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Landscape Design

retaining wall advice?

last month

Need help with landscaping ideas! Pictured from street, creek in the front of the property, sloped lot. Any ideas appreciated! Thinking of doing a retaining wall and perhaps grass?

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Comments (7)

cecily 7A
last month
What did you have in mind when you removed the trees?

How heavy is the traffic along your street/ is there a need for privacy?
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Sigrid
last month
I can't see the creek and the slope looks pretty mild. I'd think it would be far cheaper and much prettier to get a landscaping plan than to invest in a retaining wall. I'd put in some large shrubs/small trees to the left of the house to block the view of your sheds.

Unless the creek is really a drainage ditch, I'd play that up.
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I hate to be flipant but it seems like theres a lot of hipe over a simple 2 foot retaining wall going on here. I have bult many retaining walls up to 8 feet high with everything from rock to timbers and 2 feet just isnt that big. You dont need engeneers or anything. The Keystone type blocks that are designed for such a thing would work great. 6X6 tibers would also be great with "Deadmen" every 6 or 8 feet. A deadman is a timber layed under the actual load bearing surface that ties into the wall. Like a T in the wall. You lay down the first course of wall on well compacted gravel atleast 6 inches or more deep with a good drainage direction. Then you rebar that,or the next course with it, in to the ground with 3 or 4 foot rebar.You lay the deadmen perpandicular to the wall and 6 or 8 feet long. You spike rebar them in at the wall and under the parking pad. Add a course and offset the next set of deadmen. Rinse and repeat. Make sure its all well compacted. IF you want you can set each course of the wall bacl a half inch to create a backward lean into the load area. Make sure it drains and your in buisness. Railroad ties are lame and environmentally unsound. If you want to use 3/16 steel put Upright pipes in concrete every 2 feet and 4 to 5 feet deep. You can also create steel or wood deadmen to weld or bolt to the retaining wall. I would think 6x6 treated timbers would be better but if steel is cheaper for you and yop can weld then just make it bomb proof with 2 or 3" Posts in concrete and deadmen to prevent flex. Good luck, hope all goes well.
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So the overgrown bushes, and especially their roots, must have soaked up and slowed down the water so that your patio stayed dry before, huh? Sorry to be a downer, but I'd be surprised if there is anything you could do with bricks and plants that would stop the water from coming down any time soon. Maybe eventually the plants might develop enough roots to do the job, but if it's going to be a veggie garden it doesn't seem to me that you would get enough. Installing drainage tile behind the base of the wall would work, but that's a ton of work, and would probably mean rebuilding the wall. I get tired just thinking about it. You could try digging down a foot like you were thinking and then lay the drain tile in that trench, covering it with small stones and landscape fabric. That might intercept enough surface water to do what you need. Good luck. ThinMan
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In order to solve all the problems your yard offers, you need a complete plan which includes retaining walls and planting. To be sure, it is much easier to care for a yard that is organized and has organized plantings, as opposed to one which is hodgepodge. Personally, I think you would do yourself a favor to hire a landscape designer or L architect in order to determine the complete concept for the property: walls/planting and whatever else that's needed we don't yet know about. (Here, we're looking only at piecemeal images. It's very difficult to grasp the existing conditions of the property and understand the extent of what is needed.) You probably need some walls, but in some places, slope will probably work fine. It's a matter of determining how it can all work together. If you have DIY skills, I would suggest you pursue the comment of plsx88 ... "... low walls of less than 4 ft are within what a homeowner can build himself at a fraction of the cost a contractor wants." Even so, you would probably need a designer to help you determine their design. A timber wall would probably suffice if you just want someone else to come in and do it. But it will not be as nice and enduring as a concrete wall. Given that you got some prices, I'm thinking that you've either had some design work done, or you're getting prices based on some vague suggestion by a contractor. If it's the latter, abandon that idea. You can only get a price based on a plan and specs. Otherwise, you will not know what you are getting until it's too late.
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Natasha, sadly not everyone has a passion for gardening and might see the water feature as a mosquito farm rather than the relaxing oasis you’ve enjoyed. I would remove it and work a low maintenance boarder in around your established plants. If you can find a way to install staggered candle shelves on the wall it might make it really magical in the evenings.
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jmanzy
Original Author
29 days ago
@cecily 7A. We remove the trees because they were dead and leaning towards the street. It’s a dead end Street not too much traffic, but we do want to have some privacy. I was thinking to line the front with cypresses to something along those lines.
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jmanzy
Original Author
29 days ago
@Sigrid yes I am thinking of a way to cover up the left side with a fence or something so that it’s not all showing to the street. Originally this entire area was basically a jungle of blackberries and other trees, so we cleared it all and cut the big half dead trees from the front, opening it all up
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cecily 7A
29 days ago
last modified: 29 days ago
Okay. For plant suggestions please give us your location (nearest city and state). Thanks. A blank wall of leyland cypress or green giants would be awful. I'm seeing a cluster of three spruce toward the left center and several small flowering trees toward the driveway. Maybe crabapples or cherries to relate to your orchard.

Whether you need a retaining wall is a decision for a landscape architect who walks your site.
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Sigrid
28 days ago
You don't need a hedge for privacy. You just need a few well-placed trees. I think shrubs look a lot nicer than a fence.
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tracefloyd
20 days ago
last modified: 20 days ago
Congrats on clearing blackberries...ugh. Privacy is more easily achieved with a screening of smaller trees and larger shrubs closer to the house.

I don't see the creek but yes, play that up and make it a winding creek with appropriate creekside plantings like a willow tree, small pines, cattails, ferns and rock, etc. I see a fruit tree blooming so some more of those like pink cherry or Chinese pistache along the street would be stunning.

Make winding trails of flagstone, gravel, tree trunk rounds, etc thru the landscape. There a lots of low growing groundcovers to mix areas with lawn areas and with raised low mounds to give depth.

A split rail decorative fence seems appropriate.

Gorgeous house btw. PNW?
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