Building a retaining wall is the right option if you don’t want the soil and the rocks to slide down due to the slope in your yard. A retaining wall can be made from different types of materials. It could be natural stone, wood, and concrete. The best one to use and that requires less work is to use the pre-cast concrete. The advantage of using these pre-cast concrete is that they could interlock with the blocks that are placed on top of them with the help of the lip shaped structure on each block. This avoids the need to use any mortar to hold the blocks together. You could use these concrete block for retaining walls that are less than 3 feet height. For heights more than 3 feet you might need to use mortar for constructing the retaining walls.
You need to dig a trench that is wider than the stone and about half a feet deep, to lay the first layer of stone. Use a hammer to level it and then check the level with a string to ensure the level. Then start using the second course of stone and interlock it with the first course and move up to the desired height. After you reached the desired height use a landscaping fabric behind the wall to avoid soil creeping between the stones and backfill the wall. That s it. Now its time to do some plantings!
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