Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 01, 2009 9:24 pm I am approaching handover of my new house and have been thinking (a lot) about my landscaping. I have a flat block, but I like the look of the Austral Linkwall-Kensington retaining walls etc. I would like to have a raised garden bed (approx 1m deep) along the back (colorbond) fenc (20m long). I was thinking of having it 3 units high (39cm) plus the capping (6cm) to make the wall 45cm high, so it is high enough to double as a comfortable seat. I would then 'fill' behind the wall with drainage material and soil etc. and then plant. My concern is that I am sure I will need to put something between the colorbond fence and the 40cm of soil to take the weight off the fence. As this won't be visible I am not concerned about looks, but need suggestions on what would be the most effective, and cheapest way to do this. I was at Bunnings today and were looking at the concrete besser blocks (39cm wide, 19cm high and 14cm deep) with the two holes through them. They were selling them for $2.50 each. If I stacked two of them on top of each other would this be sturdy enough? or would the weight of the soil just push the top besser block into the fence? Would I need to support them somehow by digging posts into the ground and putting them through the blocks? The besser blocks would cost me $12.82/lineal meter by themselves and I am planning to do a 20m long wall. What are my other options. I also have a question regarding the depth of the topsoil that I would need. I am planning to plant a hedging type plant (either lily pillly, murraya (sp?) or silver something...) at the back, closest to the fence, with perhaps some other more decorative plants in front (maybe cordyline?). What is the depth of the root systems of such plants. Obviously it would get very pricey filling the whole lot with good soil. What is the depth of decent 'soil' that I would need. Thanks in advance, JT Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 2Aug 02, 2009 12:46 am you need to have something retaining the soil off the Colorbond fence, otherwise the fence wil rust or in a wost case scenario fall over. Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 3Aug 02, 2009 8:15 am Thanks, I have just being doing some more research on the grey concrete besser block retaining walls. It seems I must fill them with concrete which will add to the cost. I think I might consider a small, treated pine sleeper wall. Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 4Aug 02, 2009 9:36 am You need a barrier between the soil and the fence. You void the warranty if you have any soil in contact with Colorbond.... http://www.colorbond.com/index.cfm?objectid=B47A824C-F055-D6C6-D915A059B174B69A I think we're going to use cement sheet (waterproofed?) as a backing on our raised beds - they're still in the planning stages though, so don't really know. You can ask the guys at Stratco in Epping (Cooper St) about suitable ways to get around this problem, they sell the stuff so ought to know. Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 5Aug 02, 2009 9:57 am Thanks Kek, We will definitely be putting something between the soil and the fence, just wondering what will be the cheapest way to prefent the weight of the 40cm high garden bed pushing the fence over. Was going to drop in and say hi on Saturday, but we spent so long admiring our newly plastered house, that we ran out of time. Built in now city 2009, now moving to the country to embark on another build. Check out our previous blog http://ourpalazzo.blogspot.com/ Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 6Aug 02, 2009 12:12 pm Jas 'n' Rach Was going to drop in and say hi on Saturday, but we spent so long admiring our newly plastered house, that we ran out of time. I was home doing nothing too...apart from washing, cleaning, training, cooking, more cleaning, more training.... Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 7Aug 02, 2009 1:05 pm This is exactly what we have. Raised beds all round. I left a gap the width of a trenching shovel between the wall and the fence. This is so over the years I can easily clean out fallen plant material which may potentially contribute to rusting the fence. I have seen on here some board put up against the fence but not sure on the long term effects. The gap between the wall and the fence also means I have been able to lay garden light wires and irrigation pipe down the back of the wall where it can't be seen My wall is made from one course along the back of reconstituted limestone blocks onto the edge of the limestone retaining wall bordering the properties. The fence is set into the retaining wall. Here in WA these blocks are pretty much the standard hardscaping material. Very cheap and easy to use. I have started seeing a rammed earth look reconstituted block in Landscape supply outlets. Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 8Aug 02, 2009 2:57 pm well you're in luck, mates got a small backyard 50sqm and we have just completed landscaping it! we cut 80mm down off the fill and use that in the plantabox dumped 9ton ($180) paving sand, and wackapacked it down got 'seconds' retaining wall blocks (300 of them) and used that to make the box, half price used cut blueboard ($10 a sheet) and steel tri posts (about $5) in the ground along the fenceline, to lift the fill from the colorbond fence (take the load off it) pictures of 'blueboard' http://www.allwaysfencing.com.au/galler ... Screen.jpg its fibre cement board and designed to be used in wet/moist areas; avail at any hardware store. ill get round to getting pictures sometime! -Nathan 2nd-Fix | Blog Building with Desyn Homes previously with the insolvent [url=https://www.facebook.com/7NewsAdelaide/videos/1162546323776021/]Endeavour Homes[/url] Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 9Aug 02, 2009 4:21 pm Villaboard is used in wet areas - not blueboard. Blueboard is used for exterior lining of walls. Its not designed for the constant damp associated with a garden bed and will deteriorate. I've seen gardens done this way with fibro between the soil and fence. Colorbond fences are not designed to have weight of that nature placed on one side. YOou should be looking along the lines of methods Fu outlined. Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 10Nov 19, 2012 11:19 am Any one figure this out? Anypics? Any failures? Looking at doing this but have the same problem with colourbond fence Forrester 43sq We have our keys (3/6/11) Now it's time to decorate (that's the fun part.lol) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37598 Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 11Nov 19, 2012 1:15 pm Hiya. We had the same concerns, as we are along the back wall of a suburb, but the house to the right is a level higher than us (small retaining walls separates the blocks) and the block next to us is one lower, etc. The back wall is crooked, so we wanted to put a small retaining wall along the back wall to basically square off the backyard. Our little retaining wall had a trench of about 20cm dug, cement poured, etc to bring it to normal height level. Then we used blocks 500 long x 245 high x 165 wide. However, when we got to the fence on the other side, we did the following (hope the diagram helps). The little leftover bit in the corner where the wall stops is now a small area of paving. This way we avoided having the wall butted up against the fence. Re: Raised garden bed against colorbond fence- help! 12Nov 25, 2012 8:22 am Rudolf1980 Any one figure this out? Anypics? Any failures? Looking at doing this but have the same problem with colourbond fence Hey Rudolf, We have to do the same thing.. 18m retaining wall but we have those cutouts in the fence for corner houses. So we really have to make 3 more retaining walls (3 sections of cutouts). I was going to get some sleepers and star pickets between the fence and the new garden beds. I will hopefully have it all finished by mid - December and can post pics DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair I'm in WA and our sandy soils make drainage a bit easier but this is what I'd be doing. Dig down to your footings and let the wall dry out. Clean it all well by brushing… 1 3383 6 2990 Thank you Pulse, I thought we did the right things; external shutters on all windows down all day, west side of the house nearly completely in the shadow of the large two… 6 25109 |