How do I make a rock garden wall?

A great garden can really improve the feel of your whole home - this is especially true if you live in a warmer climate; there's sometimes nothing better than having your friends over in the summer to sit outside.  However, this experience is of course all the better if you have a well constructed garden.

When designing a garden, there really are limitless possibilities, but one of my favourites is the rock garden.  It's a very versatile way to build your garden, and many rock garden designs can be as large or as small as you want.  So if you still want a lawn, for example, you can constrain your rocks to one part of the whole yard.

There are a few considerations to take into account.  They include:

• Space constraints (which isn't a major problem; as mentioned above you can put the rocks in mostly any space).
• The color and design of the whole garden.
• The type of rocks you'll need to use and how to actually construct the wall surrounding this patch of garden.

The first two points concern the question, “What does a rock garden look like?”  I can leave to you – this is really down to your own garden and your own sense of style (it means that before you start, you'll need to think of some rock garden ideas).  After this, the hardest part is generally how do I make a rock garden wall?  Although each wall will be different, here are some general guidelines:

• How much rock do I need for my rock garden? This really depends on how big of a wall you want; the actual building material is something that can be any type of heavy stone you'd like. This will be what's called a “freestone” (otherwise called drystone) wall, and this type of wall is held together simply with the weight of the stone. This means that it's absolutely essential that you pick heavier natural stone. It's usually quite easy to find a building supplier in most areas to supply this type of stone.
• After you've chosen the rocks you'll need to determine how high the wall should be. If it's anything over about 1 meter in height, I would recommend consulting a builder. This is because, the higher the wall becomes, the more unsafe it can also get (again, remember that that this type of wall is not held together by mortar, but by the weight of the rocks alone.
• The building of the wall will be heavy and sometimes dirty work, so ensure you wear sturdy shoes and clothes that you could stand to get ruined.

• Before you start you should inspect your pile of rocks, and pick out any that are curved or have a right angle to them, because these can later be used as the edges of the wall.
• Next you should use markers and string to mark out where the edges of the wall will lie. Dig down inside the markers (about 6 to 12 inches should suffice) to make a sort of foundation. Begin laying the first stones of the wall into this foundation – the first set of rocks you use should be the biggest, heaviest and flattest from those available. When you reach the edge of the wall, or it needs to curve around a corner, use the curved (or right-angled) stones you picked out and put to one side earlier.
• Continue to build layer after layer, always putting one stone onto the crack between the two below it. As you started with the biggest, thickest and heaviest stones, you should use increasingly small stones for each layer, with the very smallest ones available right at the top. Due to this, the wall should have a natural slope, and it's best to make the slope go inward.
• When the wall is finished, it's very important to check that it's stable and can't be moved by the wind etc. Where there is space showing in the trench / foundation you dug earlier, fill this with soil and, if you'd like, plant grass or other plants around it.

After the wall is built and you've constructed your whole garden, just ensure that you regularly maintain it with tools such as the petrol hedge trimmer etc.