Two New Terraced Areas!

Several days' worth of heavy work came to fruition last evening. We now have two new retaining walls in the steep area north of our garage. I've back-filled the space behind the walls and done the heaviest part of the soil prep.

These photos were taken at about 10:45AM today, March 18, 2010. You can see that the newly-plantable / newly-usable areas are mostly in the sun. Since we're not yet at the Spring Equinox, I think we can expect a good six months of sunshine on these areas.

In addition to hauling the blocks over from where the hardware store guys dropped them off (south side, near a longer, taller retaining wall), I had to cut the bottom rows into the contours of the land so that the tops would come out level. I did that using a variety of implements. Much of that work was accomplished while kneeling on the ground (those little foam pads from the garden store are real knee-savers).

Once the blocks were stacked and leveled, I had to move soil into place. That was piled up from the garden path excavation in the foreground of the shot to the left. I wanted to make sure that I filled both new terraces to about the same depth, so I filled part of the bottom terrace, then the top one, and then finished the bottom area.

Finally, I dug the dirt back out (yes, I really did) so that I could sift the rocks to the bottom of the deepest spots at the back surface of the retaining walls. This helps with drainage while making the top layer of soil nicer for planting. Leaning against the dozen leftover landscape blocks, you can see my "sifter" in the photos. That thing sure has seen lots of use!

I'm really pleased at how this came out. We need to decide what to plant. Since this entire area is protected from the marauding deer, we might put fruit trees or blueberries against the fence.

Now that I've had a successful drip irrigation project in the main garden, I'm thinking that I will want to add another drip system for these terraced areas. First, though, I need to bring a few inches of Roger's Magic Dirt (aka the topsoil piled on the driveway) to bring the usable soil up to near the tops of the blocks.

Once we have the soil in place, we'll lay in the drip tubes and then plant. We'll lay landscape fabric all around and cover that with shredded bark mulch. The combination of the drip irrigation, landscape fabric and mulch should make this area attractive, productive, and low-maintenance.

Today, however, I need to rest. I pushed very hard to finish this project before Angel returned from her trip East. Knees, elbows, wrists, ankles, and lower back have all protested vociferously. Last night I had to teach my active yoga class at the local athletic club. The pain was ridiculously intense. But, hey, at six decades and counting, that's okay.

My joints and muscles will be happy in a day or two. I am already happy.

But then you knew that, didn't you?