Scotts Valley Retaining Walls

When you are choosing material to build a retaining wall in your yard or garden, there are many different choices on the market.

Wood retaining walls, like the ones we just finished in the picture to the right, are low cost and very sturdy. 


For this retaining wall job in Scotts Valley, just outside of Santa Cruz, we used 6x6 posts with 2x12 boards. When building a wooden retaining wall make sure to always use pressure treated lumber. 

Drainage is also a crucial part in the design and installation of a wood, or any type of, retaining wall construction.


Without drainage, the retaining wall could fail due to hydro-static pressure. Hydro-static pressure is caused by over saturation of water in the soils behind the retaining wall.


A French Drain in the best way to ensure proper drainage behind your wall. A French Drain is constructed using a perforated pipe behind the wall, at the base. The pipe is wrapped in filter fabric and back-filled with drain rock. Although you can't see it, we installed a French Drain behind each retaining wall in the construction of this project.

Another drainage system that we use in our retaining wall construction is called EZ-flow. This system uses perforated pipe wrapped in styrofoam and geo-textile fabric. It can hold more water than a traditional French Drain, and it much easier to install. We used the EZ-flow system on the wood retaining walls we just finished. EZ-flow is great for retaining wall projects with difficult access. 

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Central Home Supply

 

I have been landscaping in Santa Cruz for more than 6 years now. I have, since the beginning, used Central Home Supply for all my stone, soils and bulk materials.

Central Home in Santa Cruz has an amazing selection of natural stone, as well as, pavers, concrete products, veneer stone and Allen Block, which we use for our retaining walls.

Central Home Supply has a friendly staff that has helped me on numerous occasions, get the product I need for my clients. Too, they are locals & know all the ins & outs of landscaping in Santa Cruz.

I recommend them for any of your landscaping or masonry needs, whether you are a homeowner or a landscape contractor. Central Home in Santa Cruz is an incredible business to be a part of.

www.livingwaterslandscaping.com 

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Clay Lined Ponds

I had a chance this week to return to a project that we finished last year in Watsonville, which is just outside of Santa Cruz.

This project was an existing 50,000 gallon natural pond with a small stream flowing onto it. 

Our job was to re-work the pond, stabilize the edges and add a waterfall.

So, we drained and reshaped the pond and imported clay pond-fill. 

Using clay as a pond liner is great for natural ponds that don't need a contained system or a consistent water level. Bentonite clay makes a great pond liner, because it expands when it gets wet and seals in almost all the water.

We did some rock work around the edges of the pond for stability, and added a gravel beach area for swimming access. The pond was to be kept as natural as possible because it is going to be used as a turtle and frog habitat. 


Once the pond was complete we added a waterfall and a biological filter system. We wanted this system to have natural filtration only. 

We used locally harvested Limestone for all the rock work.

The waterfall runs off a 3/4 horse power external pump. We installed two 6 inch bottom drains that gravity feed into a small bog. 
The pump draws water from the bog and pushes it to the top of the waterfall. 

At the top of the falls we installed the biological filter. This is a small bog like area that the water percolates through. It is filled with gravel and has filtering and decorative aquatic plants. The biological filter works by allowing beneficial bacteria a place to live and help filter the water as it passes through.

We added some low voltage landscape lighting and landscaped the project area.

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Placement

I have always enjoyed hiking and spending time in the woods. I love hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains, especially on less traveled trails. I have also spent time in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the deserts of New Mexico. I purposely seek out high rock outcroppings and large boulders when I am hiking. I love sitting next to a boulder or on top of a grouping of rocks. I am humbled by their timeless strength and peaceful presence.

In my landscape designs, I always try to incorporate artistic boulder placement in the project. Whether its a grouping of boulders in a garden, a large boulder placed in a water feature, or a stand alone boulder feature. 
I take my time in choosing each rock that I will place in the garden. I look at the features and characteristics of the boulder, and I imagine it in the garden with plant life around it. 

Cactus Garden Pathway

This is a feature we did on the West side of Santa Cruz. It was an existing cactus garden that we installed a small pathway through.

At one point in the path, we placed a large flat stone, and carried the pathway around it. The garden itself housed many 50-100 year old cactus and Agave plants. So we chose this stone to look as if it was a huge buried boulder that had been unearthed by the weather over hundreds of years. This took an eye for choosing the right rock, as well as for placing it. For the pathway, we chose a stone that is native to the Arizona dessert. It is a path stone or flagstone that is harvested from the surface. Most flagstone is harvested in sheets that are excavated from under the ground. This stone has been weathered over time and even has lichen and moss growing on it. It went well with the ancient look we were shooting for.

I also enjoy placing large boulders in a water feature. It gives the feature a more balanced and aged look. 
Having a variety of sizes of stone in a waterfall helps it to blend in and look natural. 


I still have a lot to learn about setting boulders in a landscape, I enjoy it a lot and I will keep studying and learning as I go. 
www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Santa Cruz Landscaping: A Bit of Landscaping History

Here's a bit of history on the art of Landscaping. Landscaping isn't just making a yard look better it really is an art form; or at least it is for us, our landscaping in Santa Cruz is more than rearranging dirt, it's art. (This article was taken from: Wikipedia.)

Thales the Father of Landscaping

"Landscaping is both science and art. This requires both good observation and design skills. A good landscaper understands the elements of nature and construction, and blends them accordingly.

Thales, an early Greek philosopher known for his view that "all is water," spent a considerable time thinking about the nature and scope of landscaping. Some of his students believed that in order for human activity to be considered landscaping, it must be directed toward modifying the physical features of the land itself, including the cultivation and/or manipulation of plants or other flora. Thales rejected this notion, arguing that any aspect of the material world affecting our visual perception of the land was a proper subject for landscaping. Both Plato and Aristotle praised Thales' analysis as a model for philosophy. In the early 20th century, British philosopher G.E. Moore cited Thales' reasoning as one of the few historical examples of how philosophical inquiry has led to genuine human understanding and progress.

Philosophers in the 17th century debated whether visual beauty was a necessary goal of landscaping. With the advent of the positivists by the early 20th century, however, most western philosophers had rejected the notion of an objective esthetic standard for any form of art, including landscaping. Practitioners since the mid-20th century have experimented with jarring visual panoramas that are now generally accepted, at least in western societies, as falling within the scope of landscaping."

A yard isn't just a yard when we get done with it; it's a piece of art. Thales would be proud.