If you have a 6 foot fence, and in places, 3 feet of it will be covered up with dirt, then why don't you take down that section of the fence, put in your retaining wall (you'll need a two sided wall....which becomes an elevated planter) and put an attractive fence on top of it. Cement backer board might work for a little while, but what happens when the fence needs to be repaired/replaced? Also, think about what purpose the retaining wall serves. Sounds to me like the potential is there to have a brand new eyesore in your yard. Maybe I'm just not visualizing it properly...

Thank you for your wonderful compliments. I'm really enjoying this spot. There is enough room on this ledge to expand my plantings even more, but for right now I'm contented to just enjoy the space. The flower box was going to be thrown out by my friend. I rescued it. It was just a bare wood box and I painted and lettered it. Right now my troll is living in the flower box so he protects it from the gnomes. There have been heard some fierce words across the top of the box, but no fighting has ensued as of yet. I believe that I have set good bounderies for them and they are obliging me and behaving themselves. The little gnomes were living at the redwood tree's base, but now that I have created my little space, they wanted to come out and view the world from my vantage point. I have to keep reminding them that this is MY SPOT and they can romp and play all they want under the redwood tree but they must respect my space too. The redwood tree was young when we moved into the house about 30 years ago. We cut it down after we lived there for 5 years and believe it or not...it was a sucker that grew into this huge redwood tree. We have two more but they aren't nearly as big. Again, thanks!

Thanks, if someone can help me on this soon I'd love to go to Lowes knowing what I want. My seedlings to put out are now adolescents in trays in the house and are pushing now beyond the limit. Embarrassed to say I had to look up matt log and see it for the light bulb to go off "Oh that what that stuff is called". Problem with that, besides $20 for a 12 foot length (even more $$$ than the treated 4x4 ground contact wood), is that when plastic might hang over it looks like there are lots of nooks and crannies for things to go into inside of, and keep cleaned or lay some material on and use another 2x4 to sandwich it tight enough since the perimeter needs to be funcional, and decorative is only a bonus.. It's really price though as you mentioned, since I'm thinking 4x4 is great and even it is quite expensive, I believe around $16 per 12 feet, vs. something like $7 for the 5/4 x 6 twelve footers I asked about,, where the Lowes guy said people are using them ... but I wish someone in this forum could give me a better feel for how well this would last. Not so worried about leaching since the plants won't be in it, and to be honest, with all the pests ... Any more help, please?

Sometimes, if things get too heated in my bins, (especially after adding new food), I find limp worms. I am thinking that is what you are noticing. From everything I have read, worms do not get diseases. I would look at too much moisture and heat.