Repurposing cement

[Aneeda72]

We have a cement pad, 14 feet long 5 feet wide 4 inches or so deep that trees root have raised. It on quite a slant. It’s by our back door so it flooded the laundry room in the past. Having seen this issue, when we first moved in, we removed a 5x5 pad right in front of the back door. Dug it out, filled it with gravel, and, since it summer and only rained twice we had no flooding.

But winter is coming. We rented a jack hammer and cut the large slanted pad into pieces. Lots of cement. We had created a raised rose garden which runs the length of our back yard. We put cement, from the first pad, on the bottom, then dirt, then planted the roses on top of the cement and dirt. They are doing well.

Now, behind the roses the neighbors yard is still about a foot or so higher than ours. It was about 4 feet higher before the raised garden area. We bought large castle rock, lined all across the back of the raised garden behind the roses. Then we filled behind the castle rock with the broken cement from the bigger pad. But we have a lot of cement left.

 

[Aneeda72]

Thinking about how to use that, I decided to use a portion of the side yard next to where we took the pad out. We had already removed a lot of dirt from there as this was where the large tree was before we had it removed. We need to bring the land down level with the rest of the yard.

So, we built a raised bed box sort of structure. We are filling it in with cement pieces. It’s about 15 feet long and four feet wide. Once we have all the cement pieces in it, we will fill it with the dirt we previously removed. Plus more dirt from the yard as we grade it correctly.

Once it is filled with cement and dirt, it is ready to be finished. Next year we will sprinkle flower seeds in it, and it will be a beautiful wild flower garden. To finish, we will go out about a foot, and take castle rock and build a nice retaining wall.

Fill dirt between the garden box and castle rock, move the irises in the front in that space to hold the water back from where we removed the cement pad. Next we will remove the large tree roots that stick up, and rock the area that used to have the cement pad.

That way, no water into the house and a gravel patio where we can put patio furniture, fire pit, or the dog run. Whatever. It important to use the things available to fix the yard when possible. Saves money, saves land fill space. What do you think?

(Course I am supervision, husband is worker. )

 

[Gaer]

What a great idea! Here in New Mexico, I have heavy rains and to keep it from seeping under the house, some years I have to dig a ditch to direct the water where i want it to go. But your idea is great!