Retaining Wall Drainage Fix and Full Yard Cleanup

Some jobs look straightforward on the surface - trim, weed, edge, fresh mulch - and then you find the real problem hiding behind the retaining wall. That's exactly what happened here. The visible stuff was easy. The drainage issue behind the wall was not.

We dug it out and packed clean stone behind the wall to give water somewhere to go. Without that step, the wall keeps fighting a losing battle. Soil pressure builds, the wall shifts, and eventually you're dealing with a much bigger repair. Getting the drainage right first is what makes everything else last.

The front beds got a full cleanup - weeding, crisp edging, and fresh dark mulch laid throughout. The trimmed shrubs are sitting in clean, well-defined beds now. It's a sharp look, but more importantly the beds are set up to actually hold their shape going forward.

Down by the beach area, there's still work ahead. The plan is to level the patio stones and get sod down to stop the mulch from washing out every time it rains. Mulch washout on a slope toward the water is one of those problems that just keeps getting worse if you ignore it. Sod holds the soil, keeps everything in place, and cleans up the whole transition down to the waterfront.

This is a good example of what a proper yard cleanup actually involves. It's not just about making things look good for a week. It's about fixing what's causing the problems in the first place - drainage, erosion, structure - so the yard holds up the way it should.