Haven’t been too active here lately, life and all. Here’s a project I have been working on since last summer, a little at a time: dry stack stone wall. The side yard of my property has an annoying hill from leveling the site that’s not really good for anything. I’ve landscaped it and tried figs on it, but nothing has really thrived.
I’ve been gathering rocks from wherever I can and slowly building. Fortunately(?) I live on a rocky slope and the area around my work is known for field stone. Ultimate goal is providing more useful, level space at the bottom and top. Plus I think it looks pretty good.
I’m currently working on how to build it around this Ronde de Bordeaux fig tree, it’s always been one of my better trees so it shall remain. Many others have been eliminated for lack of performance.
Nice! (A brief word of advice: take care of your back.)
A neighbor where I grew up in rocky hill country terraced a fair amount of his back yard with large cobbles, smaller than what you are using but maybe the size of a loaf of bread, and then filled with leaves to level, repeating over the years. Worked out beautifully and gave him some good soil.
I’ve moved a few good-sized ones, and using levers and benches or stools I’ve moved a couple I should not have without any permanent damage so I’m not saying it can’t be done! And hemorrhoids do go away on their own, sometimes …
Expert work!
I, too, decided to enclose fig with rock walls. Eager to take temp on a warm summer day …because it’s seldom ‘fig-loving’ hot here.
Unlike your beautiful fieldstones, I have no-flat sided rocks!
What’s the fig variety? I recently went down the fig rabbit hole here and ordered several cuttings from Figaholics. Leaned towards the LSUs and ones described as excellent.
I haven’t had fruit yet from my newbs: Cara Cara, Ruby Red grapefruit or Gold Nugget mandarin, nor my pomes: Wonderful, Parfianka, and Sharp Velvet. All must live in pots, at least for now.
Nationwide, to my knowledge, the limit is 4’ vertical before a permit is required. Local regulations may vary. By excavating the bottom of the stack at least one tier, it provides a solid foundation to start from. Similarly to concrete walls like versa-lock, you want to offset each new tier a bit into the hillside you are building to account for any settling and bowing outward after filling behind the wall. Additionally, it’s good practice to fill with porous material (Penndot #2B is what I use) to limit freeze thaw challenges.
My brother did landscaping for a few years and with his guidance I’ve built about 90 feet of dry stacked sandstone wall around my house from rock I excavated at work and brought home, mostly one subaru load at a time, some with the truck.
This fig is Black Jack, a dwarfish variety, hoping to keep at 6’. My other monster fig tree is a 40 year old delicious Desert King.
You are on the dry side of Maui, right? I’m sure your figs will love it there!
Stones look like shale, one of my favorite rocks. Hit it on the top and its iron-solid, hit it from the side and it crumbles so easily. When i was a kid i used to spend hours cracking them open looking for fossils;) nice wall!
I drive past this vineyard on my way to work every day. The dry stacked wall enclosing it is a thing of beauty. I love how they incorporated boulders into the structure. The funny thing is, on the south side it looks like they ran out of money (I can’t imagine this was cheap to construct) and the walls there don’t look anywhere as nice.
Thanks! I was fortunate to have a nice supply and be able to separate the shale and poorer quality ones as I pulled it out of an 18’ deep pond we dug. Having equipment available to speed up the process makes a huge difference.
Just wondering if you might not get more usable space by terracing. You might have to bring in some extra amendments to fill in. Maybe something like terraces that are 8-10 feet wide. You would end up with NO slope and you could use shorter stone walls for each terrace, though wood walls would take up less space.
Made some good progress this week. I paced it at nearly 50’ long. Hopefully this will create a good microclimate for the RdB fig so it produces better.
Recently listened to The Forest Garden and they were discussing stone walls to attract snakes and other beneficial critters for pest (varmint) management. They mentioned how expensive stone walls can be, I am very fortunate to have sourced the material at a low cost.
This past fall I observed either a lizard or a skink scurrying around the front driveway, close to the stone wall I built below our ‘not a deck’. I’m 100% convinced that little guy lives in our wall, and I am so excited to be providing microclimates/habitat like that so I can spray less and fence less and let nature control more pests for me.
