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Mon 21 Mar, 2005 11:47 am
I moved into a new house last year. This house didn't have a single tree or bush on the property. I am a flower enthusiast. I have always had a lot of annuals and a huge container gardens. I also show plants...mostly house plants.
I am lost when I try to work with my yard! I built a front bed with bushes and it looks very good. However, I used the plastic/rubber black tube thing for the barrier (between the bed and the yard). Now, I want to brick it up...and make a little brick barrier. If I do this though, my bushes will be half covered! So, should I raise my bed up with some top soil...dig up the bushes and plant them higher (this doesn't sound like fun)?
Do you have retaining walls? Do you have any suggestions? I thought about just doing one row of bricks...but I think that would look kind of lame. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Not sure, but I think you can build your wall, and raise the soil level to match, if you do it over a period of several years.
how so?
and...my bushes are small...I have a low blue star juniper. see, it will totally cover up the juniper if I even have my wall two bricks high. do you think it is okay to dig them up...add top soil and the black mesh...replant them...and make it higher?
You can dig it up if you dig it out wide enough. That's better than burying it in 3 or 4 more inches of dirt. Instead of regular bricks you could do one or two level of landscape blocks (sort of pie shaped with a curved front, angling back to a narrower back edge). Stack them in alternating rows for a nice wall. They're a bit higher than regular bricks so you might get by with a single layer. You can find them at any building center (Home Depot, ex) or garden design center.
They'll probably tolerate another transplant this year better than when they get more settled and have a wider root ball.
thanks for the suggestions.
another thought I had was, digging them up...filling in the hole with a few inches of dirt, and just mounding them up...rather than filling the entire area with soil. do you think this would work? or, would it just create drainage problems?