rock wall/terrace

19 years ago

We are buying a house with almost two acres and I'm super excited to start on landscaping it.. But there's a sloped area that already has me puzzled.. I don't really want to leave it as just a grass slope and I didn't want to try and plant things on a slope.. What I was thinking of was a wall or terrace.. I guess my main question is how would be the best way of going about that? What sort of materials I would need? That sort of thing.. Thanks..

Jacquie

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Comments (3)

enchantedplace
19 years ago
We saw a beautiful place today with a very steep slope behind the house, terraced in different levels with landscape timber. We had some existing rock terracing when we moved here and rocks were plentiful so we added to it, but we also built some raised beds using landscape timber. It's a good idea to get a good instruction book on whatever kind of material you wish to use. It has taken us a few years to kill off existing grass and replace hard to mow areas with gardens but we really enjoy it now. So as not to become overwhelmed it's best to decide on an overall plan, but work on a small area at a time, then move on to the next. It might work best to begin on the higher elevation and work downward with continuing levels. It is unsightly for awhile, but we killed off grass by heavy mulching. Where we wanted to start a new bed on a slope, we would pile up discarded plant materials along the bases of the walls, let it deteriorate add soil and then plant over it. Laying out paths is essential also. We have switchback paths and also steps going down through the levels of gardens. My husband designed our hand rails using square tubular metal and had them welded, then set them in concrete. He uses rustoleum hammered metal spray paint to protect the metal. You may view our photos by clicking on My Page. Good luck. EP
kittikity
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you for your suggestions and helpful advice.. It's nice to hear from somebody with personal experience with this sort of thing.. I'm thinking of a nice old fashioned brick terrace.. Your garden is beautiful and I can already feel so many idea popping into my head.. I've never had this much space to work with and I'm so eager to get started.. Thanks again for your help..
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As a person who has achieved a high level of lay understanding of some fields, and who also has profession-level knowledge in others, I don't buy the line of argument that says anything is too complicated for a lay person to understand. I think what usually differentiates a trained expert from a well-studied lay person is the ability to identify variables and assess risk, as well as to understand where they sit on the learning curve. The greatest danger is a layperson who THINKS they are up the learning curve, but who in reality is missing a key body of knowledge or piece of fundamental information, and thus one element in their analysis. So the advice to engage an expert should not be read as "you can't possibly learn this yourself." It should be seen as a way to manage risk. And there, it matters what the risk is. If this wall is in the middle of nowhere with no risk to any place or thing, then well and good. But if it is at the top of a cliff with homes or a sensitive environment down below, you cannot just go "oops" when it fails. A wall failure that causes property damage, loss of life, or flooding because a layperson really thought they had thought of everything cannot be considered a good learning experience. I usually post the local media story about a backyard pool that fell down a cliff in a rainstorm, taking out one house, damaging others, and killing one and injuring others. I don't have time to find it just now, but tragically it is not a unique story. That's why the key question about whether to call a professional or try to learn it all has to be "Well, what is at risk?" Ah well, Gardenshananigans has likely shenaniganed off and we are talking to ourselves anyway. Perhaps this will be useful for others. Karin L PS FrankieLynn, start a new thread by all means.
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I generally see 4 to 6' retaining walls made out of those blocks sold at Lowes and Menards with the lip you know? It systematically sets each block back 1" and then the installation instructions typically say to use a block landscape adhesive. I'm not using those, but they go up around the my area all the time with very little thought from the install crew(s). What puzzles me is they don't install crusher run behind the blocks. Sometimes I see drains near the second row of block, but without the gravel or course rock I don't see that being too effective. I am pretty sure soil around here is loamy clay. My specific soil has a good foot of gravel embedded clay then changes to an airy clay. I have a family member who has 6" thick poured walls from 3' to 8' with no geo reinforcement holding up still to this day from 30 years ago. The only thing I think is making that possible is they have a couple inside corners for stairs. I'm sure that helps stabilize things. I'm not sure if I made it clear, but, the highest wall would be 4' as I am doing two walls. I'm not talking 8' in one chunk. And as long as my terrace is twice the height of my wall, I am pretty sure I am mitigating a lot of that force on the first row. I realize a tiered wall is just as much pressure as the same height added together, but the whole idea is to spread the 2nd wall's load among the terrace so that load is not adding more soil pressure! I definitely am not going for the cheap block sold at the stores that is hollow. I'd love to go with those 2' x 16" x 16" solid blocks that weigh 100 pounds each, but I don't have the wallet or muscle to do that. :) What kind of pricing per face square foot is considered cheap there, gardengal?
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enchantedplace
19 years ago
Looked at your page and see a lot of potential. Go for the materials most in harmony with your home, yourself, and your needs. Using space in the most enjoyable way is the objective. EP

rock wall/terrace

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enchantedplace

kittikity
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rock wall/terrace

Comments (3)

enchantedplace

kittikityOriginal Author

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enchantedplace

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kittikity
Original Author