This post from Jacob Tate at Dreamscapes Landscape & Design discusses the benefits of adding a retaining wall to your yard.
If your landscape features sharp gradient changes, a retaining wall is a feature worth integrating. In addition to providing essential structural support to large masses of soil, a thoughtfully designed retaining wall can be an attractive focal point for your backyard. Retaining walls also have a number of other benefits that can help transform your landscape into a functional and striking masterpiece.
Structural Support
A retaining wall serves to keep soil in place. This mostly applies to landscapes featuring small hills where these walls act as a necessary barrier to prevent the soil from sliding forward in a landslide. This makes a retaining wall a necessary safety feature for your landscape, ensuring your wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of your house and the features in your yard. Depending on the amount of support required, there are a range of options to pick from.
Preventing Soil Erosion and Providing Flood Control
Erosion is ever prevalent in any landscape, whether it is due to wind or water. This makes retaining walls all the more important, especially if your landscape does not feature a lot of trees and shrubs to hold the soil in place. In addition to providing necessary support to the soil, retaining walls also help reduce the surface runoff by reducing sharper gradients. This reduces the speed at which water travels over the surface and thereby reduces erosion.
Retaining walls do all this while also providing effective flood control in the form of water drainage aimed at preventing flooding. Channels and drainage pipes can be integrated into the construction to provide further measures for proper drainage and water control. Lastly, retaining walls also reduce the gradient through terracing which allows water to soak into the soil rather than run off the surface.
Adding Functional Space to Your Yard
While hills and mounds can be attractive features in their own right, they also tend to eat up precious space and prove difficult to landscape. By creating terraces using a sequence of retaining walls, you can add more functional space to your yard which can then be used for planting. Terracing also creates an imposing and attractive façade for your yard which can be used to showcase different features such as patios and gardens more prominently.
Aesthetics
Retaining walls can prove to be bold and attractive structures depending on their height and the material used. The contrast of a concrete or stone structure alongside a natural landscape can work wonders for a landscape. A retaining wall can also double as a seating wall if designed at the right height making it even more functional. With the wide variety of materials available your retaining wall can flow naturally with other features in your yard for a beautiful end result.
To schedule a consultation about your next yard project give us a call at 360-580-5106.