Boulder Wall, NE Minneapolis
We built this low retaining wall of boulders and landscaped this front yard while I was at Local Roots Landscapers. There wasn’t much going on in the front yard here, other then the large evergreen tree. A lot of herbaceous plants are not friendly with evergreens, so I used native plants that have a natural friendship with or tolerance for evergreens. Our clients were two wonderfully friendly chaps who were interested in planting large amounts of berry bushes, so we added native serviceberry, chokecherry, and blueberry. They were also interested in discontinuing to mow the front slope. A retaining wall, mulch, and woody shrub combination helped solve that problem.
They finished the project by planting about a dozen blueberry hybrid bushes. I think the whole front yard was transformed from a semi-arid lawn desert into a fruitful, attractive, and low maintenance garden.
The clients wanted to keep some lawn around the lilac in the above picture so that the neighbor kids could run around it barefoot.
We used a combination of paper layers and wood mulch to keep the weeds down. This technique also helps to build soil health in certain situations, such as reclaiming a piece of lawn for gardens.
Boulder Wall, South Minneapolis
A boulder retaining wall can be a beautiful thing. In the city, the front of your house is the face of your property. It can really add value to your home if you create a beautiful, welcoming feeling by adding landscape features such as retaining walls and beautiful gardens. Here we have a homeowner who was looking to do something with an ugly, eroding slope of lawn under two huge evergreens. A boulder retaining wall was a natural fit.
A coworker and I built this while I was working at Local Roots Landscapers. I ordered about 4 tons of glacial boulders, and we used a large portion of those. Sometimes you get a large portion of really round boulders that are hard to work with, so there is the need to have more then enough on hand.
This wall was about 18 inches to 2 feet high.
Chilton Patio Wall, White Bear Lake
The picture below is the patio from the other side. A patio has to slope away from the house foundation, and sometimes making sure the slope is perfect takes more time then you would imagine.
I built this small retaining wall out of Chilton wallstone. This is a very sunny spot, and I think that the mass of the stone will only add warmth to this planting bed. As backfill, I used excess topsoil mixed with organic compost, and the client was going to do the planting. I think the little wall adds a lot of character to the patio.
