Concrete Facts: The Down Low About Landscape Curbing

If you’ve driven down a highway, you’ve seen retaining walls. And while you may be grateful that the wall prevented you from being crushed between rocks and dirt (if you bothered to think about it), you likely were not inspired to bring that aesthetic into your home.

But that’s a shame because they are a valuable addition to your home landscape and significantly choose from new possibilities of what you can do for your yard. And unlike the ones that line the interstate, your walls won’t need to be dull grey concrete.

Wondering how walls would hold up in your yard? Wheaton is going to dig into how you can use them.

Why Retaining Walls?

So you’re wondering how you could use retaining walls at home. There are a few uses for them, and you may find that your walls will serve more than one function as there is quite a bit of overlap between categories.

Erosion Prevention

The main reason walls are used in landscaping, especially when discussing those we discussed that sit on government property, is to prevent erosion.

The steeper a hill, the harder it is to hold up without support. That’s doubly true if the hills don’t have much in the way of rooted plants to keep the soil in place. That’s why these retaining walls line highways.

You can use them similarly in your home if you have a hillside on your property that is losing soil from gravity and precipitation.

Flooding Prevention

The soil contained within the walls also acts as a bulwark against flooding your home during significant storms. The extra soil can absorb water and slow its progress toward your home.

Building Beds

If your property is relatively flat (a distinct possibly around here), you might like adding some vertical interests to it. Traditional vertical interests in landscaping often include trees and shrubs. But you don’t need to limit yourself there!

We can use retaining walls to build up raised flower beds. Then you can fill the space within the hollow walls with fertilized soil and create your vertical gardens!

Your gardens can be tiered with different or similar plants on each level creating a whole greater than the sum of all its parts.

These gardens can be your chosen height and horizontal or vertical, meaning they can hang down, creating interest as they cascade! There’s no need to choose between the two. Your gardens can have both horizontal and vertical appeal!

Aesthetic

In addition to the flowers on your walls, the walls themselves can be artistic and appealing in a way that makes them a feature unto themselves.

While it’s true that on government property, plain gray concrete may be the norm, your property is not taxpayer-funded. It doesn’t need to be patently disinteresting to avoid attracting attention. Feel free to use your walls to blend in with your landscape and home or stand out to let your freak flag fly!

Seating

As long as you’re building walls, if you like spending time outdoors, you may as well use those walls as benches. Their multi-tiered structures create ideal seating when you build some comfort into them.

Multi Use Walls!

There’s no reason your walls have only to serve one function. You can create a beautiful wall that you decorate to your heart’s content, fill it with soil that won’t erode from said walls, plant gorgeous flowers and then sit and rest atop them when you’re done.

Get the most from those walls!

What Will My Walls Be Made Of?

Not to beat a dead horse (terrible saying), but your walls don’t have to be plain concrete. You can use the material that suits you for your particular property.

Your wall may consist of brick and stone. Others have concrete with specific designs. Once the wall is built, you can decorate it however you like or let the flowers do the talking!

Walled Up

While Nebraska is relatively flat compared to many of our sister states, you don’t need to let your altitude control your landscape destiny! With retaining walls creating your vertical interests, the sky is the limit.

A swiss army knife of a tool, retaining walls are a great addition to your property that, while simple in function, take a while to master. So let Wheaton wall up your hillside, and let us know about all of your landscape questions!