Suggestions for 4' tall hill left after removing retaining wall
Jules (5a S.E. VT.)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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Embothrium
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Retaining wall of broken concrete - eyesore or feature?
Comments (4)I kind of like the wall. It's certainly oodles more attractive than the neighbors slatted chain link! I'd definately go with #2, because it will give you the best ability to screen the parking area, assuming the fence will be built at the top of the wall. Anything at the bottom of the wall will screen the wall, but not take care of the other sight line issues and will cede potential gardening space (and create a lovely little trash and crap collection area....See MoreTree removed...left with mess!
Comments (14)ground wood ... is compost.. the rotting process generates.. potentially .. enough heat to kill plants ... ergo.. one must remove the wood to some extent ... rotting also requires a lot of water ... which it will steal from whatever you plan to plant in it ... if you wish to get personal replies to your questions.. start a new post.. and then the replies will come back to you.. instead of the original poster ... for lawn.. you would need at least a couple inches of fresh soil.. and if you left the wood under.. you will probably have a pretty cool mushroom show for a few years .... if you want a prime result.. you have to do the work ... ken...See Moreplanting suggestions for retaining wall
Comments (6)Symantha, Going through a blizzard here, so with spare time, I'm perusing other forums at Gardenweb and happened upon your post, and oh, how familiar it sounds! We have a retaining wall 2.5 feet high, and about 100 feet in lenght at the bottom of a 10 feet tall slope with a 45 degree angle. Above the retaining wall, we created perennial gardens 3 feet deep, and then more retaining walls in stages so it would break up the horizontal line in the visual when looking at the gardens. Your willow sounds like it might be far enough away to play with a variety of plants, and with full sun, you have a great potential. What we planted includes everything from Phlox to Rudbeckias to Echinaceas to Lilies to Echinops to butterfly bushes, etc. These are all plants that hummers and butterflies love. On the edge to cascade over the walls are; Creeping Phlox - Can take part shade, but mine are in full sun doing well. Water deeply once a week during really dry spells in the summer. Hummingbird moths love these! And they are wonderful to watch. Butterflies also enjoy them. Aubrieta (Rock Cress) - Full sun plant which is drought tolerant. I winter sowed (posting a link below in case you might like to explore this forum) a lot of these last year. Very nice. Will cascade with time. Creeping Baby's Breath - Beautiful cascader! I have white and pink. Great for butterflies! Alyssums, both Basket of Gold and Mountain Alyssum. Basket of Gold is more of a clump and Mountain is a trailing plant. Basket of Gold is my favourite with silverish leaves and the brightest yellow flowers early in the season. Tolerates dry hot sun places. If your soil is rich, you might like to try Lipstick Fragaria or Fragaria Variagata. These are members of the strawberry family, and their foliage looks great at the edge of our rock wall. The lipstick is deep green with hot pink flowers, and the variagata has white and green leaves with a white flower. I remove the spent flowers to keep them blooming all summer. If I forget one... well, the squirrel gets the berries and leaves the REAL strawberry patch alone! LOL! There are a lot of other plants out there that would be great for your area. Try to pick something which is somewhat drought/heat tolerant as the soil above these walls tends to dry out and get hotter than other ground level gardens, especially at the edge. Having said this, if you like something, try it. Nicole. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing Forum...See MoreRedoing easiest retaining wall first, can I remove vertical 4x4's?
Comments (15)It sounds like you're saying that there is continuous slope downward from the door. If that's the case, as long as you fix the puddling depression, the walk will drain. I'm saying not to create too much slope of the soil alongside and aiming toward the walk, as it will slowly but continuously dump soil onto the walk, creating the never-ending clean-up chore. The retaining wall solution I've shown above, being more or less a level, elevated area of soil, is probably the best solution because it doesn't aim any washing soil toward the walk. Water that doesn't permeate the ground escapes toward the left, in sync with the overall flow of drainage. The downside is that it requires a fair amount of wall material. (BTW, porches and decks are MORE OR LESS level, but they actually have a minute slope in order to drain. The elevated area captured by the retaining wall would be similar. Excess water must have a way out. A solution that uses a little less material is one similar to that shown in the picture below. Instead of the wall footprint having a final "leg" that returns toward the building, it would end with the the "leg" parallel to the longest walk and would slope downward so as to terminate flush with the grade. Overall, this does not motivate water to travel quite as far leftward, keeping it longer in the lawn such that it is "cleaned" before arriving at the longest walk. But it would work, probably adequately for the situation. I know all that may be confusing and I hope the drawing helps clarify it. Could not add pic. Houzz must be messing with the system. Will do it later....See MoreJules (5a S.E. VT.)
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoYardvaark
3 years agoJules (5a S.E. VT.)
3 years agoChristopher CNC
3 years agoYardvaark
3 years agoJules (5a S.E. VT.)
3 years agoYardvaark
3 years agoJules (5a S.E. VT.)
3 years agoYardvaark
3 years ago
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