Stone wall for a garden

[Tom Bender]

In Michigan and other northern climates rock walls are uncommon because it is challenging to make them so they withstand deep frost. In warmer climates they are more common. Kentucky has many miles of low walls laid up without foundations or mortar. They last many decades before needing to be taken down and rebuilt. Britain is filled with high walls (like you saw in Europe). You should get advice from someone with experience relevant to your climate. Better to hire a stonemason to build it.

If this is your first stone wall, it will probably look as good as your first dovetail. My father taught me just a little about laying up a dry wall. (one stone on top of two, two on top of one) This is a start but nowhere near enough to make yours look good.

I have done a decent job using concrete units because there is little art and just a lot of heavy lifting.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

[Jim Andrew]

You might check out the manufactured retaining wall blocks that the home centers are selling. You dig out a footing, fill the footing with crushed rock, and stack the blocks, filling on the backside with gravel. The gravel will let water through, so the wall is not pushed over by the weight of water.

[Jim Becker]

You might check out the manufactured retaining wall blocks that the home centers are selling. You dig out a footing, fill the footing with crushed rock, and stack the blocks, filling on the backside with gravel. The gravel will let water through, so the wall is not pushed over by the weight of water.

Stacked manufactured block walls can be stand-alone, too. However, there is a height limit that is less than the 6 feet the OP is thinking about.

[John Christian]

i now live on Gabriola island is the gulf island incredibly mild, but yeah i will probably have to be weather concious and hoard.

[John Christian]

free standing, garden fence, but i appreciate the feedback on the retaining wall answers too

[Tom M King]

Every stone you lay needs to have as level, through the wall, as possible top side. A large flat gives plenty of opportunity for the stone sitting on it to have good support. For instance, if one stone has a large flat on one side, and a small flat on the opposite side, first choice is large flat on top. Don't lay a stone with a sloped top thinking you can work around it tomorrow.

It's quicker to pick up a stone, and find somewhere to put it, than to look for a stone to fit in one spot. You can't avoid it sometimes, but you don't want to have to every time. For this reason, it doesn't take multiple times as long to build a stone fireplace, that's stone all the way around, as it does to just face one. If you pick up a stone, and walk around the chimney, you can usually find a place to put it, whereas with a single face, there is a lot of looking for the right stone.

Don't put good corner stones in the wall. Save them for the corners, or ends.

Use as few vertical, head joints stacked on top of each other as possible, and never go above an adjoining large stone with stacked head joints.

Ideally, you want at least 1/3 of a stone crossing a head joint.

You can only go so high any day. Stone doesn't suck moisture out of mortar like bricks and blocks do, so it's much slower to set up. Max height will vary with several factors, but you'll get a feel for it in short order. If it starts to slump, or slide, you're going too high.

Wear gloves that protect your hands from the mortar. As tempting as it is to pack it in by hand, mortar will eat little holes in your skin that are very painful.

Clean, with a brush, and tool, or rake (if you're going to) the joints at the end of the day. It's much easier to do while the mortar is green.

Don't use dirty stones. It will make a weak wall. I try to avoid using dirty stones, but if that's what we have to work with, they get pressure washed days before being used.

I'm sure I've forgotten something.

[John Christian]

thank you very much

[Tom M King]

One thing I forgot is to mix your mortar stiff. Only put in enough water to make it up, but nowhere nearly as much as you would for brick, or block. It should be so stiff that a mortar hoe with holes in it won't do you any good. A small, but strong garden hoe is best. For a half day's work, it will have to be stirred up several times, with a little more water added each time just so you can "shake it up", as the laborers call it.

With no mixer, put the mix in the back of a wheelbarrow, or box, and water in the front. Pull mix into the water, and chop as you go. Measure water, and figure out the right amount to start with, so you find for X amount of mix, you need to start with Y amount of water. It's worth a little extra time to start with to figure out the most efficient procedure.