In the United States, you can be put in touch with your local utility companies by calling 811. When you call 811, you’ll be connected to an operator who will evaluate your project and contact the relevant utility companies in your area so they can confirm the locations of underground utility infrastructure on your property. Although your project may seem small, many areas have bylaws and codes that specifically apply to garden terraces.
Place a line level in the middle of the string once you’ve tied it to the second stake to ensure that it’s level. Move the string up and down on the second stake until you’ve made it completely level to make sure you’re correctly measuring your garden’s rise and run. If your garden or yard has areas where the steepness of the slope changes, repeat this process in those areas to make sure you build terraces that level your garden at its steepest.
For example, if the vertical distance of your garden is 8 feet (2. 4 m) and its horizontal distance is 20 feet (6. 1 m), then you’ll need to build 4 terraces, each terrace being 2 feet (0. 61 m) tall and 5 feet (1. 5 m) long. Depending on the materials you use for your wall, as well as the steepness of your garden, you may want to build terraces that are longer than 5 feet (1. 5 m) or taller than 2 feet (0. 61 m). Although this is certainly possible, note that the risk of terrace walls bulging or collapsing tends to increase when they’re built to be longer or taller than these respective measurements.
It may be helpful to draw the intended locations of your terraces on a sheet of paper before actually marking off these areas in your garden.
You can also wait until the day after a rainstorm to start digging, if you’d rather not pour water on the ground yourself. [5] X Research source
You can buy prefabricated wooden terrace walls at many home department stores or buy timber and cut it yourself from a lumber supply store.
Stone or concrete should always be used for terrace walls higher than 4 feet (1. 2 m) and should be installed by professionals to ensure their structural integrity. These blocks can be bought at home and garden shop or landscape supply yard. Note that stone and concrete are the most expensive materials to be used for building terrace walls.
The depth of the trench will depend on which material your wall is made out of. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to determine the ideal depth of your trench. If the ideal depth of the trench is unclear, a good rule of thumb when using timber is to bury the wall to about half of its thickness.
For best results, use a pipe that is at least 18 inches (46 cm) long. If you’re using stone blocks or another heavy material to build your terrace wall, you can probably skip this step.
You can use a small gardening spade to move the soil around if your terrace is not too large. For the trench you dug at the bottom of your garden, you’ll also need to fill in the front side of the terrace wall trench.
If you plan to build additional terraces for your garden, you can use the excess soil from the first terrace to flatten out the next one.
This will not only strengthen your soil, but will also provide it with healthy nutrients that will help the plants in your garden to grow. [14] X Research source
Make sure the soil is sufficiently damp before beginning the compacting process. To test this, take up a clump of soil in your hand and squeeze it together. If the clump stays together, the soil is ready to be compacted. If it doesn’t stay together, dampen the soil a little before beginning. You can use a hand-held soil compactor or rent a power compactor from a local hardware store.
