When landscaping a garden, a retaining wall can be an ideal solution in making the most out of your outdoor space. The planting scheme understandably takes up a lot of the focus, but the overall aesthetic appeal of a garden involves more than just shrubs and flowers.
A retaining wall not only helps level out areas of the garden to give you more planting options, but they can add a level of aesthetic beauty to the landscaping design too. A wall can be built from a variety of materials, providing a feature which fits in seamlessly to your overall garden plan.
Natural Stone
A wall made from natural stone can add a striking feature to a garden. As well as providing a natural feel to the garden, the various colour shades and the irregular size and shape of stone offers an attractive and unique look.
Stone allows you to be creative when landscaping, being an ideal material to use to add steps alongside or through the centre of the walled area. A boulder wall accentuates the use of irregular shaped stones, providing a bold but clean appearance, with the larger rocks set at the base of the wall.
Timber
Timber walls also provide natural beauty when gardening. This style of wall is regaining popularity with more aesthetically pleasing options such as cedar tone on the market. Timber is also a good option if budget is a primary factor when designing the wall.
A wooden wall has always looked the part in rustic gardens, but when gardening its softer appearance can also appeal as a more suitable material. Timber is straightforward when designing angles for a quirkier and more interesting wall, as well as adding steps where required.
Concrete Blocks
Walls made from concrete blocks have always been popular due to their strength and durability. Concrete may not be your immediate idea of an aesthetically pleasing material, but there are enough options on the market to make a visually appealing wall.
There is a good selection of shapes, colours and textures to choose from to allow you to find the right combination for your garden. A concrete block wall is quite quick to build and by incorporating plants and shrubs in and around it you can soften the appearance even more.
A Wide Variety of Design Ideas
The beauty of a retaining wall is regardless of the material you choose you are not tied to a rigid design. There is plenty of scope to be imaginative and create a striking feature which fits in with the look and feel of your garden. You can have a colourful mosaic wall made up of natural stone pebbles or perhaps opt for the round edges and angular look of a patchwork wall, as stone can be used in varying styles.
Further examples of the range of walls includes a concrete planter wall which can be visually stunning and provide more space to grow plants, or the budget-conscious gabion wall, employing an iron cage design filled with rocks or recycled stone.
