Complicated garden situation & clueless gardener!

[Cluelessgardener]

Hi everyone

Really hoping someone on here can help me… we recently moved into a new house and this is the garden area. We have young children so really need to landscape the garden so the grass is flat. (We have had 22 degree weather mixed with heavy rain so the grass has gone crazy ) We don’t know whether to build a small wall along the front of the grass & raise the earth so the grass is flat but it would be 4ft higher than the patio…

OR

dig out the grass to lower the grass to patio level. However… behind the back bricks of our garden, is the garden of the houses opposite.
So the weight of all of their Earth, leans on that back wall. We have been told by a friend that if we pull all our Earth away from the wall, that the wall will buckle under the weight of the neighbours garden.
Is this true?

our preferred option is to have the grass at patio level but we have no idea where to start. Would we have to reinforce/ build another retaining wall along the back wall?

An idea we had was to build a long deep planter across the back of the garden to hold the wall up & fill those with trees for privacy?
My friend has a large number of fruit trees we would like to put in the garden. We also love wildflowers and anything to help the bees & insects

OMG as you can tell I’m completely lost… what would you do? Any ideas would be welcomed!

 

[Tetters]

@Cluelessgardener I wish I had seen your post earlier.
The thing to do with the garden at the moment is nothing!
Keep your children and/or pets well away from the wall. It is very dangerous and the neighbour had no business building soil up against it like that. We think that you should contact your insurance agent as a matter of urgency to send someone round to inspect this situation and advise you further.
The most important thing is the safety aspect. Get advice pronto.
Once that is sorted we can get our heads together and deal with landscaping. That part will/should be no problem at all.

Nearly forgot - welcome to the forums

 

[Mike Allen]

Welcome to the forum.

If you are worried. Then as Tetters suggests, seek professional help. Best wishes.

 

[Sabina515]

I agree. Contact someone to confirm.

The slope of your yard is what is concerning to me for children. Do you know if that wall is 4 feet underground?

 

[TylerS]

It could be nice to carve out most of the dirt but leave a rim around your yard that you convert into a raised bed. It is true that digging down 4 foot from surface level would lead to an eventual collapse of that retaining wall without proper support. If you wanted to go that route, I would recomend hiring a professional to make sure it is installed well.

If however you like the idea of raised beds, you could probably keep the height at the bottom and then terrace it up as the slope rises. Perhaps do a double terrace at the back so that it is workable.

There would still be space for a few fruit trees in the center, but not in the actual raised beds.

 

[Mr_Yan]

I am a major Do-It-Yourself guy. I have no problem tackling major jobs and the only limiting factor I have to my jobs is the lack of a full size truck to haul in our out big tools and big materials.

Tetter's is right - If you want to change anything about that grade and soil level call in a pro to look at it and figure out what that wall can hold or not. There may be options you can build up to reinforce those block buttresses, like building out a half circle block wall or other perpendicular walls.

Terraces and earthen supports get dangerous fast. Mixing in the urban environment and possibly damaging other houses *may* leave you open to damages to their house.

 

[Marck]

I agree that the step down from the lawn to the patio could be a tripping hazard, but the rest of your garden seems fine to me. Perhaps put in a picket fence with a single gateway to enter the lawn area, then build a secure step at the gate entrance. You could soften the look of the fence with a clambering vine and a perennial border behind the fence.

I see you have a few nice plants already: Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' and Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus).

 

[Tetters]

I agree that the step down from the lawn to the patio could be a tripping hazard, but the rest of your garden seems fine to me. Perhaps put in a picket fence with a single gateway to enter the lawn area, then build a secure step at the gate entrance. You could soften the look of the fence with a clambering vine and a perennial border behind the fence.

I see you have a few nice plants already: Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' and Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus).

Have you actually READ the first post?
''So the weight of all of their Earth, leans on that back wall. We have been told by a friend that if we pull all our Earth away from the wall, that the wall will buckle under the weight of the neighbours garden.
Is this true?''

That garden would not look fine to anyone in their right mind with small children buried under a collapsed wall. Common sense is required here !

 

[Chuck]

That wall is in effect what is called a retaining wall. To determine if it is, in fact dangerous, one must know how much/how deep the soil is on the other side of the wall. It is also very important to know what the wall is made of, how heavy it is and how it is anchored to the sub soil/bedrock. If the soil on the other side of the wall, in total, is heavier than the material of the wall and the wall is not anchored properly, it can and probably will collapse, especially after a lot of rain. The OP stated that a fill of 4 feet would be required to level out the lawn. This would entail building another retaining wall at the edge of the patio similar to the wall in question. If not done properly, this new wall could collapse onto the patio and home. In reverse, one would have to remove 4 feet of soil from the lawn to achieve a level lawn. Removing 4 feet of soil from the OP's property would be a very dangerous thing indeed. A very possible and fairly inexpensive solution would be to make 2 or 3 terraces. This would not affect the wall in question and would not require a retaining wall at the edge of the patio. It could be done with timbers or with stone/concrete and a minimal amount of soil. And to avoid a tripping hazard one could build a nice stepdown onto the patio.

 

[Marck]

Have you actually READ the first post?
''So the weight of all of their Earth, leans on that back wall. We have been told by a friend that if we pull all our Earth away from the wall, that the wall will buckle under the weight of the neighbours garden.
Is this true?''

That garden would not look fine to anyone in their right mind with small children buried under a collapsed wall. Common sense is required here !

You didn't read my post or the first post very well. The OP's concern is about a collapse if soil is removed to make the lawn flat. I didn't say anything about making the lawn flat. I think it would be fine to let the lawn slope. That would be easier, more attractive, and presumably safer.

 

[lifegardener]

Hi everyone

Really hoping someone on here can help me… we recently moved into a new house and this is the garden area. We have young children so really need to landscape the garden so the grass is flat. (We have had 22 degree weather mixed with heavy rain so the grass has gone crazy ) We don’t know whether to build a small wall along the front of the grass & raise the earth so the grass is flat but it would be 4ft higher than the patio…

OR

dig out the grass to lower the grass to patio level. However… behind the back bricks of our garden, is the garden of the houses opposite.
So the weight of all of their Earth, leans on that back wall. We have been told by a friend that if we pull all our Earth away from the wall, that the wall will buckle under the weight of the neighbours garden.
Is this true?

our preferred option is to have the grass at patio level but we have no idea where to start. Would we have to reinforce/ build another retaining wall along the back wall?

An idea we had was to build a long deep planter across the back of the garden to hold the wall up & fill those with trees for privacy?
My friend has a large number of fruit trees we would like to put in the garden. We also love wildflowers and anything to help the bees & insects

OMG as you can tell I’m completely lost… what would you do? Any ideas would be welcomed!

How has your project come along?