Landscaping project - Border Wall

[Buddabing]

My front yard beds are in dire need of some kind of landscaping. Before laying down mulch this year (or having it done) I decided to install a border wall. I want to keep the mulch in the yard instead of washing away.

This picture shows what the bed looked like before I started this little adventure. It needs mulch. Towards the right center of this image is a big root, so I will have to cut the “U” out of the bed. This will make for a shorter but less decorative retaining wall.

[Buddabing]

This second picture shows the almost-completed first fifteen feet of the project. I chose fifteen feet in order to lessen the amount of loading that had to be done at one time. Each of these blocks weighs about 25 pounds. I also used this part of the project to learn how to do the project correctly. It’s not quite done because I still need to lay the landscaping fabric across the back of the wall to keep dirt in but to let water through.

[Buddabing]

This third picture is a closeup. The results you get with this kind of project are generally proportional to the effort expended in the surface preparation and the leveling. I think this section of wall turned out great. I left small gaps between some of the bottom blocks to allow for drainage.

[Buddabing]

Here are the tools I used for the project. I already had the level, gloves, and goggles. I bought the blocks at Lowes and everything else at Home Depot. The square metal doodad on the far right is a hand tamping tool, 8 by 8 inches. The yellow thingy next to the tamper is a masonry chisel. Along with the flat-ended shovel, I also bought a pointy-headed shovel for when I have to dig into the grass. I didn’t use the pointy shovel for this part of the project. The landscaping fabric is on the far left. 

[Buddabing]

Question for lawn gurus/ landscaping types:

Is the landscaping strictly necessary? Is just backfilling with dirt sufficient?

Here are the pictures of the rear of the wall as it currently stands:


 

[polaris]

do you mean shaping the land/earth im not sure i understand.
i would though get some gravel/chippings inside to help drainage through the holes and stop the soil washing away through the holes.
id put chippings round the edge put some mulch/soil in ant top it iff with bark chips ,if you like the look that is, i would say that will give good drainage and help cut down weeding

[Buddabing]

What about the landscaping fabric? Will the gravel stay put if there is no landscaping fabric under it?

[polaris]

What about the landscaping fabric? Will the gravel stay put if there is no landscaping fabric under it?

do you mean the black material youd put underneath stuff, its stops weeds a bit so yeah anyway. if you get me , fabric first , your choice IMHO wether you use it or not( money being the main factor ), i wouldnt say you need to line the walls with the fabric, big chippings next to the holes followed by smaller ones to trap the dirt more, think about how youd fill a plant pot with a big draining hole, few rocks in the bottom so the little chippings dont fall through the drainage hole, fill the gaps with chippings, then the soil, not much is gonna wash away, but itll drain and not turn into a pool of mud. the two sizes of chippings is a luxury as well as the fabric, one size would be fine im sure ,it just needs to be bigger chippings than the holes in the walls.some soil will wash away but itll take much longer than before. hope that helps im sure its pretty obvious to you now ive said it
have a go at my question again too, if your not already thinkin on it

[BobbyG66]

This is just my opinion, but the fabric sux!
I would not use it.

I used it a couple years ago under alot of my mulch areas.
It worked somewhat, but then started showing on the sides and edges.
It looked like crap and I ended up pulling it all out.

Maybe I did not bury deep enough...

I would rather just pull the weeds as they come up.
Makes it easier for edging and spreading mulch in the future.

You did a nice job with the wall, looks great!
BG66

[Buddabing]

I ended up blowing off the fabric. Where the blocks meet on the first "story" of blocks a "V" forms. So I filled in the V with pea gravel to allow water to pass but not (hopefully) soil. Then I filled in the trench behind the blocks with the dirt that I had dug out of the trench.

[Buddabing]

A couple of inches of soil where there are no plants has eroded away. You can see this from the plants in the previous picture. The root systems of the plants still have soil about 3 inches or so higher than the rest of the bed.

So, as an experiment, I bought a 1/2 cubic yard bag of dirt and spread it between the plants and the back of the border wall. I'm satisfied with the results. To really do it right I would probably have to get a small dump truck load of dirt and spread it out  behind the completed wall, followed by mulch and ground cover.

[ChadTower]

Nice!   

[boykster]

Looks good.  I'm in the planning and demo phase of an entire front yard remodel,and we'll be using retaining wall blocks just like those to build a few retaining walls and demarc some paths and planting beds.  We're ripping out tons of old railroad timbers that were previously used, and will re-do it all.  We're also adding a 50' long x 3ft high additional retaining wall.

good stuff!

[ChadTower]

Landscaping costs more than I anticipated when I started our patio/walkway project.  Far more.

[boykster]

Landscaping costs more than I anticipated when I started our patio/walkway project.  Far more.

tell me about it.  My wife thought we could build a retaining wall out of timbers for $300.  Then I told her we'd need about 50-60 timbers at $15 each.  And thats just raw materials.....

 

[Chris G]

... with the cooked materials, you're talking another $500 easy.

[boykster]

... with the cooked materials, you're talking another $500 easy.

heck, imagine finding an oven large enough for a 50' wall 

[Chris G]

We did ours a few bricks at a time on the BBQ.

[Buddabing]

I've completed the next section of wall. I got the seal of approval from the nosy neighbor across the street so I must be doing something right.

I used 78 blocks at 2 bucks each, 7 bags of sand, and 2 bags of pea gravel.

For tools, the hand tamper was the costliest.

So the cost was approximately $250 for materials and maybe another $50 for tools. A landscaper would have charged a buttload of money for this job so I think I saved a bundle.

[Buddabing]

Unfortunately the empress did not approve the project. The gaps between the blocks of the wall are too big and the blocks aren’t close enough together, she said. So this afternoon I had to shift about half the base course blocks to close the gaps between them. There ended up about 8” of empty space at the end of the wall. I could dig out just a couple more inches and get one more block in there.

As I was working, the wife came around the corner in her car, waved at me and said “You’re the greatest”. I just waved back, but I think that she owes me some “favors” if you know what I mean. Being a married man you have to seize every opportunity.

 Here’s a picture. The camera put the heart-shaped background around the picture and I don’t know how to remove it.