Everything Man

Random projects from an alchemist's workshop.

Monday, 4th July, 2016

Since we’ve moved into our house, there has been a bare patch in the back yard from the previous owners. It looks like it was intended to be a garden, but as far as we can tell, nothing has ever actually been planted in it. We decided we wanted to level it out and turn it into a more functional (and aesthetically pleasing) garden space.

We figured out where the sprinkler heads were (and how they were connected underground) so we wouldn’t inadvertently dig through a sprinkler line. The heads were located in such a way that we could cut behind them and fill in front of them to make a terrace without changing the height of the sprinklers themselves. After we had planned out where we wanted our terraces, the digging was the hardest part. Laying the bricks and backfilling went pretty quickly after the digging was done. The terracing is definitely an improvement, but the soil is basically just clay so there’s a lot of work still to do before it becomes a decent garden.

Process picture gallery below:

The original bare patch of yard
All dug up!
Leveling and tamping
The first row of bricks
The second row
The completed first wall
My brother, inspecting the workmanship on the first wall
First row in the second wall
One row to go!
The before picture
The after picture