How to Plant a Garden Wall
A garden wall can be used like any standard wall, to divide or section off your garden, but it can be used for other purposes, as well. For instance, garden walls are often used as retaining walls for raised beds. By using natural materials for your garden wall, like wood and stone, you can give your organic wall an organic feel. When you build a wall, envision planting it, instead of constructing it, to reinforce its role as a natural part of the yard. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
- Wood stakes
- String
- Shovel
- Sand
- Stone blocks, paving stones or railway sleepers
- Level
Instructions
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1
Measure the area of your yard where you want to put the garden wall to determine how many stone blocks, paving stones or railway sleepers you will need. When you purchase your materials, buy an extra 10 percent so that you are covered in the case of mistakes.
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2
Place stakes at each corner of the location where you want to put in the garden wall. Connect the stakes by tying and running string between them. When you finish, you will see where you need to dig.
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3
Dig a trench along the line where the string runs to a depth of approximately 12 inches. Make the trench just wide enough to accommodate the building material you selected for the garden wall. Pour sand into the trench until the trench is roughly half full, and smooth out the sand so that it is as level as you can get it.
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4
Lay your first blocks, paving stones or sleepers on top of the sand. Continue until the bottom row of the wall is level all the way across.
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5
Stack the building materials to the height that you want. If you are building a wall no higher than 2 feet, you may not need any type of adhesive or hardware to secure the materials. If you build a higher wall, however, use the adhesive recommended by the manufacturer between each row of blocks, stones or sleepers to prevent a collapse.
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6
Return the dirt that you removed from the trench to the space around the base of the garden wall if there are gaps between the wall and the ground. Press the soil into the trench around the base of the wall to create a firm base to help secure the wall in place. Remove any of the remaining soil that you dug out.
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Tips & Warnings
When using adhesive on a garden wall, apply it between each row of building material. Because the bottom of the wall is beneath the ground and lies on sand, you do not generally need to use adhesive to secure the bottom row. Instead, begin applying adhesive on top of the first row, and use adhesive on each following rows.
