garden stone retaining wall

 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.

 

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 here:
http://www.pavestone.com/retail/
http://www.allanblock.on.ca/products.html
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=DIY+retaining+wall

 sams@freeddns.org (sams) writes:

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.

 


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.

 

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