In my backyard is a large patio area.  It was built out of concrete triangles seperated by 2x4s.  The triangles seem to be quite old, and some of them have moved quite a bit.  If I had to guess I would say there is well over 1000 square feet of the triangles.

Can see the settling due to tree roots

The cost to have the concrete hauled away is prohibitive so I needed to find something to do with them.  My yard has slight slopes to it, so I decided to use the broken concrete as low retaining walls. To hold the pieces together I decided to use mortar as it is inexpensive at Home Depot.

First I measured 3 feet from my fence at three locations to give me the general  path of the wall.  I then ran a string to keep me on course.

I had previously broken a few of the triangles using a sledge hammer.  I had the two oldest of my boys help me start moving the concrete into place and attempting to piece it together into a line.

I mixed the mortar in a 5 gallon bucket and used a trowel and my hand to put it onto the blocks.

One bag of mortar allowed me to make around a ten foot wall stacked two or three high depending on the lay of the hill.  I started at the highest part of the hill so I made the wall low that way I don’t end up with too high a wall at the end.  Now I need to break up more concrete and get more mortar so I can finish the rest of the wall.

After working on the wall, I decided to plant a Pomegranate tree I bought a few days before.

The dirt in my yard is shallow and is over clay.  The clay is thick and hard to dig, even worse there is a white clay under the brown clay that is like digging in rock.  I spent many hours trying to plant trees in the past and wasn’t able to dig proper holes for the trees.  All that work and effort helped me convince my wife that I needed a jackhammer with spade attachment.  For digging in my dirt, it was totally worth the money.  I was able to dig a good sized hole for the tree in about a half hour rather then several hours.

-Joshua

Save

Today I built a raised garden bed.  I had planned to build one out of redwood until I saw the prices.  Creating a decent sized bed would have been well over $100 just for the wood alone.  At the same visit to Home Depot, I saw that concrete block was only $1.05 per block.  I ended up buying 36 blocks to create my bed.  Each layer is made from 18 blocks.

I had to dig out my yard some for the back section of blocks.  I then laid out my first layer of blocks using a 3 foot long level to make sure they were at least mostly level.  After that I used construction adhesive to attach the second layer of blocks to the first.  I have used the adhesive to hold together some other small walls I made before, and it worked out well.  Once the wall was built I laid 1/2 inch hardware cloth  on the ground to keep gophers out of the bed.

Once I get the dirt in, I plan to plant some Jalapenos, Habeneros, and Bell Peppers in the bed.  With the low price of the block, I should be able to build another bed for this year.

While working on my project, I even got to see a sun halo.  That isn’t something I have seen often here in San Diego.