Most of you probably didn’t notice the humble beginnings of a little wall in the side of the photo below. 

See it?  With the giant arrow pointing to it?

You might be wondering “Why, Katie Bower, do you need a little wall?” 

Because I am neurotic.  The yard is uneven and I want the flower beds on either side of the porch to be remotely level.

Jeremy had previously cleared the area of bushes.  You can see that redneck boyfriend action here.

And we decided to go the easy route: stackable retaining wall blocks.

They are made for creating curved retaining walls.

My hunk-a-hunk o’ burning love loaded them in the green goblin Takeuchi.

And Eric the Yard Dude took a dump. heehee. 

Then he helped us out by removed one remaining rhodendrum root.

and he roughed up the ground for the beginning of the wall. 

The first layer of blocks need to be partially below ground level.  If you don’t have a Takeuchi, then I would recommend that you find a pregnant woman to do this.  They have crazy hormones going on.  And I think that prenatal vitamins actually enable this kinda manual labor.

Either that or you can hand your nearest hot male a shovel.  Hello Mr. Calf muscles!

A hand trowel might be necessary as well.

After you or the baby mama digs your ditch, then you get your lay on.  As in lay your first layer of blocks.  This is the most important layer…so we made sure it was completely level.  Both side to side and front to back.

Slight adjustments were necessary.

Jer-bear continued the first row of bricks until the foundation row was leveled. 

Then came the fun part.  The stacking.

These blocks have a little lip on the bottom near the back.  It keeps that block in place.  They just sit right on top and are the perfect position to hold back the dirt.

The back of the wall – see how it is slightly angled toward the house?

Yeah – makes it better for retaining.

and sustaining. 

and refraining.

from falling down.

We filled with topsoil until we had about a four inch drop from the top – we wanted enough room for mulch.

After the dirt settled, we planned out our plantings. 

Now the left side matches the right side…it’s out of this world (unlike Lance Bass) what a little dirt, some plants, and a few retaining blocks can do! 

So have you ever used these building blocks?  Ever built a wall?  Yeah…me neither 🙂