Landscaping around our new deck

[JeremyB]

So the deck will get a thread of its own at some point, but here are some pictures of the landscaping we did around the deck/patio behind our house this spring.

When we bought the house we were both fairly excited to remove the previous owner's red bricks and red mulch. Didn't look bad, just wasn't our taste. We had to wait pretty much an entire year to see what sort of plants and landscaping we really had going on, as we bought the house in the winter and never saw any pictures of the landscaping before hand. Either way, we knew we would want to re-do or update it at the very least.

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking ahead or planning to post these projects so I did not take any great 'before' pictures, but these give you an idea of what's going on before we got going:

(Ignore the deck and focus on the landscaping lol)

Had to remove a few hundred red "half-moon" blocks.

And Haul in 100 or so new Belgium retaining wall blocks. (Note the new Wagon. It's awesome. I could make an entire post just on that wagon alone!)

Who says you need a truck to haul truck things?! 2015 VW Jetta Ultra-Lightweight Truck edition.

(*cough*cough* 1100 Lbs capacity *cough*cough*)

 

[JeremyB]

Once we had all of the old blocks out and the new blocks out of my trunk, it was time to start moving dirt and laying stone. Since this wall is not actually a 'retaining wall' by definition, as it's not actually hold back land per an elevation change, but just holding dirt for a flower bed we decided against trenching an extra 6" to 8" down and laying gravel as the base layer. I made sure that we had at least a half of a block buried below ground level to ensure a decent "base", but we will see how it goes over time as I know this is not ideal. I did use Construction/Landscaping adhesive to secure the blocks to one another and I'm hoping this will assist with holding the blocks/wall steady and even.

Gotta keep thing level

Starting the other side...

 

[JeremyB]

Finished off the short wall on this side and we decided to convert to a flatter wall for a couple of reasons:
-We are going to be placing a grill just inside the 'wall' and do not want to be standing behind or on top of/over a big stone wall
-With the set of stairs coming down where they do into the landscaping, we wanted to be sure it didn't feel out of place or weird to walk through the landscaping and out into the yard. Did not want a big wall to have to step over/down.


Buried these pavers most of the way into the ground. mostly there for aesthetics and holding back some of the mulch, i suppose.

Put down some heavy weed-mat to hopefully hold back to un-wanted plants for a while. Used steel 'lawn staples' every 3 or 4 feet along the edges.

A quick 25 bags of mulch, some flag stones that we found buried beneath the ferns in the corner of our yard, and some plants for the local flower shop, and we were in business!

Walkway stones with the grill. Hopefully a better shot to show the need for the lower profile pavers through that section of the landscaping.

Many thanks to my amazing Fiancee, Anna! She has been a huge help through all of this especially when it comes to design and layout and colors and all of that aesthetic non-sense!

We will be doing more landscaping work in the near future and I will be sure to post threads as we do!!