Last Updated on 4 years by Christopher G Mendla
I am in the process of some serious cleanup of two Rhododendron beds at the end of my driveway. I needed a small wall between one of the beds and my neighbor’s property. The solution was to re-purpose some cinder blocks, 4×4’s and pavers that I had.
The beds were invaded by fox grape and honeysuckle. The vines were killing the Rhododendrons. I cleared them and cultivated the soil. However, there were a lot of vines next door.
Below is the bed I was working on. This was after cultivating the soil. It isn’t as obvious as I’d like but there are weedy, vine ridden bushes to the left. I cultivated a bit deeper where I was going to place the 4×4’s . Two four by four’s side by side are equal to the width of a standard cinder block. Using the 4×4’s made things a lot simpler in that I didn’t have to painstakingly level the individual blocks.
I had a pile of unused cinder blocks as well as standard 8×16 pavers. The previous owner used the blocks to hold down the pool cover for the winter. I’m planning on nuking the pool as soon as I can. Hopefully this summer.
I simply placed the cinder blocks on top of the 4×4’s and used pavers as a capping. There were a few inches of extra 4×4 but I’m not worried about this as you’d have to pretty much be in the bed to see it. I put three more cinder blocks directly in the dirt and capped them.
I ran the landscape fabric under the 4×4’s. The result is a reasonably straight and true rustic looking wall.
Below is a view with the mulch and four blocks extending the wall. That is further back from the street and any deviance isn’t as noticable.
Here is a view from the street.
Summary
- A 12′ garden wall cost ZERO as I had all the materials
- By re-purposing, I got rid of some of the clutter in the back yard.
- Time to build was less than an hour including hauling the materials to the bed.
- The wall will help to some degree in keeping the vines and overgrowth at bay.
- Eventually the pressure treated 4×4’s will rot. Perhaps in 5 to 10 years. At that time, it will be a simple matter of purchasing two new 4×4’s and rebuilding the wall. That will probably take less than a half hour.
- IMPORTANT – This only works because this is NOT a retaining wall. It is meant as a barrier to prevent the beds from being quickly overrun by brush and vines.
Update August 2020
The wall has held up well. I was wondering if there would be any settling due to frost but