Clearing, leveling and planting bed layout.
The dirt from the old planting beds had been roughly spread across the backyard. All of this dirt needed to be relocated to the edges of the yard to build up the new planting beds along the perimeter.
Started laying out the beds and putting in the brick liners. Lots of blackberry sprouts and roots needed to be dug out of the center area, along with all the old buried chicken wire that failed to keep the gophers out. Successfully transplanted two trumpet flower trees that spawned next to the wall.
Built a 6' x 2' jig to assist the layout of the raised wooden planters for the center. Laid out the planter footprints with flour. Took a few iterations to get the spacing right with 'real-world' dimensions in place, meaning the first pass of brick liners around the perimeter had to be redone. Worth the extra effort to make sure it will be right.
Dug a trench and laid in all the underground water lines between the planters and along the perimeter the yard.
Started laying in the brick foundations for the planters. Discovered that the yard was sloping more than I thought, so had to dig in the out edges and build up the inner ones to level the foundations out. Tedious and time-consuming work!
Foundations finished!
Hauled in gravel and filled all the foundations, leveled out the center area with 8 loads of dirt:
Last of the brick planter beds put in. Decided to add this oval section in front of the array of planter boxes; it will be more of a low succulent garden. Took the better part of a day to lay the oval out mathematically and then do all the angled cuts on the tile saw to get it right. What a bitch! But it does look pretty cool with the built-up dirt.
Here's the glamour shot:
One last brick bed liner section to go, this time for around the Eucalyptus tree I found on the side of the road a few years ago. It's grown a few feet since we planted it finally in the ground earlier this year.
Next up: Building the planter boxes!