Rotten Retaining Walls

 Looking out our large living room windows - our view looks up a hillside covered with sandstone cliffs, ponderosa pine trees, yucca, native grasses, and chokecherry bushes.  We see a lot of wildlife pass by every day.  Thirty years ago, when the house was built (we have lived here 10 years), these retaining walls were built from wooden timbers.  There were already a lot of iris in place when we moved in, and I added perennials and annuals to brighten it up a bit, but it is very shady, hot, and dry here.  The mid day sun hits it at noon and bakes it.   I have never had great success with growing anything here - the deer eat most everything.

Anyway, I thought I would show you what it looks like now as we begin our big job of tearing all this out and replacing it!