Retaining Walls & Rockeries in Seattle

Wall lighting for a garden that gets used after dark

Low-voltage LED washing the retaining wall, with the patio lit for evening dining.

Terraced walls on a sloped lot

Two tiers of block wall with steps between them, turning a bank into planting beds and a level path.

Natural stone wall, mid-build

Stone veneer going up over a structural core — the part of the job nobody photographs, done properly.

Block wall and level turf lawn

A retaining wall carved the flat lawn out of the slope; turf and planting finished it.

Terraced patio with stone steps

Grey stone terraces stepping down a steep back garden into a seating area.

Street-frontage wall and planting

A curved wall along the street edge with lighting set into the face and new planting above.

Slab walk, block wall and turf on a slope

A run of large-format slabs along the wall line ties the upper slope to the lower lawn — the usual Magnolia problem of a garden split across two levels by the grade.

Paver terrace, block wall and turf lawn

A sloping back garden cut into two usable levels — paver terrace at the top, level turf lawn below, and a block wall doing the work between them.

3 photos

Paver driveway and terraced front walls

A steep front lot taken back to terraces — a full paver driveway, block walls holding the planting beds off it, and steps up to the door.

3 photos

Lit seat wall, steps and turf lawn

Lighting recessed into the wall face and the step risers, so the garden still works through eight months of dark Seattle evenings. Photographed the night it was commissioned.

2 photos

Slab patio below an existing deck

Large-format slabs filling the dead ground under the deck, with a low wall holding the bank behind them.

Terraced vegetable beds over a turf lawn

A brick-faced wall the full width of the garden, carrying raised vegetable beds above a level turf lawn and paver terrace.

Stone seat wall and raised bed

A stone seat wall doubling as the edge of a raised bed, with steps up to the lawn and a paved terrace for the table.

Curved front wall and planting

A curved wall along the front of the house holding the bank off the drive, with new planting behind it and a paved walk in front.

Block steps up to a cedar gate

Wide block steps up the side of the house to a new gate, with a clean rock strip alongside to take the roof water away from the foundation.

Block wall with a rock drainage strip

The rock strip between the wall and the slab is the part that matters: it takes the water down to daylight instead of leaving it standing behind the blocks.

Fire-table terrace on a hilltop lot

Magnolia gives up a downtown view if the garden is cut to face it. Slab terrace at the top of the slope for the fire table, charcoal block wall holding the bank behind, turf on the level below.

2 photos

Block walls and paved approach at a building entrance

Segmental block walls terracing the grade at the front of a modern building, with a stone column, handrails to code and a paved approach — commercial hardscaping, where the walls have to take footfall as well as soil.

Circular fire-pit patio with a curved seat wall

A circle is the hardest shape to lay well — every course has to be cut to the radius. Capped seat wall around the back, contrasting inner ring under the fire bowl, path lights set into the bed edge.

Capped block wall holding a raised front bed

A long run of split-face block turning the fall between house and street into a raised bed at standing height, capped flat so the whole length reads as one line.

Block wall holding a planted bed

One course of tan split-face block turns a soft slope into a level bed and a level lawn. The planting sits above the wall instead of sliding down it, which is the entire reason the wall is there.

Stone-faced front wall, mid-build

The crew setting veneer on the front terrace of a new build. The block core does the structural work and the stone is what you end up looking at — two different jobs, done in the right order.

Two tiers and a set of steps

Splitting one tall wall into two shorter ones takes the load off both and leaves a planting shelf in between. The cobble along the base is drainage, not decoration.

Basalt rockery above a new bed

Quarried basalt set as a rockery rather than laid as block. It suits a rural lot better, and it lets the planting run into the joints instead of stopping dead at a straight line.

Full-length wall along the boundary

A wall run the whole length of a fence line to win back a flat strip of garden. Ballard lots are narrow, so the width this recovers is width the garden genuinely did not have.

Wall, steps and a drainage course

The white rock along the toe is the part that decides whether this wall is still straight in ten years. Water gets a route out rather than somewhere to push.

Street-frontage wall in cut stone

A long frontage wall going up in cut stone, cones out and the base course still showing. The bed above it was regraded to drain towards the street rather than back into the wall.

Wall going up, crew on site

Mid-build on a West Seattle slope: block stacked, barrows running, the old surface still down. One crew on one site until it is finished, which is the only way the levels stay honest.

Front garden wall and steps

A Queen Anne front garden is usually a slope between the pavement and the porch. A wall and a run of steps is what turns that slope into somewhere you can actually plant.

New lawn, new wall, new deck

A whole back garden in one visit: wall in, grade corrected, deck framed, lawn laid onto it. Running it as one job is the reason the three levels agree with each other.

A front lawn that stays green

A front garden in full sun with no irrigation to it. Turf laid to a curved block edge, with the seams run away from the sightline you get walking up from the pavement.

Stone bed wall along the drive

A low cut-stone wall holding a bed against the driveway edge. The cap is wide enough to sit on, which is the only reason anyone ever actually does.

Stacked stone wall and a slab bench

Thin stacked stone across the face, and one solid slab set in front of it as a bench. The bench weighs more than the section of wall it sits against.

Wall, steps and a settled garden

Some seasons on from handover. Block wall, stone steps and mulched beds that have grown into one another, which is the only fair moment to judge a planting plan.