In article , StanDan
writes
Thanks Jane,

Repairing the wall was my first idea but having had 5/6 builders in,

When I said repair it yourself, I meant, yourself. Forget builders, you
don't need them for such a small job. We have 3ft high terraces that are
retained by dry stone walls that we have built ourselves!!!!!

they
all quote me over £1500 because if the wall is taken away to be replaced the
top terrace is likely to collapse altogether!

What I can't understand is, if the wall is in a bad state of repair, how
is it managing to hold up the terrace anyway? And, if it is in such a
bad state of repair, it is going to collapse eventually, even if you
plant plants in front of it ((

I have to say that we have had terraces before and we have terraced
areas before. One was a length of about 30 feet and height of about 4
feet. We just dug the bank away (it didn't collapse), put in some of
those posts and slotted those concrete retaining slabs between the
posts. It worked fine, the bank did not give way and, to my knowledge,
it is still there 15 years later. In this house, I have removed a stone
wall that was holding up a bank 2 feet high and rebuilt it with no
problems. You say your soil is clay so collapse is not going to be as
likely as if it were sand.

They have suggested building a
second wall immediately infront of the broken one but the garden is small
and I really can't justify spending £1500 on something so small at the
moment.

How long is your terrace, because if, as you say, it is small I think
your builders are having you on.

Lane sand has been recomended because of the thick clay and apparently this
wil assist with drainage.

No way . . . again duff information. Drainage can be achieved only if
water has somewhere to drain ***to***. If you dig a hole and fill it
with something like sand or boulders it will 'drain' until the hole
fills up and then you are back to square one!!!!!! Instead of having
waterlogged soil, you have a hidden pond.

Do ivies etc gow better donwards than upwards? I could do this, immediately
at the front of the upper level I have a row a strawberries which are
fantastic but I could foregor a couple of these for the ivies!

We have many ivies growing horizontally, vertically upwards and
vertically downwards. BTW, your strawberries can grow downwards as well,
if you will let the suckers fall over the wall!!!!!!

You say your garden is small, how small? Some people reckon 4 acres to
be small!! How long is this wall? In your position, I would have a go at
repairing the wall myself. After all, if it collapses some day in the
future, you are stymied, aren't you, and will have to have a builder in?
You don't have to demolish the whole lot in one go, you can do it a bit
at a time!!!!!!

But I would not plant at the bottom if the soil is clay - much better to
plant at the top
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see