HOW IT STARTED

Scrubby grass and dirt from a previous infill job. Spindly rose bush and dented and ugly gutter drain.

Added a rain barrel but the base dirt wasn’t stable and weeds were filling in where the bare dirt was.

THE PROJECT

Digging out a level base for pavers left over from another project. Making sure not to cut the line for the wifi and maintain a slope away from the house.

Putting the gravel base down and leveling.

Leveling sand. Using the half full paint bucket to tamp it down and the spray guard to level again.

Weed block because I’ve dealt with enough pulling weed from between pavers at previous homes. I’m sure this won’t totally stop them, but it’ll slow them down.

Pavers and first couple of rows of the retaining wall. The pile of dirt I dug out to level this will be behind the retaining wall.

Filled in the gaps in the pavers with some leftover pea gravel. Now I have a steady base for the rain barrel. This is a 65 gallon rain barrel and the first time I’ve used this design that branches off the gutter instead of being at the end of the gutter. I works really well and is much easier to install (and remove if you move and want to take it along). The stand also really helps with gravity flow and drainage. It’s made with some leftover fence materials I had.

Buried the end of the gutter. Hopefully this doesn’t cause issues in the future. This is the one part I wish I’d done differently. Should have use a French drain perforated drain pipe with a gravel sleeve. I almost thought about leaving the retaining wall like this and seeding it to fill in with grass behind. But I decided I wanted a contained area for future planting or garden use that was separate from the yard and easy to mow around.

Completed the turn for a contained bed between the top deck and the bottom patio.

Added a basic potting bench made from the pallets the retaining wall parts were delivered on.

Completed project with capstones for the wall and straw bedding to start getting ready for planting next spring. Adding a nice feature/usable area to the backyard where before there was nothing.

Next project: fire pit using more wall blocks.