Many areas of Chatham Township, NJ have slopes and hills in the landscape that can hinder your plans for outdoor living spaces. An attractive, reliable way to handle those issues is to choose a stone retaining wall that can enhance the functionality and improve the beauty of your landscape. While slopes can have their place in the terrain, they are more nuisance than appealing when they hinder your outdoor living plans. When you need more space and definition in the landscape, a retaining wall can be your answer.
Sloped Yard Problems
Terrain that is sloped limits how you can use your property, making the investment less than it could be. Lack of accessibility, reduced areas for entertaining and relaxing, and difficulty maintaining a slope can combine to produce frustration with your yard. In addition, there are other, more serious issues that can arise from hilly or steep slopes.
Erosion in the Landscape
Because water flows more quickly downhill, and it can carry soil particles with it, making sloped yards more susceptible to erosion than flat yards. Erosion can damage plants and lawns, leaving gullies and other unsightly features in the landscape after storms. Pooling water at the bottom of the slope can create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests that ruin your outdoor experience. Poor drainage can also damage plants and lawns.
Difficulty Maintaining a Lovely Outdoor Area
Slopes can make it difficult to maintain traction while mowing, increasing the risk of slipping and falling, especially if the grass is wet. Since mowers can be less stable on slopes, controlling the machine can be difficult at the least and dangerous at the worst which can increase the risk of accidents and damage to the mower.
Slopes can make it difficult to maneuver a mower, especially if the slope is steep or uneven, leaving areas of the lawn that are uneven and unsightly. When mowing a slope, you have to work harder to push the mower up the slope, causing you to tire more quickly and possibly lose your balance.
How Retaining Walls Improve the Landscape
Stone retaining walls are excellent choices to define areas of your property such as along a driveway with a slope running adjacent to the surface or for front yard walkways that sit at a different elevation than the driveway, making movement from the parking area to the front door arduous.
Stone retaining walls are also what landscape professionals recommend to fix a slope in the landscape that causes erosion problems and reduces your usable space.
Gravity retaining walls are the most common type of retaining wall. They rely on their own weight to hold back the soil of a steep slope, clearing more flat space for patios, outdoor kitchens, and other features that enhance your lifestyle and create beautiful spaces for relaxation.
These walls can be used to create lovely terraces, gardens, and unique planting beds that take the visual interest to new heights.
Additional Retaining Wall Functions
Retaining walls are so versatile that they can be used for increasing the privacy of your patio when neighbors live close by, defining new functional areas such as separating outdoor dining from the rest of the patio, and creating a boundary separation between your driveway and the neighbor’s property.