Sunday, July 27, 2008

Front Rock Wall Part Two

After getting the rock wall established, the next step is to create a foreground which is mostly as a mowing separation from the grass to the wall. Here is a pile of chips that will be place in a concrete/sand mixture, then mortared in.The first step is to dig out about 7" to 8" deep for a gravel base in front of the rock wall: I poured the gravel in place 4" deep, leaving about 3" to 4" for 2" of concrete/sand mix depth plus thickness of the chips:

Deviating from the concrete instruction to wet first then place the rock, I found it worked much better to place the concrete mix dry then place the chips, then wet it. Since the chips were fairly thin, I felt the concrete would hold them a bit better if they were already somewhat sunk in. Completion! Overall it was actually very easy to do. For some reason, I expect anything with concrete or mortar to be a challenge and everytime I work with it, I'm surprised how easy it is.