Re-Creting! A great way to recycle old concrete

jadang, member

5 users recommend

The PATIO was just plain rotten.  It actually was double layered and a water oak's roots had grown over a portion of it!

The SIDEWALK was dangerous and really ugly.  Louis and his men replaced the eyesore with a new pebbled walk--and used the old again!

A GIANT stump sat in the most perfect veggy garden location, of course.  This is the oak that had grown into the house and over the patio.

The backyard had a slope up toward the trees at the west end and up to the right by the neighbor's fence.

Let the magic begin!  The piles of concrete overwhelmed my small yard.

The wall began to wrap around to hold back to slope.

Soon, I could see the steps, the walls, and the walkways develop.

A circle theme as an ode to the old oak emerged.  The ground stump provided the mulch and organic material for the new beds.  I think the dogs like it too!

The leftover stones and concrete were perfect to use as the side to my raised vegetable beds (they're round too).

The wall adds so much to my plantings and the feeling of the garden.

Summer!

The PATIO was just plain rotten.  It actually was double layered and a water oak's roots had grown over a portion of it!

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Is your sidewalk so bad you want to walk in the street?  Does your patio look like a gravel pit? Those were mine with the 1929 bungalow I purchased in 2006.  I fell in love with the space in the backyard, the light coming in the windows, and the trees lining the west end.  I hardly noticed the GIANT oak stump which touched the back corner of my sunroom!

All I wanted to do was garden.  But I had to tackle of few things before digging in.  The first thing I did was to have the sidewalk and patio removed.  The workers, led by Louis, told me that it would cost $100 per truckload to dump in the landfill.  What?!  Money aside, that was just not right.  Besides, the stuff looked alot like stone.  Humm.  I rooted around in my garden idea folder for the perfect clipping.  I showed the picture of a beautiful stacked stone retaining wall to Louis.  He looked at the broken concrete on my lawn and shrugged, "No problem."

As an ode to the Oak, I sketched a circle theme for the beds and lawns.  The next week was so exciting as my design drawings and the clipping merged together in my yard!  I saw Louis and the other men fitting each concrete piece into the rows, chipping away as they went.  Out of the concrete from my patio and the sidewalk, they made a retaining wall that curved around my house, walkways and steps. 

The leftovers were moved to where the oak stump had been with the help of my friend Bruce.  We made round beds out of the pieces, just the right size to reach the middle from the edge.  The massive stump yielded great quantities of mulch and compostible organic matter and is still a part of the garden in one way or another.

Considering the cost, the reuse of material, and the results this was a wonderful project for any home gardener.

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