Our Alpine Rockery Project is finally finished!!!!! Yeah! Rick did a really good job, not only with building the wall, but also with cleaning everything up. Today he cleaned up the rock, washing off all the excess dirt to give it a nice clean look and also made sure our driveway, both the concrete slab and the gravel, was all back in order.

Steve and I are really pleased with our new rock wall. What a difference it makes in the overall look of the landscape. It's a nice focal point when we look out our front door. And now we get to do the fun part of finding the right plants to go in all the beds. We'll probably get mostly succulents and other types of ground cover, but we are also thinking of some bulbs to give it some extra color every spring. We'll also likely pick out a few plants that will eventually drape over parts of the rock as well. Should be a fun project.

Before and After

Nice clean driveway once again.

Raking the new replacement gravel over the driveway.

All done and heading on to other projects...

Our lovely new wall.

The driveway is back in order.

Azaleas are blooming.

Jake, exploring things on the top of the wall. What a cutie.

Lexee posing for me. Another cutie!

Today Rick worked on some of the final touches. He filled in some of the gaps between the rocks with smaller rock in order to keep the soil from simply running through the gaps during a rain. He also dug out some of the planting beds, removing either excess gravel or excess clay soil and then filled those beds with better planting soil.

Once the planting beds were filled with soil, the wall itself was finished (yeah!) and Rick was able to begin the process of clean-up. He picked up and loaded his dump truck with all his plywood that was lying on the concrete slab and scraped up all the gravel rock and dirt that was left behind. He also loaded his dump truck with a pile of mud & loose gravel from our driveway that was created from all the usage of the excavator over the driveway. He'll be back tomorrow for the final clean-up. Steve and I are really excited about the completion. We love the new look of the wall and can't wait for all the mud to be out of the way.

Rick is digging out the excess gravel to make room for the soil in the planting beds.

The planting soil is being dumped into the beds. Looks like some nice dirt!

Here's some small rock used to fill a gap.

This is a good example of where the smaller rock was used to fill a gap between the larger rock.

A couple more things were completed today. Rick worked on the french drain, connecting it to the existing catch basin that sits at the edge of our driveway. This will help tremendously with rain run-off. He also buried the two cable lines that have been exposed (not to mention in the way) during the entire time he's been working. He buried those in the river rock that runs along the edge of the concrete. And speaking of river rock, he brought a couple yards of that in today and put it in place at the base of the rock. It looks really nice and gives the base of our wall a nice finished look.

The remaining things that need to be done include filling in the gaps between some of the rocks and bringing in the planting soil for the beds. And of course there's clean up. I'm guessing there is still at least 2-3 days left of work. But at least we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Steve and I will just be glad to have all the mud cleaned up. Our driveway has been a mess to walk across.

When I look at our wall I can't help but sing..."Flintstones, meet the Flintstones..." :)

Here's where the two french drains meet to "T" into our existing catch basin.

Pouring the river rock.

Looks nice. The river rock gives it a nice finished look.

This gives you a view of the river rock at the base of the wall.

The wall is finished! Rick was able to get the wall finished today with the exception of all the fine tuning. He'll be back tomorrow to do some of the little things, such as putting in smaller rock in the areas where there are gaps and also to dig out some of the gravel rock in order to make room for the planting beds. He'll also high-pressure spray the rock once he's done all the fine tuning to give the rock a nice clean finished look.

To be honest, I'm not sure I like the really big rocks that were used to finish off the wall. We started with smaller rock and of course, bigger rock was needed for the base. In addition, the mid-section was a higher area to retain so bigger rock was needed. I'm hoping the bigger rock grows on me. Rick is the type of business owner who wants his customers to be completely happy so I know he'd be willing to change it if we asked, but Steve likes the look and I do think that once we get plantings in the beds, I'm sure I'll come to really like it. But overall, I like the look of the wall and Steve and I are both excited about the new face of landscaping on this bank.

Almost done!

The wall is now complete.

More progress was made today. Another load of the larger gravel rock was needed to keep things moving. Rick was able to finish the base layer of rock and began moving his way upward. He did say that he may end up having to pick up a few more rocks tomorrow if he finds he's having trouble getting the right rock fittings for the remaining spaces. I'm guessing he'll be pretty close to finishing the wall by tomorrow. From there it will be final touches and clean up. Looks like we're getting close to being finished.

This is a good aerial shot of the base row all in place.

Front view of bottom row in place. Once the rock is cleaned up the scrapes from the bucket on the excavator won't be so visible.

Getting close to being finished!

Despite the rain today, much progress was made. Rick and his son began by laying the gravel rock over the drain and then building our steps that lead up to the side of the cottage from the driveway. The steps turned out well. Steve and I really like the way they look, they're very cool. And now we have the added convenience of being able to access that part of the yard from the driveway.

When the work day was over, Steve and I let the dogs out to see how they liked the steps. They both jumped right up. I think they are going to enjoy the steps much more than Steve and I. :)

Laying gravel over the drain pipe to prepare for rock.

The base step is being put into place.

They're looking good!

The steps really look cool from this aerial view.

The steps are complete.

This is a view of the new catch basin on the side of the cottage as well as a view toward the house from the top step.

Top of the steps looking down.