We have a very shady yard, one that has gotten progressively shadier every year. But, we love vegetables, especially tomatoes and zucchini and both of those are sun lovers. So instead of grabbing a plot at the community gardens in town, my husband proposed to build a vegetable garden in our only spot that approaches full sun--our front lawn that has significant slope.
This weekend we began. We selected precast concrete landscaping blocks that had a slate-like appearance. We marked out the boundaries of where the retaining wall would be, stringing lines to measure the height of the wall on all sides. This allowed us to estimate the amount of block to purchase. First snag...how to transport over a ton of concrete without ruining our suspension. The guy at Home Depot just laughed when he looked at our car. I guess it will be more than one trip...
We started excavating, using a level to be sure our blocks would be laid straight. We tamped down the ground and laid a layer of paver base, which is crushed stone, then leveled again.
Once it was level, front to back and side to side, it was time to lay the first layer of block. Each stone needs to be check for level as it is laid, using sand (from our old sandbox) to adjust the blocks as needed. Tried to skip the step of chipping off the flange on the first layer of blocks. Bad move. They were very difficult to level with that lip on them. After the first couple my husband gave in and started chipping.
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