Once the air spading is done, we know how to work around the roots to construct a retaining wall around Fuzzy. That will allow us to bring in more dirt and improve the slope of this section of the front yard. Of course, we have a sort of mock-up of what the wall will look like.
but now we want to do it for real.
To define where the wall would be, we use a string and stakes to lay it out and get it level. We tried draping the string with plastic, to get a better idea of the placement, but I think that was of limited benefit.
We begin on one side. We have to dis-assemble the existing mock up, both to give us room to work, and for the rocks to use.
Then we start to work across the yard, from the sidewalk towards the driveway.
Selecting and placing the rocks.
Sometimes we have to remove some rocks and start over with different ones, but we continue to the corner and then up next to the driveway.
Then we roll the extra rocks up out of the way
And we move the sprinkler head near the driveway in the middle of this section of the yard to be in the corner of the terraced bed.
Then we rent a pick-up (from U-Haul, $62.98) and make two trips to Whittlesey Landscape for 2 cubic yards of professional mix (2.5 for the second trip) $105.36 and $128.67.
Our computations said we needed about 4 cubic yards -- a wedge 11 feet on a side, 13 feet wide and 16 inches tall -- but the two trips seem to fill it pretty well.
