Building A Rock Wall Garden

A rock wall can be a long lasting distinctive addition to any garden or yard.

Building a rock wall garden.

If you have a small area often the best design is a simple round raised bed made of select rocks this design can fit neatly into any well chosen nook and will. Contemporary terrace gardens and retaining walls tend to be much smaller and modest in most residential landscaping designs and while some are works. Constructing a wall is backbreaking work but the results will be a structure that will for last for generations. Join me as i build my first ever dry stack retaining wall.

All kinds including wood rock stone brick gabion concrete low garden and more. Want to build your own stone retaining wall but unsure how to start. Try to cut the ditch into native soil rather than loose added soil as the former provides a more stable foundation for the wall. Dry stacking with no mortar is the quickest method to build a rock wall but it won t last.

This ditch will act as the wall s footing and prevent the rocks from sliding forward due to pressure from the earth behind. Terrace gardens date back to ancient times and are still a beautiful but rarely seen luxury in modern times. Though it can be hard work building a rock wall is well worth the effort whether it will be used as a retaining wall foundation or garden fence. If you an uneven yard a stone retaining wall can help prevent erosion and provides a nice place to plant.

Regretfully there aren t many ideal rocks available so look for angular rocks with the most flat faces. This will allow me to terrace my property and give me more usable space for gardening play. Dry stone walls are methodically stacked rock structures that can be damaged by people animals and weather. Dig a ditch the length of the wall that is about a foot wide and 8 to 12 inches 20 5 cm 30 5 cm below the ground level.

Once built you ll have a rock solid retaining wall without all the heavy mortar lines. Rock garden designs can range from to sprawling naturalistic creations to faux dried river beds to rustic mounds of stones soil and plants it all depends on your preferences and the amount of space and rock you have to work with. Dig a trench that s below the frost line and 2 feet wider than the wall. Prepare the footing photo by russell kaye.

The key to building a wall using mortar is when you apply the mortar it needs to go evenly onto the run of stones that are set. If you live in bakersfield los angeles or one of the other big cities with no rocks except by the pound from the local materials company look around for somebody removing some concrete. An ideal rock has six parallel faces like a brick. How to build a rock wall 1.

This prevents mortar from running down the face of the wall. Line it with landscape fabric overlapped 12 inches at the seams add a 6 inch layer of inch stone and tamp it.