Backyard Raised Bed...Before and After

Here are the before and after pics of the raised planting bed and retaining wall.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.

As you can see, the wall is aprox 1.5 feet tall and filled in with 1 cubic yard of "scrappings" soil from gardenville.  I will eventually fill in this bed with plant material including, trailing rosemary, lantana, Bi-colored iris, society garlic and Indian Hawthorne. 

Backyard Raised bed phase 2

So I have completed the second phase of the backyard retaining wall and planting beds.  This bed extends from the arbor to the pond.  I love the way it came out.  It started a little slow this morning but once I got going, it really fell together.  I picked up 1 cubic yard of scrappings from gardenville...man I just love that stuff.  $5.00 per yard.  

Baxter hanging out on the new planting bed.

Backyard Raised Bed: Phase 1

I have completed the first leg of the natural rock retaining wall and planting beds.  I know of a neighborhood under construction that has the motherload of rock piles.  Ive been making mutiple trips, filling entire pickup truck bed loads, and I havent even put a dent in the rock piles!  Eventually, all of the mulch beds in the backyard will be raised like this.  It is also going to help when its time to start planting shrubs, in that I wont have to dig in rock!  For the fill, I use Gardenville "Scrapings."  Scrapings are like the bottom of each pile, pushed into one giant mound.  Its dirt cheap...(pun intended) at $5.00 per cubic yard.  I love it because it has a little bit of everything.  Soil, compost, gravel, granite, mulch...it does have some trash in it...i.e. grass clippings and leaves, but for $5.00 per yard you cant beat it!  I got an entire heaping truck bed full for $7.50...(1-1/2 yards, about all my truck can handle.)

Garden Pathways: Semi Completed

The pathways are dug out and filled in.  I am really happy with the shape and curvature of them all.  Four pathways converge into a patio of sorts.  I dug all of the pathways out about 3-4 inches below the existing grade of the lawn.  I then filled them in with 3/8" Texas Blend Pea Gravel from Gardenville.  I like the pea gravel because it provides superior drainage and with 3 dogs it doesnt stick to their feet like decomposed granite does. There will eventually be a natural rock edging...(I have part of the pathway semi-complete.)  I love a natural rock edging, but I am very particular with how it is installed.  Just for the record, what you see below is very very rough draft.  Once completed, it will be very uniform.

Garden Pathways: A Way to Get from Here to There.

After weeks of planing and drawing, and re-planning and re-drawing we finally got to work digging out the backyard garden pathways.  My dad was kind enough to lend me a hand and Ady decided to help out too!  I was completely surprised in that the soil we dug out was like black gold.  Have you ever seen those HGTV garden shows.  They are always filmed up north and when they dig, the soil looks fake?  Well thats what it was like...seriously!   As I have mentioned before, I'm situated on a limestone cliff and there are plenty of areas of the backyard with bedrock protruding from the soil.  This path however was 60 feet long, 3-4 inches deep and we never hit a single rock!  

Front Yard retaining wall and planting bed.

So most of my gardening will be dedicated to the backyard, as it is a blank slate.  However, there are a few things I want to acomploish in the front yard.  The front yard is very tradtional, however designed very well.  Yes, there is a lot of grass, but with the dappled shade the St Augustine performs very well.  There is an established live oak adjacent to the driveway with just a small (3' diameter) steel edging ring around it.  I have created a nice big planting bed instead.  I did however leave the steel edging ring in place as it will keep mulch and dirt from piling against the trunk and allow for good air circulation.     

Step 1.  Mark out the planting bed area and add landscape spikes. 

The landscape stakes allow for a string line to encircle the bed.  This way I can make sure the retaining wall is level all around. 

The finished bed and retaining wall.  Notice the exposed root flare and steel edging inner ring.

The bed filled with plant material.  Upright Rosemary, Butterfly Weed, Blue Plumbago, White Plumbago, Loropetalum, Butterfly Iris and Caryopteris Clandonensis "Dark Knight"

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Butterfly Weed with blue and white Plumbago

Dark Knight with butterfly iris.