42 Retaining Wall Ideas for Landscaping and Gardens

Modern Poured Concrete Walls

The white poured concrete retaining walls give this modern garden a clean and light feel. Using them as easy-to-keep raised beds works well in this low-maintenance Mediterranean-inspired space. The drought-resistant palms and shrubs add color and interest.

Timber Retaining Walls

While stone or concrete are the most common construction materials for retaining walls, sometimes, as in this example from Supreme Green Landscaping, they can be constructed from timber.

It's worth noting that timber walls will likely need replacing sooner than more durable stone varieties.

DIY Dry-Stack Walls

You don't need to use any mortar when building dry-stack retaining walls. They add visual interest, drain naturally, and are one of the easiest types to DIY build.

Driveway Retaining Wall

A budget-friendly low retaining wall lines this long, sloping driveway, leaving room for grass, trees, and plants to grow without inhibiting flow.

Home Entry Retaining Walls

The stone retaining walls used in this garden have created terraced interest leading from the pool to the modern home's entry.

Cottage-Style Garden Walls

It's common to use retaining walls to add texture and character in informal cottage-style gardens. Let the moss grow over the rustic stonework or create a living wall with hardy flowers growing from the cracks. Flower beds often sprawl over the edge of the walls in a riot of color. Here they complement the beautiful pink flowering magnolia tree.

Front Lawn Retaining Wall

This short brick retaining wall creates a transition between the sidewalk and the raised front lawn. The house number is displayed on the front of the wall with integrated lighting.

Retaining Walls in Xeriscaping

Xeriscaping is a way to landscape a garden in regions that practice water conservation or are prone to drought. The plan typically avoids or minimizes lawns and uses a variety of drought-tolerant plants. The walls create additional interest in a simple design.

Garden Retaining Wall

A retaining wall helped turn this outdoor space into a flourishing garden planted with white, pink, and purple flowers. The retaining wall also serves as a back for a wooden bench that adds extra seating.

Sunken Patio with Retaining Walls

This sunken patio is surrounded by natural stone retaining walls to create a lush, hidden country garden feel. Once the retaining wall is done, you can even DIY a fire pit.

Multi-Tiered Design

If you have a large sloping garden, using tiered retaining walls to create multiple terraces can add interest and help to prevent erosion. This clever design has walls that also act as raised beds to add interest, make good use of the space, and keep the garden relatively low-maintenance. Shrubs and hedges smartly differentiate between the spaces.

When a garden has multiple tiers, think carefully about the plants you choose and where you plant them. Position the taller plants at the back and be aware that the higher levels typically dry quicker. Placing moisture-loving plants in the lower terraces for better results.

Terraced Flower Beds

The natural stone steps and terraced retaining walls with a variety of flowers and shrubs soften the hardscape around this beautiful pool.

Ornamental Grasses

These wide retaining walls are home to beautiful shrubs, flowers, and dramatic ornamental grasses for year-round interest and differing heights.

Flowered Retaining Wall

A stone retaining wall lining the glass-walled staircase of this backyard pool contrasts organic and manmade materials, and provides a place for multi-colored flowers to bloom.

Cohesive and Functional

Integrating the retaining wall into the stair design leading to the house's front door combines functional and design elements and gives a focus to the garden with the bright raised flower beds.

Desert Retaining Wall

This Palm Springs backyard has a sloping retaining wall with a stepped stucco edge that creates a focal point, and is planted with a sparse smattering of desert-friendly vegetation.

Dramatic Terraced Retaining Walls

This elevated house has a very steep, sloping garden with limited horizontal space. The multi-terraced space uses retaining walls and a mix of shrubs and flowers to create a dramatic but functional space.

Cohesive Retaining Wall

The stonework on the retaining walls is purposefully matched with the impressive pizza oven and fire pit in this garden, giving it a cohesive appearance.

The wall also helps retain the fire's heat, creating a cozier space for outdoor dining and socializing. Figuring out a way you can make two projects (such as creating a stone bench and building a retaining wall) into one can bring down the cost.

Rustic Boulder Retaining Wall

This rustic boulder retaining wall has two levels, one filled with mulch, and the other with gravel, and planted sparingly to add color to the back patio.

Retaining Wall Landscaping

This distinctive house and its surrounding outside space were designed to fit around the old, large gum tree already in the landscape. The retaining walls prevent soil erosion and offer a degree of privacy to the rooms on the house's lower floor.

Tiered Stucco Retaining Wall

This tiered stucco retaining wall with an integrated front door adds room for a double dose of plants including fluffy grasses on the top layer that add volume and enhance privacy.

Victorian Retaining Wall

The gray retaining wall built at the front of this grand, imposing house matches the paintwork and accommodates shrubs to soften the hard lines around the property's entry. It also creates a buffer between the sidewalk and the home.

Curved Appeal

This curved retaining wall adds elegance and structure to a large, uniform landscape. Keeping the wall's design simple and low draws attention to the large Saguaro Cacti in this drought-resistant design.

Vegetable Garden Retaining Wall

The low retaining wall around the entire perimeter of this vegetable garden creates a large raised bed. This allows greater control of soil, more veggies in one space, and better drainage.

Integrated Water Features

This sloping garden has cleverly integrated a pretty cascading waterfall and pond as part of the retaining wall design. This leads into a functional patio area for dining with matching the stone for a cohesive look. Integrating an elaborate water feature like this usually requires the help of professionals.

Poolside Walls

The white retaining walls used around this pool create a feeling of privacy, offer shelter from the wind and sun, and make the surrounding landscape more visually appealing by providing an accent. It is the perfect way to create usable space from the sloping area descending to a pool.

Carefully select any plants you use in retaining wall beds to be sure they are suitable for use around your pool. You don't want anything messy that will leave lots of debris in your pool. Plus, they should be ones that can cope with sun and humidity levels.

Retaining Wall Around a Pond

If you want your garden pond to be a particularly eye-catching feature, you could build a retaining wall around it. It can also be helpful for safety and to prevent the sides of the pond from eroding.

If you are building the pond wall yourself, be aware that loose, natural stones are difficult to stack, and the wall shouldn't be too high making pond maintenance more of a challenge.

Poolside Retaining Wall

This is another example of multi-height retaining walls being used to create interest and soften the landscape around a pool. Here the low-maintenance beds are filled with ornamental grasses of differing heights.

Intricate Stonework

The intricate, mixed-color stonework is an eye-catching feature in this classic multi-tiered garden. The shrubs, roses, and other flowers fit with this traditional style and let the showy stonework shine through.

Steep Retaining Wall

Sloped retaining walls on either side of the staircase leading downhill to the pool adds structure to this large and lushly landscaped Mediterranean hillside property.

Multiple Retaining Walls

A series of retaining walls around a pair of staircases creates opportunities for landscaping that helps to integrate this home along the banks of Lake Minnetonka, MN into the sloping landscape and manicured lawns.

Affordable Short Retaining Wall

A short front yard retaining wall adds curb appeal to this modern home without breaking the budget, providing a bed that contains a tree and is filled with and edged with plants.

Green Lawn Retaining Wall

Affordable retaining wall ideas can keep your front yard looking its best if your house is located on a hill. A vivid patch of green lawn is planted inside a bright white retaining wall that matches the modern style of this Southern California home perched above the street.

Concrete Retaining Wall

This modern concrete retaining wall has clean lines that add structure to the front yard, allowing a range of plantings that add curb appeal to the wide multi-tiered staircase entrance.

Stepped Retaining Wall

A series of retaining walls that mimic the clean lines of this hilltop Austin, TX, home help to integrate it into the contours of the existing landscape.

Double Retaining Wall

Stacked gray stone adds texture to this double backyard retaining wall, planted with bushy green plants and tall purple flowers that soften the modern space.

Hilly Backyard Retaining Wall

A large palm tree is planted on a section of this sprawling hilly back lawn that is structured by a stone retaining wall that matches the facade of the home.

Sloped Retaining Wall

This sloped side yard retaining wall is planted with young trees, while edged beds beneath it are filled with shrubs to line the footpath.

Front Yard Retaining Walls

Twin retaining walls planted with tall palm trees on either side of the steps to the front yard of this Spanish home lend the front entrance a sense of grandeur.

Stone Patio Retaining Walls

This lush flowery raised backyard patio is planted with ivy, plants, and flowers, structured by stone steps and a pair of retaining walls that separate it from the back deck. A fountain between the two spaces adds a dramatic water feature.

Wrap-Around Retaining Wall

A sloping wrap-around retaining wall follows the curves of this backyard pool area, planted with Mediterranean vegetation that befits the Spanish island setting.

Multi-Level Retaining Wall

A series of modern concrete multi-level retaining walls allow for a generous planting of plants and flowers that maximize the steep and dense lot of this Southern California home.