Gardening and Landscaping

The way to Use Rocks in Landscaping & Building Stairs

Rocks are a useful substance in landscaping, used as everything from boundaries to walls. Adding stones generates more attention to the natural mattresses and contains more textures and colors that can produce a space stand out from others. To get a daring addition, you can use the stones as a surface area for stairs that climb up a hill in your yard or wind down via a garden.

Rocks in Paradise

Put stones in groupings to create rock gardens. Use various sizes, from several big rocks to small ones not much bigger than your hand. Put them far enough apart to be able to plant vegetation in between. Use small plants and ornamental grasses in addition to flowers for a splash of color.

Set rocks along the edge of natural areas to form boundaries or edging. Dig a shallow trench to keep the stones from slipping out of position. The trench together with the stones will maintain mulch in the beds and keep grass and weeds out of creeping in.

Establish large and medium size stones in your natural area in random points to fill in and include texture. Put one big rock in a natural area of its own to make it stand out as a focus.

Lay flat stones down along a course as stepping stones. Adjust their positions until they are spaced correctly to your walking gate. Dig shallow indentions into the ground to settle the stones flat along the surface.

Rocks as Measures

Dig ledges into the bank to form dirt steps. After removing soil for the first ledge, use a measuring tape to measure the height of the rear of the ledge. Mark the rear in a height of between 8 and 4 inches, depending on how high you want the steps and who will be utilizing them.

Start another step up in precisely the exact same height as the first. Repeat with every circular measure so that they are all the exact same height. Preserve a fairly flat surface by checking with a degree. As you will be changing dirt about when you set the stones in position, the dirt steps do not need to be exact at this time.

Put flat stone on step one. Select rocks that will hang over the edge of the measure at by 1 or 2 inches. This will definitely keep rain water from dripping down underneath and eroding the ground. If the stone is irregular on the bottom, remove the rock from the dirt measure and dig out some of the soil so that the rock will sit flat.

Check the stone to ensure it is flat and add extra rocks to fill in the measure. Repeat the procedure with each extra stair till you arrive at the top.

See related

Gardening and Landscaping

The way to Landscape Using a Poured Concrete Wall

A concrete wall is somewhat simple and doesn’t always appear attractive in your own landscaping. If you are tired of looking at the surface, there are several things you can do to improve or hide the wall, so it isn’t as much of an eyesore. Everything from wall hangings to plants are options to consider.

Attach a trellis to the wall. Attach it to the wall with masonry screws. Plant climbing vines like an ivy or climbing roses along the foundation of this trellises. If placing over 1 trellis on a massive wall, space them out each 3 or or 4 feet.

Plant tall shrubbery along the wall like a holly bush. Prune the shrubs only to keep an overall form and allow them to develop large. Space shrubs so the limbs will likely come near meeting at full size. Plant them closer together if you want to eventually form a solid hedge in front of the wall.

Space dwarf trees that won’t grow above the wall, so the limbs and leaves cover a great portion of the cover of the wall. Plant other vegetation reduced to the bottom between the trees, like low shrubs and shrubs, to be able to split the lower portions of the wall.

Add massive stones or other features like bird houses and bird baths to the landscaping across the wall to grab your eye away from the wall.

Hang decorative items along the wall in between tall vegetation, like wrought iron hangings, bird houses and wreaths, to split the plain surface of the wall, adding interest and texture.

See related

Gardening and Landscaping

How to Level Bricks for a Planter

Planters are wonderful additions to landscaping, supplying an increasing area for plants and flowers which is rich with good soil and nutrients in a place where the ground soil may be less than perfect. To build up a planter, you can use an assortment of materials, like cut stone, wood or brick. Many use brick because it is simple to handle and provides a completed premium quality appearance, but if you don’t install it correctly, you might step back to find that the mortar lines are twisted and the top isn’t level.

Dig a trench along the region in which you need your planter to be located. The simplest way is to lay out a layer of bricks to mark the exact place for the planter, and cut to the soil with a scoop. Then remove the bricks and dig into the ground, where you marked it. Eliminate soil to a depth equal to the depth of the brick and 5 inches.

Fill the base of the trench with 5 ins gravel and smooth it out. Check the gravel using a level. If the base isn’t level, none of the rows will be. Tamp the gravel down, and check again. Add or remove stones until it’s level.

Place the first layer of bricks to the trench. Their tops should reach ground level. Secure the bricks with mortar between the ends of the bricks. Spread the mortar with a little trowel.

Spread a layer of mortar on the tops of their very first row of bricks. Work in small sections of 3 feet at a time so the mortar doesn’t dry out. Put another row of bricks on top of the mortar, making sure to apply mortar between the ends of the bricks as you go. Stagger the ends of the brick as associated with the row underneath to ensure a stronger wall. Place a level on top of the bricks to check them. Adjust if necessary by pressing a brick to the mortar, or even removing it to include more.

Insert a third row of bricks as you did the first, and repeat to the height you need for your planter, that typically is no more than two feet. Continue checking the degree as you go and adjust if required.

See related