How to Build Stone Walls With Rocks

Stone walls offer just the right opportunity for wall gardening. Stones remain a popular and attractive medium that get a lot of exposure in garden-making nowadays. Many plants can thrive in the environment that the stone walls give. Certain types of weeds and grasses grow well on stone walls. Certain herbs and flowers also look nice when embedded in a stone wall. Mosses and lichens give a lot of distinct details to accent a stone wall. Knowing about plants that accent stone walls creates a beautiful accent for your garden that many will admire.

Getting started

Step 1

Choose similar types of flat rocks and stones that can easily blend in your landscape. Go to garden specialty stores or online rock stores to learn about the variety of flat rocks available in the market today.

Step 2

Plan where to put the stone wall. Choose a location where people will easily see your wall. Consider putting your stone wall in a place where you need shade. Build a wall where sunlight or rain hits the wall so that the plants do not get deprived of either.

Step 3

Prepare a soil mixture to pack and fill in the spaces of rocks for the construction of the wall. This mixture of soil also serves as the place to put all the plants that you'll use to accent the stone wall. You must also mix in some gravel to the soil to make it coarser and it can have more texture in order to hold on to the rocks.

Step 4

Dig a trench to serve as a base for the stone wall. The trench is usually 4 inches deep, and you must first fill it up with gravel or sand. Level or tamp the base. Making it level will keep your stone wall more stable.

Step 5

Fit the rocks firmly at the base. Leave a space of about 1 inch between the layer of rocks. Cover each layer of rocks with an inch of the soil mixture. The mixture will help fasten the rocks together firmly. You can also make the rocks overlap each other to form a more natural look for the stone wall. You can also leave bigger spaces if you intend to put bigger plants between the rock layers. Finish the top layer by putting more soil where you can accent it with more plants.

Step 6

Cram or tuck in the plants, herbs, orchids or lavender in the spaces of soil. You can also fill in the blank spots with more soil and push it in. Use your fingers to push the plants to get them as far as you can to make their roots stable in the soil. Water the stone wall from top to bottom and let the water roll down the wall.