Front Rock Wall Part Three

The last and easiest part of the rock wall project. Planting. I went to Portland Nursery which I knew was fairly spendy but figured it'd be worth it.

Front Rock Wall Part Two

After getting the rock wall established, the next step is to create a foreground which is mostly as a mowing separation from the grass to the wall. Here is a pile of chips that will be place in a concrete/sand mixture, then mortared in.The first step is to dig out about 7" to 8" deep for a gravel base in front of the rock wall: I poured the gravel in place 4" deep, leaving about 3" to 4" for 2" of concrete/sand mix depth plus thickness of the chips:

Deviating from the concrete instruction to wet first then place the rock, I found it worked much better to place the concrete mix dry then place the chips, then wet it. Since the chips were fairly thin, I felt the concrete would hold them a bit better if they were already somewhat sunk in. Completion! Overall it was actually very easy to do. For some reason, I expect anything with concrete or mortar to be a challenge and everytime I work with it, I'm surprised how easy it is.

Front Rock Wall Part One

There's a house up on the east slope of Mt Tabor (a few blocks from me) that inspired me to take on this summer project of recreating the front landscape. That's the reason for the previous posts of moving the rhodadendrun and butterfly bush, and finishing the front to back separation fence. They told me the crew they hired took most of the summer to build the dry stack landscape wall. Rather than use mortar, the rocks are placed on top of one another and fitted to match the contour of the shape created.

The first step is to create the desired contour using a garden hose:

The hose is flexible enough to bend and such, but also remains at place when it's time to dig out the shape created:

Here is the first layer of rock placed. It was from the original rock wall that I threw together a few years ago. I wish I would have taken before picture because it looked really lame:

Progress so far. There's still a lot to do

The West Fence

Having a somewhat decent garden in front, with a crazy chocolate labrador retriever that likes to tear it up from time to time with Sophie from across the street, I thought this would be a good opportunity to separate the back from the front. I had the east part of the yard taken care of quite a while ago. This is the west side of the yard

Setting of the posts...

Scully giving an expression of concern realizing upon completion that she won't able to utilize the ENTIRE yard....

This type of fence is so easy to build. I think I got this done in 2 hours.

And the final product, all painted to match the house trim.

Butterly Bush Move

So now that I have the Rhodie out of the way, it was time to take on the towering butterfly bush. I forgot to take pictures before the move (duh) but here's where it WAS:

This thing was a bear to move and I had already trimmed it down quite bit. I located it on the west side of the yard, with some future ideas in the works for that area. It looks green here but sorry to say, I think it's a goner. Or maybe it's just sleeping? Anyway, I have hopes it will come back because it usually grows like a weed.

Rhodadendrun Move

In the first week of June, I decided it was time to get back to work on the house. The first project to take on was making the landscape in the front of the house somewhat presentable. But before I could do that, I had to move some pretty large foliage. This Rhodie has never done that great where it's at now, so maybe the move will be a good thing.





Since I am on a corner, I moved the Rhodie to the planting strip to block the incoming headlights to gain a little more privacy. I really wished I would have done this years ago.