Plans for the New 2016 Garden Wall

Saturday morning I posted Here about what I was FORCED to do, rather than what I WANTED to do.  About 50 feet of the outside longest wall of my garden courtyard wall fell down,  It was about 40" high.  I had concrete blocks spilled all over the place - and dirt and gravel was everywhere!  It was difficult to untangle the lower course of the wall - all the blocks were "locked" together, but, my neighbor, who volunteered to help me  
 and I got the blocks all picked up and stacked.

We didn't have any rain yesterday or lastnight.  We didn't even have rain the previous couple of days.   The wall was pushed down by wind gusts of up to 72mph.  I've lived in this house 11 years and I kid you not, when you come up the driveway and around to the sidewalk that takes you to my front door, it's like a wind tunnel.  The stronger the wind...the more damage I've had to plants in my garden.  

One year, before the courtyard garden, when it was planted on the ground, I had alot of Cosmos.  They were slightly larger plants when I put them in the ground...and they were "full", as opposed to lean and lanky.  And, I figured they'd fill in quite nicely.  

Well, about a week to ten days later, we had some rain and then it got very windy.  And I do mean windy!  So, coming around the end of my house, it was just awful.  When the wind died down, the cosmos were all leaning waaaaaay over.  I tried to press them back into the soil, but no matter how many times I did that, I had leaning Cosmos that entire season and the next.  They looked ridiculous.  

That's the kind of wind that blew down my wall.  After looking at the damage for a while, both my neighbor and I knew that the wall had fallen in one fell swoop, just because of the way the blocks were laying on the ground.  And the soil was knocked down and blown over the top of the blocks. 

These are just SOME of the blocks and caps we stacked today.

   

I still have alot more work to do to get things in shape.  My garden plans that I developed last summer/fall, have all changed now.  I do not plan to rebuild the garden wall...but rather dismantle it and get rid of the dirt and the wall that goes around the outside of the planter section.  I will keep the inside block wall, but it will be moved after I level my pavers along the edge of the patio.  The blocks will sit on top of the newly leveled pavers.  I know, it's alot of work...and alot of weight.

Today alone, my neighbor and I moved about a ton and a half of concrete blocks and caps.  There are probably another ton of them to move, but they won't be moved until I get rid of some of the dirt.  I'll be listing the blocks and dirt anywhere I can...FREE - You Move!