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Primary Considerations In Building Landscaping Retaining Walls
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios

Landscaping is not just about the choice of plants that will populate your lawn, nor the arrangement of the garden's elements to suit a particular layout. It is also about the leveling and rising of land to best serve the aesthetic and functional needs of a given area, as well as the building of structures that will complement the garden.

Hence, landscaping retaining walls are very important for the art and science of garden designs. Retaining walls, after all, delineate certain areas, support elevated platforms, and add beauty to the garden in general. For landscape artists, gardeners and horticulturist working with rather complex areas, retaining walls have become a necessity, and thus, landscaping retaining walls are truly heaven sent.

Retaining walls are actually a brainchild of structural engineering. They were invented to ward off the dangers of soil erosion, but they have come to the rescue of other problems as well. They are used to hold off flood water in some territories, for example.

Landscaping retaining walls come in many varieties, with each distinguished by the materials they are made from, if not, the style they seek to emulate. Stone retaining walls, for example, and made up of stone blocks. The same can be said about brick retaining walls. Masonry retaining walls are made up of masonry blocks and some mortar. And concrete, timber and steel retaining walls are made up of the materials invoked by their names.

When it comes to landscape retaining walls, one thing that landscape artists, horticulturists and gardeners should always remember is that everything - EVERYTHING - should start from a plan. The plan is critical for the structural integrity of the retaining wall, as well as the safety of the people near the vicinity where it will be built. The important things that should be known in planning are the approximate weight of the soil to be supported, the height of the retaining wall to be built, and material best suited for the task considering the two previous determinable factors.

The approximate weight of the soil to be supported is important because this will let us know what our planned retaining wall will be up against. Also, we'll be able to determine the angle of the inward slant that our retaining wall should follow to fight the force of gravity.

The height of the retaining wall will help us determine how deep the trench that will be dug should be. The trench is where the base of the retaining wall will be buried, and as a rule, it should be as deep as at least a third of the height of the retaining wall, or ideally, 1/2 of the said height.

BIG Mike is a well known author, developer and Adsense expert as well as the owner of Niche Maniacs - a unique Adsense Marketing System designed to build long-term passive income streams from Adsense, Amazon, YPN, Chitika and other PPC services.