Growing up, our home was built on a former, very flat cornfield. All I knew as a child were rows of small houses on flat lots. Each house was painfully neat, with one tiny tree on either side of the sidewalk. There was little shade and little else of interest. I thought that only really rich people had big trees. My dream was to live out in the country and in the woods.

So, it was the beginning of a dream come true when Wonderful Husband and I were able to purchase two wooded acres with many mature trees. In between the big trees, the land was overrun by brambles, Autumn olives, Japanese honeysuckle and floribunda roses. We couldn’t determine the terrain, obscured by the undergrowth; it was impossible to know the “lay of the land”.

We did not realize the land sloped about 38 feet from the highest point to the pond below. There were eroded gullies left by logging which had occurred about 40 years before. And, the soil was actually just sub-soil, heavy clay with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Wonderful Husband was dead-set on having the stereotypically perfect, emerald green lawn and began the strenuous task of creating it. There was one steep, west-facing slope which defied all his efforts. In the spring, torrential rains washed the grass seed down the hill and into the driveway. In the summer, the scorching sun and months’ long droughts killed the little grass which had managed to grow. He met all setbacks with stoic, Germanic determination.

For years, he tried everything he could think of: fertilization, aeration, irrigation and re-seeding over and over and over again. He’s a stubborn man, but not a stupid one. Finally, he realized that no matter how hard he tried; grass was simply not going to grow there.

So, for a couple of years, the slope remained a brown eyesore right in front of the house while he considered his options. Finally (Eureka!) he had an inspiration! He would terrace the slope with a series of shallow retaining walls. I had suggested the same concept several years before, but being a saintly and patient wife, gently agreed that retaining walls seemed like a good, even a brilliant, idea.

Being frugal (translation: tight as Mr. Scrooge), we would do the job of building retaining walls ourselves. That decision meant that we wouldn’t build the walls too high – thus avoiding building permits and digging two-foot deep footings. Since we were “doing-it-ourselves”, contractors to build forms and pour concrete walls were ruled out. Wooden walls would quickly rot, even as they attracted termites – so no wood.

I would have loved to install dry – stacked natural stone, but stone is expensive. We would have had to make countless trips to the stone yard with my Subaru pulling our two-thousand-pound capacity little garden trailer and we would have to unload each stone by hand. The other option was to pay for a big truck to deliver the stone all at once. After considering all of the above, I decided I could live without the stone.

Brick or block were the remaining options. Block comes in a variety of sizes, shapes and shades and we had already used blocks in other areas, so blocks it would be. Did I mention we are tight? We decided to use blocks already on hand, scavenging them from other garden beds that we are planning to re-do. By keeping each wall from two to four tiers, we could dry-stack the blocks, avoiding messy mortar.

We decided where the retaining walls would be installed and with what materials, and focused on the next step: creating flat and level areas to lay the blocks. This meant digging with shovels, fighting tree roots and broiling in the hot summer sun. Black, biting gnats, chiggers, ticks did not deter us. Well, really, we should have been deterred, but were too stubborn to quit.

Laying the blocks was next: my job was to manually load six 33.3 -pound blocks on the little garden cart which was hitched to our John Deere lawn tractor / mower, transport them to the work area and manually unload them. Wonderful Husband had the hardest part; kneeling on the ground and laying the blocks, one at a time. He has many faults (just ask me, I’ll tell ya!), but he can really lay blocks and make it look like a professional job: three beautiful retaining walls two to four blocks high, nice and level.

We gathered all the extra soil we had dug up and added year-old compost to it. We used our little Mantis tiller to mix it all together and it made some pretty good soil. After we raked the soil nice and smooth, we shoveled wood chips from the pile at the back of the property (again using our trusty, rusty garden cart pulled by the tractor / mower) and mulched the beds thoroughly.

We even managed to select and plant several B & B evergreens without arguing – a miracle!

So far, the terraced beds and the organic matter we added seem to have stopped erosion due to heavy rains. Another benefit? I can have an almost full-sun garden! I intend to move many of the irises to the new garden and hope the improved drainage and sunlight will prevent root rot which has been a problem the last two, very rainy springs. And, Wonderful Husband promises that I can finally have the water feature I’ve dreamed about for the last twelve years. That will be something to write about – IF it ever happens.

What advice would I give you if you were considering retaining walls? Call a contractor!

Seriously, here’s a few pointers:

Know your limitations; don’t expect to move big stones or take out tree stumps on your own. Call for help if you need it – it’s better than going to the hospital (or the funeral home).

Do your research, the internet’s full of “how to” information. Don’t forget to check with the local authorities to see if you will need permits or inspections.

Call 8-1-1 before you dig; someone will come out and locate all underground utility lines (water, sewer, electric, natural gas, internet and telephone lines). It’s a free service and beats having to pay a plumber or an electrician to repair what you didn’t know was there.

Don’t skimp on labor or materials – this is a big project that will, if done properly, last a long time. So, put in the work and use good materials. Do it right.

And, as always, Stay Green, Good Friends.