Flagstone retaining wall.

Hello. We're about to build a flagstone retaining wall, about 3 ft high and 20 ft long. We'll be using it to enclose a raised bed along the west and north fence in our backyard. We've never done anything like this before (if you've seen my other posts you know we've just bought our first home and I can't seem to stop coming up with questions). :o) Has anyone else built one of these? If so, is there any advice you think we should know? Thanks and happy gardening! Melissa

Hi Melissa, to start with, you should never worry about asking questions as that is the best way to get advice, we gardeners all started by asking others for help or tips. I am not understanding about your Flagstone wall in as much as I would need to know if you plan to lay the flags flat, and then pile others (flat) on top, therefore you would need hundreds of flags, OR do you intend to have the flags upright to give you the depth you require for raised beds, this info will be a help in the way to do the job as both these retaining walls require different methods. WeeNel.

Our plan is to lay the stones flat, then lay other stones on top of them. I don't think I've seen a wall with the flags upright. Does that look as nice as the other way? Do you recommend one way over the other? Thanks.

I would go to your local library or bookstore and find a book on building retaining walls, 3 feet is actually a pretty good size one and you want to make sure that you design it right so that the soil behind it doesn't blow it out when it gets wet. I'm not sure how you would do this with a flagstone wall, but in general with a retaining wall that tall you will need some sort of supports buried into the ground a little ways, again a book on building walls can tell you the right depth, etc. and hopefully give you some ideas how to do this. Some sort of drainage behind the wall will also be important to manage water so that it doesn't destroy the wall.

Ecrane is so right about retaining walls, I could give you some ideas as to how to lay the flag stones as the most attractive method which is to lay them with the pointed bits on show and the next layer the same only the point/corner will be layed in between the the points/corners below, it makes a nice feature on it's own, but as Ecrane said, 3 feet is a heavy wall to topple down IF you dont get the footings right, so her advice to get some landscapeing books and some ideas from that will show you how to lay the foundations required for the hight you need, drainage should'nt be a huge problem IF you leave a small but unnoticed gap in between the flags as you increace the hight, but you will need to use cement to give this wall some support and strength, but I do like your idea, it is a lot of flags for a 3 feet wall and you might find some other ideas from books from the librery. Good luck. WeeNel.

Thanks so much for all of the advice. I'm headed to the bookstore today. :o) Melissa