Project Pictures

18 years ago

Here are some pictures from one of our projects this year. The first picture is actually from last year. It sort of "grew" around a place we put the bench seat while painting the house. My husband is very clever and decided to do the permanent cement steps, planting boxes etc. We loved the look because this area had just been an undeveloped slope up until then. Further along to the right, next to the end of the paved driveway and garage is a recycling center, garbage area that is wonderful. It wasn't a very good idea to have bags of garbage on their way to the dump sitting in the back of his truck and being enjoyed as dinner by the bears. The still undeveloped space between these steps and the recycling center are going to be raised planting areas with permanent paths. This is the sunniest place up by the house and I hope to have vegetables, some fruit and cutting flowers. Meanwhile...the project below was built with the same materials and turned out great. A few years ago I began to collect potted hostas and flowers at this corner and place them at different levels. I'm trying for less pots that have to be taken to the garage over the winter and worried over until I see if they are going to come back. I still didn't want to loose the look of the levels. I drew this design and my husband built it. As you can see the three top areas are all at different levels. The plants are:

Top right, Shirley Vaughn and Curtain Call

Top left, Dawn's Early Light, Touch of Class

Center, Alligator Shoes

Bottom Left, Pathfinder, Salute

Bottom Right, Little Red Rooster, Rainforest Sunrise

The last pictures shows that I've already made some changes. I switched Touch of Class and Pathfinder because Touch of Class was getting too big. I'm planing more changes for next year. Alligator Shoes and Dawn's Early Light will switch places. Touch of Class will go into more sun somewhere and Curtain Call will be replaced by a smaller blue. The fun never stops! McT

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Comments (8)

esther_opal
18 years ago
I love the planter, been thinking about something almost exactly like that, may just steal your design.

How are the plants the the planter planted, soil-pots, etc.
mctavish6
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi EO, glad you liked it. I should have included this picture which shows more of the construction. There is no bottom. The sides sit on top of the lower level and the dirt just goes right to the ground. I'm counting on the plants being ok through the winter.

{{gwi:1062761}}
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hosta_freak
18 years ago
Good idea,McT! I built an entire retaining wall from landscape timbers in front of my house. I used long lag screws to hold them together. Nice plans! Phil
hostasformez4
18 years ago
I like!!!!

Connie
botanybabe
18 years ago
I love it too. The planter is an excellent use of garden timbers and pretty too. What a good idea! Very nice indeed.

Lainey
esther_opal
18 years ago
Thanks Mc, give your hubby my kudos, great job. This photo shows what I couldn't see with the plants.

Great to have a man around the house, I've bid online for a couple but the price is always over my budget. A good man is hard to buy these days, inflation? In my case I suffer from stagflation, cost of maintenance is going up and productivity is going down.

Politics, its all about family values, my family doesnÂt value me as much as I think IÂm worth.
sassy7142
18 years ago
I love it!!!
I'm saving the pics and put them in my hosta notebook.
How much soil did it take to fill it up?
Thanks for sharing.
mctavish6
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks guys. I really like it too. I like it so much that I'm thinking I want to do something similar where I have another collection of pots by my tiny lawn. I like that it brings the style of the project by the driveway into the garden and helps them to blend. The big rock at the corner of this project was first there because I couldn't move it but I may just leave it since I have so many rocks everywhere else it also helps tie it together.

EO, I'm glad you want to do something like this. Be sure and show us pictures. Hubby will be flattered. Now that he's retired and able to do some of the projects, the garden has become more interesting to him.

Sassy, I'm not sure how much soil. We had various piles of stuff around. I started with some very fine soil my neighbor (the one with unlimited free lama manure) said was soil. After puting quite a bit of that in there I "tested" it because I thought it was silt. It was. I put some in the bottom of a pot with holes filled it with water and the next morning the water was still there. We didn't want to have to dig out what we'd put in already but I didn't want there to be a chance of the plants rotting in spring where there was lots of rain, melting snow etc. I ended up mixing in lots of pine/fir needles, bark and sand to get it to drain. After that I alternated with top soil we'd bought and lama manure. It took quite a bit.

I'm just about to finish our last big project today. I'll post some picture of that soon. McT