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Recycled Concrete Planter Wall

by on Jun 23, 2011


As you may know, I recently re-did our backyward walkway, taking out (what felt like) a ton of concrete, and replacing it with paver stones (here’s the blog post series on that, if you’d like to follow along). 

As a little side project, we had to figure out what to do with all the leftover concrete. We had a pile of it that was about 3 feet in diameter and 4 feet tall, in assorted shapes and sizes, behind the garage. Of course, we could’ve hauled it to the dump, but that seemed like too much of a pain, so we decided to build a little planter wall.

Leftover concrete planter wall

We just stacked the concrete loosely into place, and then filled in behind it with some dirt we had leftover from the walkway project. This is in the back of the house, behind the garage, so it’s very rarely seen by anyone (except us, as we park the car). As you can see from the photos, we haven’t gotten any plants in yet, but I’d like to get some creeping, ground-cover-type stuff to fill in along the tops and in the cracks (suggestions for plants are welcome!). 

I know this isn’t the most impressive thing I’ve every posted on Curbly, but I thought it was a practical re-use of the materials, and saved us the cost and effort of having to dump them elsewhere. 

What do you think? Pull no punches!

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In other news: we’re working on a landscaping project for ManMadeDIY (ManMade is on the TrueValue Blog Squad this year, and this project is part of that). We’re trying to clean up our front yard/sloped garden thingy, and I’d love your ideas. Here’s a picture of the space, after we cleaned out most of the weeds and grass:

Our front yard landscaping project, in progress

That’s a crap-ton of creeping juniper there in the foreground, along with a little Korean lilac, some hostas, and a peonie. Alicia hates the overgrown juniper, and would pull it all out (if I’d let her). I’m hoping we can clean things up a bit, put in some more flowering plants, add some solar-powered lighting, and also some etched copper plant label plates. I’ll let you know how it goes!