need to make a medium sized retaining wall. about 40-50 ft long or so. its about 2-3 ft high at the highest point (for about 20 feet of the 40 ft) and will taper down on both ends. i had planned to do a drystack wall with 8" or less natural stone and put a nice gentle curve into it. i've made several of these walls before with both purchased sandstone and gathered field rock.

when i went to the stoneyard, i wandered over to look at big boulders and started to think about a wall made out of them. these are angular blocks, not rounded, they are not cut squares, but have dimensions of at least 3x3x2 and are anywhere from 1000-2000+ lbs. tennessee marble, limestone, sandstone, granite, etc. prices were .04 a lb for the marble (they have some quary drill marks on them but are very nice looking), .07 for the limestone, and .11 for the rest.

i am intrigued about using these boulders for the bulk of the wall. i can have them delivered and dropped into place where i want them within reason and can borrow/rent a bobcat or tractor to do any other moving i might need to do. since the boulders are pretty much the height i need, i won't have to piggyback any of them unless i want to. the overall cost would be more if i use anything other than the marble, but i will save AT LEAST a weekends worth of work by not stacking the wall and i also won't have to dig out and gravel the base run.

has anyone done anything similar? any tips. i'd love to see pictures. this area will be away from the house so it really won't be viewed alot, but i think it would look very neat with the massive rocks. i don't think i can use the marble for it all, but that would only mean i get to use some variety of rock!