Looks like you've gone 5 courses above the drive way?
At it's highest in relation to the paving it's 4 courses + a half-soldier. There's probably another 1 or 2 courses below the finished level that you can't see. If you look at the middle photo in the bottom row, and click on the one in the ImageShack window to get it full size you'll see it more clearly. At the RH end, because the walls are level but the paving slopes away from the house the wall is at it's lowest in relation to the surface. The 4 + half-soldier course feels about right, but I think if we could wind back the clock we might have gone for an extra course all round, as the RH end feels a tad low. But that's a very minor point, and it also depends on the other dimensions - I guess the longer and deeper it is the higher it needs to get to maintain proportion.
You should do what we did - spend some time looking at other people's walls and raised beds- go for walks around your neighbourhood, and other random areas - when you start looking it's surprising what you notice, and what you find you like and don't like - even tips on basic proportions. For example we'd been very unsure how to finish the "outside" walls of the bed, until we saw a 9" wall with a double tile crease, and instantly thought "that's it".
What did you fill it with bearing in mind the comments from others earlier, just topsoil or a mixture of different layers?
Just topsoil provided by the landscaping company. There's a small layer of broken bricks, a bit of sand, a few lumps of excess mortar, empty B&H packets, that sort of thing, at the bottom, but we didn't bother with any proper layering. The only thing we did do was to put a layer of heavy duty membrane on top of the soil, and then a good 50mm of bark. It's kept the weeds down a treat, but it has provided a perfect toilet for the *&$£&^!#@~&!/<~;% cats...
(Been collecting teabags - will probably get some Olbas Oil tomorrow. I wanted to investigate miniature anti-personnel mines, but Mrs Sheds said no. I didn't want to kill them, just blow off the odd paw, maybe take out an eye, but she still said no.)
I'd also been wondering about chucking some lights in too - and yours looks good.
They were a struggle to find as well - virtually the entire market for outside lights seems to have polarised into at one end the cheapest tat that can be made that won't disintegrate as the lorry leaves the factory, and at the other end money-no-object products made by military aerospace contractors in their spare time.
In the end we found these:
http://www.lightahome.co.uk/outdoor-lighting-oslo.htm - we've got the top one on the side of the pier and two of the freestanding ones next to the wall.
And I'll have you know I didn't throw them in - they were carefully and skillfully installed, and the circuit was tested before being energised.
Full story on that part of it here:
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=127965&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=
What kind of cable did you use? Armoured?
Of course.
