Here Is How a Retaining Wall Adds Visual Interest to Powell, OH, Area Front Yards

A retaining wall is a crucial piece of landscape infrastructure, yet it’s rarely recognized as a way to add beauty. In fact, the retaining wall can support all sorts of landscape features as well as make the space much more usable. A great retaining wall construction also shows off the beauty of masonry. As you choose the next steps in your landscape redesign, consider what a retaining wall can accomplish. Here is how a retaining wall adds visual interest to Powell, OH area front yards.

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Enabling a Healthier Landscape

The primary use of retaining walls is to support an uneven landscape, preventing erosion from rain runoff, snowmelt, and wind. A retaining wall can preserve the integrity of your front yard and give your plants a more stable home: a great opportunity to showcase flowers that could otherwise be at the mercy of runoff after a heavy rain. Placed on the uphill side of a driveway, your retaining wall can also be an opportunity to protect the driveway from waterborne debris that covers the pavement after heavy rains.

Adding Usable Space

The natural instability of slopes can prove challenging when you’re trying to make improvements to your front yard. A retaining wall can stabilize a large portion of your front yard and give plenty of space to add beautiful features such as a paver landing at the entryway, a flower bed, or a fountain. A retaining wall can help you widen a too-narrow driveway or create a turnaround space or extra parking.

Masonry Beauty

The masonry materials used in landscape design can add a timeless beauty to a landscape, no matter the design aesthetic. You may choose a classic solid stone block wall, or a concrete block wall clad with a natural or manufactured stone veneer. The first option gives you the uniqueness that only natural stone can offer. The second option gives you expanded color, size, texture, and shape options which make the wall essentially a blank canvas that you can design with an endless array of accent banding and color combinations.

A More Comfortable, Interactive Space

Even though the backyard is the center of most outdoor activities, there should still be plenty of ways to enjoy the front yard. A retaining wall provides some simple opportunities for enjoying a front yard, such as a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the view or say hi to passing neighbors. In a time where the front porch has virtually disappeared from modern homes, having a place to sit outside can be a great way to get to know people in the neighborhood.

Supporting Landscape Infrastructure

There are likely several components of your front yard that require electricity, water, or natural gas. More often than not, these utilities are unsightly or even obtrusive and the last thing you want to see in the front yard. A retaining wall provides the opportunity to not only conceal these landscape essentials, but even protect them from running kids and pets or maintenance tasks such as snow removal or mowing.

Enhancing the Presence of the Home

Many homes make use of masonry in the exterior design and a retaining wall provides a great opportunity for masonry continuity. By extending the same type of masonry used on the home (even if it’s just on the foundation) to a retaining wall, you enhance the presence of the home and your retaining wall will look like it has always belonged.

Related: HERE IS HOW A RETAINING WALL CAN BE BOTH FUNCTIONAL AND ATTRACTIVE IN SUNBURY AND WESTERVILLE, OH