Another Wall (avoiding doing the bathroom)

The hill outside the kitchen door is kind of a mess. The land was cut away here and this slope has grass all over it and a million of those awful trees. I did my best to clean it up but the soil slowly erodes down, the grass comes back and the trees sprout freely.

We use this door all the time as the gateway to the backyard arboretum and it just never is tidy.

So I decided that we needed a little wall to hold back falling dirt...separate lawn from planting area and make it easy to mow and maintain. We didn't want cinder blocks because I didn't want straight. The land also goes up and down and straight would mean excavating a lot. I don't have a problem with that, but straight lines don't need to be everywhere! So we opted for more pricey but easier landscape blocks. This is the first "dry run" to figure out the lay out.

This is the adjusted dry run. Curves are hard because there is a tendency to make them impractical (too curvy)- difficult to mow near. I also had to consider the up/down part and ended up basically terracing in a way.

Here's the final thing - a slight curve that makes it easy to mow and follows the ups and downs and ins and outs of the hill. It looks a lot better and we will at some point continue it. We'll see how it holds up in the rain. The blocks are level left to right and tilt back into the hill slightly. If the rainy season gets here and erodes more soil we can just add another layer by placing the blocks on top - they are extremely easy to work with!

I've also decided not to fight things as much. Grass grows really well so I am on the grass replacement plan - new ornamental grass goes in, gets established and then bad grass is out. That should help stabilize the hillside and be more attractive and low maintenance. Then I'll chuck some flower seeds out, put herbs in pots out of the weed/cat/chicken zones (this is their "spa" area) and it will look nice. We can also sit on it like a bench. Over time this will look pretty nice I think and I'm pleased already.