Best retaining wall for greenhouse/garden

[Bigdawg90]

My wife and I are prepping the land for the garden this spring as well as building out a greenhouse.

I’m building a pole barn type 16x20 greenhouse and an approximately 50x100 fenced garden.

There’s no level place to build on the land so I’ll be putting in a small retaining wall running approximately 30’ for the greenhouse and approximately 75’ for the garden.

I was thinking railroad ties, but my wife is worried about leaching into the soil. If there’s about 6’ of soil between the ties and the garden will I have a problem. I can’t find any info on how much room to give the ties. Online just says, don’t use.

The hope is to harvest enough to feed my chickens, pigs and family.

 

[Mr.Glock]

I wouldn’t choose RR Ties. Not good for food you going to eat. One of our homes we lived at needed such a retaining wall, we opted for blem concrete blocks. We found them at a local concrete place in S Okc off I240 and Sooner Rd.

 

[-Pjackso]

Concrete blocks.
No chemicals, and permanent.

1) If you want 'nice' retaining wall blocks, go to your dolese Concrete yard and look at their samples. Each block is 75 lbs.

Note: A properly built retaining wall requires at least 6" of gravel base and the first layer of brick needs to be at least 1/2 buried.
AND: Do not skip the geotextile grid (plastic mesh that ties the blocks into the hillside). This part is MANDATORY if the wall has any height to it. If you skip the geo-grid, the wall will slowly lean over time.

2) If you want functional, go to your local concrete mixing yard (concrete trucks) and ask about their 2nds concrete blocks. HUGE BLOCKS, about 1000 lbs, ...but cheap!! ($50?)
When they have left over concrete from jobs, they just pour it into blocks. Hence, very reasonable price - but you have to have equipment to move it.

Railroad ties are a 20 year temporary wall, with bad chemicals leaching into the ground (not good for near gardening).

Save your future self. Don't build your wall twice.

 

[tynyphil]

I second the concrete block suggestion.......from experience, I have RR tie retaining walls at each end of my earth bermed house. They are 40 years old now and I am facing the issue of having to replace them . Likewise my garden has RR ties making tiers. They too have deteriorated to the point of needing to be replaced Don't know if the leaching into the soil is a huge factor .....been eating from the garden for 40 years now but never planted right next to the ties......but very good....highly treated ties might be an issue.

 

[HillsideDesolate]

My wife and I are prepping the land for the garden this spring as well as building out a greenhouse.

I’m building a pole barn type 16x20 greenhouse and an approximately 50x100 fenced garden.

There’s no level place to build on the land so I’ll be putting in a small retaining wall running approximately 30’ for the greenhouse and approximately 75’ for the garden.

I was thinking railroad ties, but my wife is worried about leaching into the soil. If there’s about 6’ of soil between the ties and the garden will I have a problem. I can’t find any info on how much room to give the ties. Online just says, don’t use.

The hope is to harvest enough to feed my chickens, pigs and family.

I would avoid ties for anything food. Also I tend to avoid cedar as it can deters healthy soil bacteria and fungus. Your best choices are brick/concrete/stone the thermal mass holds heat and extends growing season

Stone never rots

 

[Dale00]

Retaining walls must have deadmen...you probably already know this. If not google it.

 

[OKRuss]

My wife and I are prepping the land for the garden this spring as well as building out a greenhouse.

I’m building a pole barn type 16x20 greenhouse and an approximately 50x100 fenced garden.

There’s no level place to build on the land so I’ll be putting in a small retaining wall running approximately 30’ for the greenhouse and approximately 75’ for the garden.

I was thinking railroad ties, but my wife is worried about leaching into the soil. If there’s about 6’ of soil between the ties and the garden will I have a problem. I can’t find any info on how much room to give the ties. Online just says, don’t use.

The hope is to harvest enough to feed my chickens, pigs and family.

How tall will the retaining wall need to be? I used 6"x6" pressure treated landscape timbers around our garden but it's only 1' high(2 rows) so didn't need a deadman anchor. Drilled 3/8" holes and drove 3' lengths of rebar through both rows so 2' in the ground for stability. It's been 7 years and so far so good.

 

[beardking]

The best retaining wall design is the one that uses a structural engineer to determine the design. Beyond that, one of the most important things to consider when doing a retaining wall is drainage. Water is the most damaging element in the world and it REALLY hates to have it's path obstructed. So much so that it has moved literal mountains out of it's way. So, I'd be sure to think about drainage as well.

 

[XYZ]

Don’t know if it’s a common problem or not but the house we raised our kids in had a railroad tie retaining wall. The house was about 10 years old when we bought it and the previous owner put it in. About 4 or 5 years after we moved in I noticed a termite swarm coming out of it.

 

[Bigdawg90]

Laid out the plan yesterday. The height of the retaining wall will be about 6’. I’ve got a Mohawk concrete yard just down the street so that was an awesome idea.

I’m just worried about the slope. I’m going to put in at least two Venetian drains for drainage. Luckily I’m leveling serval areas around my property so I’ll have full dirt.

Thanks guys. This will be a massive time and money investment so I was really on the fence about railroad ties.