Another Garden, Another Garden Wall

Longtime readers of my blog will remember the garden wall we built in our former Alabama garden. We built it in 2005 to serve as a backdrop to plants as well as create a division point between two distinct areas (one side being the "secret garden"). One of my favorite aspects of a garden are the hardscape elements - the walls, doors, paths, statues, etc. have always delighted me and I feel they play as much importance in a garden as the plants themselves. And, not to mention, an artistic expression!

The Alabama garden wall was much larger and grander than our new one. It consisted of three sections - one long central wall and two smaller side walls on each side. In between were some fabulous wrought iron doorways that we found one day at a rood-side garden market.

I initially envisioned the wall to be reminiscent of a crumbling ruins but it actually ended up looking a bit like the Alamo.

I found an old photo of how it looked shortly after it was completed and before we added the purple -

I wanted the color to look like Monet's Waterlilies painting with a blending of blues, purples and pinks. Michael, who has always loved purple, actually did the paint job (of course!) and used a sponge-type technique on it.

Flash forward 15 years and here we are living across the country about as far from Alabama as we could get. A new state, a new town and a new garden to build. It seems that old habits die hard and I find myself doing many of the same things I did in the old garden. Maybe my creative juices are a bit dried up or maybe it is just that I miss aspects of the old garden. I guess no matter how you look at it, familiarity brings comfort.

Like with our former garden, we were presented with a blank slate and as desirable as that may be, I don't want to be able to see the entire garden in one glance. Segmenting it into garden rooms is a process that takes a while as you wait for plants to mature and attempt to build boundaries.

I wasn't sure I wanted a garden wall in this garden because at first I could not envision a good place for one. As the garden progressed, however, it occurred to me one day that the very first garden we created - the "Pan Garden' right off the deck in back ran smack dab into the courtyard garden next to it. I wanted these two areas to be different entities and knew that this was the spot for the wall.

I wanted this wall to be a bit different and decided that a curved wall would be fun. This turned out to be a more difficult process that I anticipated and it seems everything went wrong. Even though this was a smaller wall (about 26 ft. in length), it ended up being a difficult and neverending project. I am not disciplined enough to be exacting on projects like this and the fact that the wall was on a very slight incline presented many problems. That, plus I'm sure that being 20 years older, was also a factor.

Like the other wall, it was created with concrete blocks and a stucco finish was applied afterward which was then painted.

The project began on April 5th. First, a foundation trench was dug. I hired a friend to do this part since I've been dealing with plantar fasciitis and using a shovel is painful and aggravates my foot. A layer of gravel and quarter minus was packed down over the bottom.

I then began to lay the blocks, using mortar mix to bind them

There was lull in activity because of rain but around the middle of April (14th to be exact), Michael was ready to come out of his winter hibernation and pitch in. I tend to do things at a leisurely pace and he is the opposite - get it started and get it done! (just like my father!). As you can see, he is already giving me orders. If it wasn't for him, I would probably still be working on it. :)

I had initially thought that I wanted the wall to be lower, about chest height, but after we started, we felt that it needed to go higher.

Around April 20, we had all the blocks in place -

During the first week of May, we applied the stucco. We had trouble locating the stucco mix and our only option was to order it from one of the big box stores and wait several weeks for it to arrive. Someone mentioned that it was easy to make you own and it is - you just mix portland cement with sand and lime. So that is what we did. Michael started on one side and me the other. We quickly realized that our stucco styles were very different.

Michel's side -

My side -

Here is a video I made with my phone. The first side you see is the side I did and the other side is Michael's work. We decided that since each side was in a different garden, it would not matter.

I could not decide what the color should be and after mulling it over for months, I finally realized that we had loved the purple on our former wall and the plants look great next to it. We opted for one color (instead of mixing and sponging). The color is "Amethystina".

These photos were taken on May 10 -

Mission accomplished!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy