I would prefer the look of continuing the course to the end of the wall. Looks nice, but that one stone by itself looks a bit out of place to me.