I've got an inclined section so I'm putting up a retaining wall (6m long and 1m high) and then back-fill to build a garden. At the moment there is just clay on site. What should I back-fill with so I have a nice garden-able plot? I don't have to fill the whole thing up with topsoil, do I?
bluefrog2,
Mar 9, 7:10pm
When my garden was levelled, the landscaper used soil dug up from the high parts to fill in lower parts. If you're building a retaining wall, there will be some digging involved for the foundation. Ask to retain that soil instead of having it carted away. After everything had been levelled to suit, I had slightly raised garden beds built from macro sleepers (20cm high) and that was filled with topsoil. There was also some topsoil required where the new lawn would be, Everywhere else was compacted clay dug up from other parts of the garden, covered by gravel and lime chip. I guess if you want a larger lawn, you would have to get enough topsoil to cover the area. Maybe 10-15cm of topsoil over a broken up or grooved clay base?
EDIT: For planting vegetables, the planting beds should be 30-40cm deep. I had to dig down into the compacted clay to get beds deep enough, which was not the most convenient, but I only had to do it once.
nzdoug,
Mar 10, 1:41am
We back filled the bottom trech w scoria and 120 mm nova flex with the holes in it then re use clay but fill top 300 w top soil from nursary. Titrangi.
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