Building a Stone Wall

Each summer I take on a complex jigsaw puzzle, piecing together colors and shapes until an image appears. Past puzzles include lighthouses, tropical fish, planets… the usual favorites.

This year I’m piecing together stone walls, a more pragmatic pursuit, I think, as I’ll end up with something permanent. Hmm. Well, permanence is what I’m striving for.

My husband and I are completing the landscaping of our yard following a 10-year plan. We’ve beaten back a bit of the woods (don’t worry, I’m a tree hugger too) and carved out a pretty little yard around our hilltop home in New England. Perennial gardens are set in every little sunlit space in between trees, with natural ferns and wild strawberries encroaching on the borders. It’s a big job taming a small plot of land in the woods of New Hampshire.

This last phase of landscaping involves flower beds set against the foundation on the east and south sides of our home. And that’s where I’m building the stone retaining walls.

It all began with the advice of a local guy. “We’d like you to deliver some rocks to be used in garden retaining walls,” we requested from this burly man who seems to know his way around the challenges of landscaping in our area. We pictured large, rectangular-ish rocks which simply needed to be stacked upon each other. No problem. We could handle it.

We arrived home after work one night to find shockingly large piles of blue stones in our driveway. They are definitely more stones than rocks, and there’s hardly a nice flat one to be found. We stood there, hands-to-mouths, staring at piles of impossibly small and irregular shaped wall building material. The stones average 6″ around, and come in every shape imaginable… none of which we could visualize stacking into a straight, strong wall.

We spent a few days walking past these piles as we came and went. We talked about the rocks, which we began calling them because it sounded less daunting. We stared at the rocks. We complained passionately about the rocks. We declared the task IMPOSSIBLE. We felt defeated. How would we complete this remaining job?

Turning the corner.

I have no idea when the mental shift took place. Perhaps I saw the pieces falling into place during a dream. Maybe the craftsman in me just figured the puzzle out. Maybe I just felt determined to finish the outside work once and for all! Suddenly one hot Saturday in June, I found myself picking up a rock… and then another. I moved them around in position after position, finally deciding that the key would be to make the front appear as uniform and flat as possible. Behind the flush front, other rocks were placed carefully (painstakingly, someone decided while looking at my project in process) to keep the structure stable.

Each rock is rotated in my small, leather-gloved hands until one flat section is identified. That flat section is the only part seen. Other rocks are added behind and on the sides of the front-row rocks. I find that my wall is most stable when it is 2-3 stones deep. It’s a laborious process, involving core strength that hadn’t been used during our l-o-n-g snowy winter.

After the first day, I had to ice my right hand–I hurt too much to even knit! The next day I felt every muscle in my body. Continuous work on my walls is building strength in me that makes me feel a bit younger. I have a slight spring in my step again. I feel my back and abdominal muscles coming back to life again.

And to my shock, I found that I just love the whole process! Building a stone wall is meditative. I’ve discovered the Zen of Stone Wall Building–hmm, possible book idea? I’ve been working on this during days off from my office job, and I actually have pretty little blue stone walls to show off. They’re many, many yards wide, and about 2 feet high. I’m rounding the corner now, connecting the two walls wrapping around the foundation gardens. The rock piles in the driveway are melting away, and our yard is looking pretty sharp. Nothing like stone walls to create a professional, finished look!

For those of you who want to try it, here are a few tips.

Just like a jigsaw puzzle.

• Order rocks a little larger than ours. Eight to ten inches would be much easier to work with.
• Don’t be intimidated when your rocks are delivered. It’s just like a jigsaw puzzle… just fit one rock at a time.
• Work with leather gloves. If you’re kneeling, use knee pads; I wore through a few layers of skin before I finally put the knee pads on.
• Create a good, steady bottom layer, setting your stones into the soil at the base.
• Listen to the birds and the neighborhood kids playing while you’re working. It’s a joyful experience.
• Either stretch string across your project area and level it, or keep a buddy nearby to tell you when you’re veering in or out. [Note to buddy: When you have to tell the wall builder that the wall is beginning to bow out, do it at a distance and carefully pass a bottle of cold water to her with a smile as she grumbles.]

• Leave yourself plenty of weekends to accomplish the job. It’s slow work.

• 

  Nice flat front, but the back is messy. I'll simply backfill with soil behind this garden wall.

  Once the front of the wall is flat and straight, fit rocks around the back to steady it all. Try putting your weight on each section to see if anything shifts. If so, curse… and then substitute some rocks before moving on. I work in about 12 inch sections.

• Keep the thin, flat rocks to complete the tops of your walls. Don’t worry if it’s really messy in the back. You can back-fill with soil to complete your walled garden.
• Take pictures as you go so you can brag. Building your own stone wall is pretty impressive.

So, don’t be afraid. Dive in! Use the rocks prevalent in your area to keep the cost down. And let me know how you’re doing as you put together your own stone wall puzzle this summer.