Natural Stone Walls

When most people think of stone walls it conjures up thoughts of a rural landscape with drystone walls separating fields of grazing animals, or of the beautiful walls lining some of the old roads dating back to the 1800s.  Building a natural stone wall in your own landscape can capture some of those feelings, right at home.

Of course, the original builders of those walls found the stones as they plowed the land, and just used them in the fields as a free material - today you're going to have to buy them!  But the concept of having the wall dry-laid is as sound now as it was then.  Unlike stone walls constructed with mortar, dry-laid walls are flexible, moving with the ground as it settles, and they also allow water to drain freely, reducing damage from frost and ice.

Because it is free-draining, a drystone wall can usefully be used as a retaining wall, in fact traditionally that is how such walls were built.  As water drains away naturally there is no need for a special drainage system for the wall and as long as the wall is thick enough (about a third as wide as it is high), and leans back into the earth it is retaining, it will provide many year's useful service.

A stone wall is a natural complement to a landscape, blending in with the earth and plantings while giving the area a mature look as though it had been there forever.

Stone walls also make a great habitat for plants, particularly those that like to climb or grow in small crevices.

When you are laying out your plans for a new landscape project, see if you can fit in a natural stone wall: it will add beauty and timelessness to your finished garden as well as helping to provide structure to the layout.  And it will be there for generations to come.