I decided it was high time to bring the backyard up a notch. The beds beneath the arborvitaes was in desperate need of some mulch, but I didn't want to put that down until I put in some sort of edging. Without an edge the grass weaved in and out of the beds and looked unkempt. Plus if I had put down fresh mulch it would just find its way right into the lawn. I had to do it the right way...
You can see how unfinished it looked in those two shots above. After some research and pricing out a few different options I decided to install Belgain Block as edging. I'd put it down the long way [8"x4" blocks] and secure it in a bed of concrete so it didn't move. An ambitious project for sure, but I managed to get it all done in one weekend! [though my back wishes I had spread it out over a week or two!]
This is a shot I took from the house before I started. You can see the spray painted string-line I put down as a guide, and you can also see how uneven the edge of the grass is...
The first order of business was procuring the stones from Homey D's. One pallet had 216 blocks on it and weighed over 2,000lbs! No way I could get that to the house myself, so I paid the $65 bucks and had them handle it. Kel snapped a few of these camera phone shots when they dropped it off. I didn't expect an 18-wheeler and a fork-lift, but it makes sense.
Next up was digging out a shallow trench to lay a bed of concrete and then place the blocks on. That took the majority of Saturday to do and was the hardest part of the job. Backbreaking actually! Once that was complete the actual laying of the stones went pretty quickly. I ended up using 19 bag of Quickcrete. 60lb bags mind you! Had I known I would need that many I would have just rolled it into the Home Depot delivery to save my back the loading and unloading. You should have seen the car when I had 10 of them in there at once...thought the muffler was going to scrape the road!
And to whomever put the little tag-line on the bags of concrete that says "Easy to Handle 60lb Bag"...you've got to be kidding me. There's nothing easy about picking up and putting down a 60lb anything! Never mind a bag filled with concrete that if you throw down the wrong way has the potential to bust open and spill everywhere! So a tip to those of you thinking about doing this project yourselves...estimate how many bags you'll need and have them delivered with the stones. You can always return a few extras if you need! [I actually returned about 20 of the stones that I didn't use and at $3 a pop that pretty much saved me the delivery charge!]
So here's a shot of the finished stones, sans mulch. Came out pretty good if I must say!
It was a pretty straightforward install and really anyone can do this: Slop down about 2 or 3 inches of concrete as a bed for the stones to lay in, then place them tightly side-by-side [using a string-guide to keep you on course], and finally put an angle of concrete on the back side to secure them in place. Once the concrete dried I would cover it with mulch so you wouldn't see it at all.
The next weekend the mulch arrived...as you've already seen from previous posts. I ordered 5 yards, and in the end probably could have gotten by with just 4!
That's a lot of mulch! and it took me the better part of the weekend to spread. Needless to say, it was put down pretty thick so that I could use it all up. We also decided to replace a few plants and add some decorative planters to the patio. The azaleas we had on the side of the yard that you see when you walk through the gate just weren't cutting it. They didn't get enough sun and couldn't compete with the roots of the larger tree. So they had to go and we replaced them with a few hardier plants. A couple hosta and something else that I can't remember the name of. We also got a few planters at C&B and put some fountain grass in them that should look really great in 3 or 4 weeks!
So without further adieu, here are the final shots:
We think this really completes the backyard...but I'm interested in your comments. So leave them below...
