The Great Wall

Decorative retaining wall installation: The area that I had previously fenced off in the back yard for the dogs sloped down about 2' and I wanted to level that area off so the fence I had put in wouldn't look so crooked. I also wanted to add a cool landscaping feature to the yard. I had been putting this project off until there was cooler weather outside. Now that fall is basically here, there has been alot of nice 60 degree days, perfect for working outside.

I started by digging down about 8-10 inches and compacting a level course of gravel for the blocks to sit on. The bottom row of blocks sit about 3 inches down into the ground, just the tops of them are visible. In the picture you can see the base course of block installed at the corner of the wall.

From there I built up the corner column. Each block is glued together with a special "landscape block adhesive". I only had to cut a couple blocks in half so things matched up, other than that it was just stacking full blocks together.

Here is the corner column completed and with the cap installed.

Side view showing the slope. I need to fill in behind the wal with dirt, then reinstall the fence.

Here's a view from the other direction, you can also see the second column. In total the wall has just over 300 blocks, and it weighs over 7500 pounds! It took me 6 or 7 trips to the store to get all the blocks home!