Dry stone walls in a small garden. Tips on building drystone walls
-
For best looking walls use local stone. Make sure that all the stones lie flat.
-
Mark the course of the wall with string.
-
With a slight inclination away from any slope, dig out the foundations to +/- 40cm deep.
-
Coarse gravel will make a perfect drainage layer. If you have a steeper slope, you will have to use another drainage pipe behind the wall.
-
Fill up the entire width of the wall with very large stones as the first layer.
-
Lay smaller stones underneath irregularly formed large stones
-
Bridged cracks between stones by lying stones above them.
-
Don't lay more than two courses of narrow stones beside a thicker stone.
-
Plant trailing perennials with a bit of soil in the cracks while building the wall.
-
Remember that the wall must lean slightly away from the direction of the slope whilst building.
-
Fill up the space behind the wall with rubble and larger stones and with packed-in soil between the stones and the slope whilst building.
-
Make the top layer more stable with larger stones.
Steps
Steps should be designed to accommodate the average length of a footstep. The following formula is used for steps : 2 x height + surface of step = 64; 70 for shallower steps. The step itself should be 34cm wide with a height of 15cm; with a height of 12cm the surface must be 46cm. Built stable steps out of slabs set on edge in most ground covering materials. Wooden batten steps held in position by posts is less expensive but don't last very long. Side reinforcements of edging slabs or natural stone might emphasize the course of the steps but will also look very different or strange in a garden. Form a harmonious transition from steps to garden by planting ground -covering plants of herbaceous perennials along the edges.