Worried about the way your elevated garden slants across your neighbor’s property? Do you feel that your elevated garden will crash down and make a mess out of your neighbor’s lawn if you do not address your problem as soon as possible? You tried to straighten the soil with the use of your shovel, but your shovel got wedged into one of the large tree roots. You have tried installing new layers of soil, but to no avail. Luckily, thanks to the minds of very concerned people, the retaining wall was developed. You can now stop soil erosion and your garden from collapsing if you installed a retaining wall in your garden. Build one and provide a big brother to your garden.
The retaining wall’s chief purpose is to act as a protective barrier to elevated gardens. More often than not, an elevated garden’s layers of soil give way to temperature changes, the flow of water and the sheer weight of the plants that the soil layers carry. The retaining wall is sturdy enough to lift the garden and hold the mix of plants, soil and water together. If you have an elevated garden, construct your retaining wall now.
The retaining wall’s construction is quite tedious and will probably take a lot of time. You have to pile up dozens of different-sized rocks and cement them together. The risk for injury is also pretty high if you are not careful and if you do not wear all the proper safety gear. Make sure that you wear a helmet, gloves, and safety goggles for the duration of the entire project. Now, let’s begin.
Materials Used:
stones of various sizes (number depends on the size of your garden)
hammer
chisel
cement
shovel
wheelbarrow
pointing trowel
gravel
weed barrier cloth (depends on the size of your garden)
measuring tape
soil (optional)
Buy, Buy, Buy
Before you start anything, your logical first step is to measure the area of your garden. Get your measuring tape and measure the dimensions of your garden. Once you get the height and the width of your garden, call a garden shop to order stones and tell them the dimensions of your garden. They will know the exact amount of stones that you will need to create your retaining wall. After ordering the stones, you can go to a construction equipment shop and a gardening store to purchase all of the tools that you need. If you find the tools too pricey, you can just rent them from construction companies.
The Stone Castle’s Moat
Once you have all your tools and materials, get your shovel and dig a trench around your garden. Make the trench about ten inches deep so that your retaining wall will have enough support to the carry the components of your garden. Pour six inches of gravel inside the trench and add cement to completely reinforce your wall. Once done, get the biggest stones from your stack and line them up inside the ditch. You can use your hammer and chisel to shape the stones until they form a level surface.
Lock, Stack and Two Smoking Boulders
Once completed, you can continue stacking stones while placing cement, gravel and weed barrier cloth as the wall goes higher. Place the largest stones at the bottom portion of your wall, the medium-sized ones at the middle and so forth. The smallest stones are often reserved as space fillers whenever there are spaces in-between stones. If some of the stones simply do not fit the spaces provided, use your hammer and chisel to mold the stones into workable shapes.
Know Your Role and Plug That Hole
When you are done, check if the wall has spaces between it. Ideally, the stones should be intact so that water cannot pass through the wall. Apply small stones and cement if ever you encounter holes in the wall. If there is a significant amount of space in between the wall and your garden, you can purchase soil from a gardening store and fill the space with intact layers of soil.
Put Your Wall to the Test
At this point, you need to test the sturdiness of your retaining wall. You can give the wall several hard pushes to see if it will wobble. If it does, add gravel, cement and large stones to the base of the wall until it stays steady. You can even walk on your wall to how it holds up.
When the retaining wall passes all of your tests, you can now be confident that your wall can practically hold your entire garden for ages. Gone are the moments when you are paranoid about the layers of roots, plants and soil that stick out of your garden. Gone are the times when you worry about injuring random people because of your garden’s collection of trees that suddenly fall without warning. Now, you can rely on your wall to provide a very sturdy shoulder for your garden’s heavy erosion problems.