Our redneck patio

[SimplyPam]

We've been plugging away in our spare time working on the patio out front. Please excuse the untidyness of this work in progress 


The re do






Retaining wall and part of the patio




View from the side



How the patio works with the 'Woodland Garden'




The new walkway



How it looked in January when the 'big rock' came to our current home from the house we lived at before



What we started with in 2009

[Fuzzy]

I don't know about Redneck, but that's looking good... Really good!!! I can see there's a lot of work and effort gone in to it, well done to you guys.

What's the green spreading plant you have growing between the stones, and how are you planning on finishing the top of the concrete block wall..... Or is that it finished as it is, hence the Redneck title?

[SimplyPam]

The green plant is a native called horse herb and it just pops up here and there. Makes a nice grass substitute in the dense shade. I cannot get grass growing in the front yard at all, too shady. There is also creeping thyme, dwarf mondo grass and ajuga in the cracks. I call it redneck because none of these stones were purchased, all were actually picked up or dug up and aren't machined or smoothed. I like seeing the cavities left by the fossils. These stone are part of the whiterock escarpment and used to be on the bottom of a sea.

The blocks are a work in progress. I have roughly half of them planted with sedum and plan on finishing the tops with that. I do also plan to plant on each side of the retaining wall, but Jeff is concerned that it won't be apparent that this is a 18 inch step down if I cover it completely with plants (which is my wish). He's afraid that someone may think that it's just a row of plants, step over and fall. I see his point also and may go another way.

[werner]

  I love the natural rocks Pam. Any of the mosses found locally should grow in that shady environment. if you paint the cinderblocks with a buttermilk slurry and stick the moss to it, it may solve that problem.

  To be red neck you need the following: a rusted out BBQ, a tattered confederate flag. a beer cooler half the size of your pickup, a bunch of nekkid kids running around, a pregnant Cousin 9 months along, dressed in short shorts and a tube top

  Looks to me like you have some work to do

[SimplyPam]

LOL Werner, we did leave the beer cooler out of the pics.


Great idea on the moss,I'll have to look around for some. It's been so dry here, unless we get a tornado or remnants of a hurricane, we don't get much rain.

Six people were killed in our old home town last Wednesday when we had an F4 come through. I think we got .5 an inch of rain, forty miles from the tornado. Jeff works near where the tornado hit, but had been given the night off, I was so thankful that he was here. The worst damage and all of the deaths were in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood, so sad.

[Ruth]

We heard of that tornado on the news Pam....it is sad.
I like it.....really inviting.  I like that mondo grass border too. 
Looks like to me, the block is up high enough to distinguish a different level-especially since you have the lower level to get out to the street.  Of course if you have a few guests that have a few too many, then it might be a problem of someone stepping off.....but it's a shame you can't go with the sedum....(neat idea).

[SimplyPam]

Thanks all!

Ruth, I love the mondo grass too  I'm working on dividing it up and using as a lawn substitute. I did finish planting the block tops with sedum, but it will be a while before they are full and spilling out, as I envision.

I will likely try to establish some moss on the block and plant something low growing on either side to minimize the look of 'cinder block wall'.

[Fuzzy]

Some good ideas there Pam. The Sedum should have no problem getting established in the pockets in the wall. That'll help the moss to grow because the dampness from watering the sedums will leach through the wall of the concrete blocks.

[Ms JoJo]

I love your patio....  The whole place is gorgeous.... I love the woodland garden, makes me home sick for the mountains.... 

[Ms JoJo]

Sedum will do great, I have sedum and hen and chicks growing in the rock walls of my pond.... 

[SimplyPam]

Thanks Jojo, we love our yard too. The yard is very slanted in all directions. When the neighborhood was built around 30 years ago, they did not grade and clearcut and then replant the little trees out front like so many new areas. Result is a very unlevel yard all around. Some of the trees are older than me...pretty dang old 

I hope the moss will 'take' over that hideous pink paint. A funny story, we wanted to do terra cotta colored paint on the block and had enough of that shade in the garage. It was just too orange so in an effort to tone it down with some pale gray exterior paint, I created a color that I am not happy with. Who knew that an orange terra cotta mixed with too much pale gray would yield pink?

We had to paint them, the block was free for picking up but had splotches of other paint when we got them.We had to buy the rebar and glue