Horsetie Urbanite Retaining Wall
This 3' high urbanite retaining wall was built for my friends in Crow, OR--a community surrounded by horse ranches. They wished for a terraced area for their 2010 garden and gave me their basic design, which utilized recycled concrete, known as "urbanite." They wanted the wall to look as if it had been there for decades, and also wanted irregular spaces for sedums and other creeping vegetation to fill in as a vertical planting.
This urbanite is a combination of old driveways (Eugene), sidewalk (Eugene and Portland?) and an old slab foundation (Harrisburg). In the first load of old sidewalk, we found an iron horse-tie bolted into what is most likely Portland, OR sidewalk from the turn of the century! I have seen these a few times in some of the older neigborhoods of Portland...and nowhere else on the west coast.
The wall is 76 feet long, and roughly comparable in shape to a question mark, or a horse-shoe. It was selectively mortared for strength, includes uphill drainage that channels into a poured culvert that exits the center of the wall. More pictures to come once all the plants have settled into their new homes...
This urbanite is a combination of old driveways (Eugene), sidewalk (Eugene and Portland?) and an old slab foundation (Harrisburg). In the first load of old sidewalk, we found an iron horse-tie bolted into what is most likely Portland, OR sidewalk from the turn of the century! I have seen these a few times in some of the older neigborhoods of Portland...and nowhere else on the west coast.
The wall is 76 feet long, and roughly comparable in shape to a question mark, or a horse-shoe. It was selectively mortared for strength, includes uphill drainage that channels into a poured culvert that exits the center of the wall. More pictures to come once all the plants have settled into their new homes...
