Transformation Tuesday: Transformative Hardscape

This transformation is the perfect example of how transformative a hardscape can be to a yard. The client reached out and told us that they had a slope in their yard that they didn’t know what to do with. They wanted to look at that area and say "wow, this is our yard!".

The design included a terraced area that would preserve both the Juniper at the lower end of the slope and the Austrian pine on top of the slope, yet flatten out each level of the yard.

The first step in this transformation was to mark the areas where the terraces would go and start removing dirt and saving the plants so we could transplant once the terracing was done. You might notice in the photos, it was a lot of dirt. Next, landscape block was brought in to the lowest level (by the Juniper). The lowest level has an exaggerated semi-circle shape, and if you look closely between the juniper we added stairs for accessibility. The lowest level had a stack of 5 blocks high and a capstone. So, just like we always do for landscape block, we needed to level out the trench where the block was going to be stacked, tamped, and placed one block below grade. From there it was a matter of stacking and cutting the block to get our desired shape.

The second level was going to be 4 blocks high. The same steps were repeated for the next two steps. We needed to cut and lay weedbarrier on the second level of the terrace before we spread the gravel. Pea gravel was used to make an easy walking surface for the client. We brought in some extra river rock for the touch up and trimmed up the Austrian Pine. This helps to create a cleaner look to the yard, since the branches are no longer growing near the ground.

The final step was to bring in the walk on bark and wet down - this transformation was finished!

The client loved the look of their new yard and how each terrace was leveled out. We were proud of all the hard work the guys put into this yard and we enjoy looking back to at the pictures of this transformation!