Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

Appreciate any adivise or directions.

Sam.

"sams" wrote in message
m...
Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

Appreciate any adivise or directions.

There are many good books on landscaping and garden structures at bookstores
and home improvement centers. You might browse some of them for ideas. I
think the snake thing is irrational. If you don't have snakes now, I doubt
that they will be a problem in the future. Of course most snakes are
harmless to people and beneficial in controlling rodents and insect pests.

There are morterless retaining wall blocks of various sizes and colors
available at home improvement centers. You can look he
http://www.pavestone.com/retail/
http://www.allanblock.on.ca/products.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...retaining+wall

(sams) writes:
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

hmmmm... you could use a recessed morter technique to have the dry
stack look without earth access for critters to tuck in.
(depending on the depth of the hole they might still hunker down in
the wall.)

lining the soil side of the wall with heavy duty lanscaping
fabric/diamond mesh might accomplish the same thing.


--
be safe.
flip
Verso l'esterno! Verso l'esterno! Deamons di ignoranza.

"sams" wrote in message
m...

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back
yard.

I've done several of those and found them very satisfying. In my case I used
the natural stones lying around, of which I had many. Never had a problem
with snakes living in them (but then here in Eastern Ontario snakes aren't
very scary) but rodents do find them handy.

You can help to stabilize them by spreading them out on the ground before
installation and spending some time eyeballing them for a good fit. It takes
a while but you can come up with impressive results without mortar.

Good luck.

You can help to stabilize them by spreading them out on the ground before
installation and spending some time eyeballing them for a good fit. It takes
a while but you can come up with impressive results without mortar.

Good luck.




Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book
which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face
of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram)
would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme
of things; HUGE structures were made without it.

hermine stover

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 01:51:50 GMT, hermine stover
wrote:

HUGE structures were made without it.
At great cost and with craftsman, hardly a comparison for half assed
concrete blocks!

"hermine stover" wrote in message
...

Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book
which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face
of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram)
would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme
of things; HUGE structures were made without it.

You mean - like pyramids?? I've climbed over some of the oldest known
pyramids down in central Mexico, and it'd be more than I'd want to tackle in a
week. ;-)

Tom J

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 18:08:50 -0800, Tom Jaszewski
wrote:

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 01:51:50 GMT, hermine stover
wrote:

HUGE structures were made without it.
At great cost and with craftsman, hardly a comparison for half assed
concrete blocks!


I was not suggesting Stonehenge or Easter Island stone heads; nor had
the idea of concrete blocks, half or whole-assed, even enter'd my mnd!
i was just encouraging the lad to build a dry stone wall!
i was not even referencing those charming stone beehives one finds all
over Eire!


check this out:
http://www.stoneline.ch/english/drystone.php
hermine stover

(sams) wrote in message om...
Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.


Snakes and wasps can be a problem unless the joints between the stones
are extremely tight. Dressing granite to get that close a fit would
be a huge task.


J. Del Col

(sams) wrote in message
om...
Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

I've used stacking bricks & ritzier stackable stones to create garden
barriers & in one long spot a cliff wall where was formerly a slope. They
never shift, they do exactly what they're supposed to without being
cemented in. A neighbor made a major earth-retaining wall out of
stacking-bricks about head-high, & this seems pretty stable too, despite
the unusual height, but when I looked at it I had to admit it looked
tacky. It looked like some amateur with no finer option stacked some
blocks bought at Lowe's or Home Depot. He'd even installed one of those
black moulded fish ponds, looked about as natural as some kids' plastic
wading pool. All the guy needed to complete the effect would be some
plastic flowers stuck in the cracks of the wall, & a chorus line of
garden-trolls around the pond.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

(paghat) writes:
a chorus line of garden-trolls around the pond.

you know, i was with you until here... and i emphatically maintain
that there is nothing wrong with a troll who has a lifestyle choice of
being a dancer...

--
be safe.
flip
Verso l'esterno! Verso l'esterno! Deamons di ignoranza.

years ago, in the '30's one of my aunts had a lot down from a gravel
road that went VERY STEEPLY down to a creek. this was in Missouri near
ST Louis and the property sprouted rocks like the garden sprouts
radishes. each rain brought more up. she patiently gathered them each
day as weather and time permited and built a rock, morterless wall
about 2 feet wide at the top across the front of the property to
protect it from water from the road, then down the north side going
down the very step hill. i loved it.. have loved it in my memories for
years but when i visited the place in about 1984 new owners, had torn
it all down saying that it had become rat infested.. i think i would
have done something about the rats.. not the wall! it had been there
about 40 years with no breaks.
lee h

(sams) wrote in message om...
Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

Appreciate any adivise or directions.

Sam.

On 11 Nov 2003 15:58:41 -0800, (Lee) wrote:

years ago, in the '30's one of my aunts had a lot down from a gravel
road that went VERY STEEPLY down to a creek. this was in Missouri near
ST Louis and the property sprouted rocks like the garden sprouts
radishes. each rain brought more up. she patiently gathered them each
day as weather and time permited and built a rock, morterless wall
about 2 feet wide at the top across the front of the property to
protect it from water from the road, then down the north side going
down the very step hill. i loved it.. have loved it in my memories for
years but when i visited the place in about 1984 new owners, had torn
it all down saying that it had become rat infested.. i think i would
have done something about the rats.. not the wall! it had been there
about 40 years with no breaks.

For the rats, you need a couple of Patterdale Terriers! tiny dogs, as
hard as a baseball, and devoted to rooting out and murdering vermin.
POISON FREE rat control..However, i have a feeling the disposessed
rats will find somewhere else, having lived in Boston, a city famous
for waterfront rats larger than a medium sized cat.
I LOVE the story about your AUNT!

my husband is from MO.

hermine

"sams" wrote in message
m...
Hi,

Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my
back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard
width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling
slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and
make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall.

Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a
possiblility?
I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to
improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into
beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar,
but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home.

Appreciate any adivise or directions.

Sam.

Are you using existing rocks from your yard or are you purchasing stone? A
dry laid stone wall is much much harder to do than you think, especially if
it is your first one. Whatever stone you have, you need to lay them out on
the ground and "sort" them. Think of it as a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle. The
yard will look like a disaster zone before you lay your first rock.
Depending on the type of stone you use, you will need more than is actually
in the wall because some of the stones just don't fit anywhere. This is
assuming you are trying to get a tighter fit with somewhat flat faces, as
opposed to a farmer's rubble wall.

Using some of your old large plastic garden pots, throw the useless or
smaller rocks into them. At certain points when building your wall, you'll
need filler in the middle. Just grab a bucket full of these rocks and pour
it in and work them into any larger voids.

The wall should be at least as wide (at the base) as it is tall. As far as
tools, a rock hammer, handheld sledge and a cold chisel (don't forget the
safety glasses) and lots of gloves (you'll wear them out real fast). You'll
eventually figure out where the seams in a granite rock are.

Here's one safety tip I learned the hard way... you see the perfect rock but
it's toward the bottom of the pile or wedged in with some other rocks. DON'T
try to just pull it out and save time. Spend the extra minute to take the
other rocks away from it. One small slip and you'll have a smashed finger or
hand and you won't be working on your wall for a while.

-al sung
Rapid Realm Technology, Inc.
Hopkinton, MA (Zone 6a)

hermine stover wrote:
Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book
which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face
of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram)
would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme
of things; HUGE structures were made without it.

But without mortar, old walls were built with carefully dressed
stones. The joints were so perfect, not even a knife blade could
be inserted. And the walls were quite thick since only gravity
kept them from falling.

--

David E. Ross
http://www.rossde.com/

Concerned about someone snooping into your E-mail?
Use PGP. See my http://www.rossde.com/PGP/