How to Build a Garden Wall in 9 minutes

[@Homunculae]

Thank you sir your videos are tremendous and greatly appreciated.

[@KayleighCornell-hs1hc]

Wow! This was fantastic! Thank you!

[@ifixeditmyself1926]

This was extremely helpful!👌🏽

[@LTaylorPGA1]

Well done

[@rtzzz9772]

Very professional work on this. And very helpful for the DIY project.

[@BE3nnj11]

Hey thanks for such a succinct and informative video. I am about to build my first dry-stacked stone wall for a client. It's ~20 ft long, 2 ft high. I was thinking of starting at a 20" width at the bottom and tapering a bit towards the top. I will either be using 1-3" or 2-5" colonial bluestone. I'm trying to estimate how many days it will take myself and my helper to complete. Any advice or thoughts you may have would be greatly appreciated!

[@thebackyardexpert]

So great to hear! Jump right in. It will be slow at first and don’t be afraid to undo some work if the next day you aren’t happy with it. It can be mentally taxing. For your first time it could take about a week, but you will learn a lot. Keep us posted!

[@ronjennings7533]

Great information! How do you deal with existing tree roots? We have a pin oak in our backyard, around which we've built a garden. We would like to add a stacked stone wall about 5 feet from the trunk, but we will have to work around a couple of large roots that are just proud of the surface of the soil.

[@gerardbraun]

Watched you video many times as I am ready to build my wall without the mistakes I have made in the past that you mention. My wall is approximately 16” high and is for a planting bed. I do not want to use too much gravel on the back side that will limit shrub depth. What is the minimum gravel I can use on the back side for acceptable drainage? THANK YOU!

[@thebackyardexpert]

For a wall that size a few, 3-6” should be plenty to create some space to separate the soil from the wall. Thanks for watching.

[@gillc1969]

A very helpful video! And excellent workmanship! Along with the gravel backfill for drainage, is a corrugated drain tile also needed at the base of the wall? And should any landscape fabric be used to between the gravel backfill and the dirt behind the gravel? Thanks!

[@nelsongunter9708]

Thanks for this video! I was just about to start one very similar. Though when I went to my local stone provider, they said I need CMU block (basically cinderblock) behind the wall or it will fall over. The wall you built is similar in size (height 18-20") and has similar size flagstone rock. Is CMU block necessary, or when is it necessary and is there a size flagstone (thickness) you'd recommend?

[@thebackyardexpert]

Sounds like you need a new supplier. For 24” in height you’ll be fine following the video if you go 14-16” in depth.

[@nelsongunter9708]

@@thebackyardexpert Thank you for responding quickly! Appreciate the help!

[@CollinRoche]

Any reason you didn’t use filter fabric?

[@CollinRoche]

If I want to build a retaining wall at sitting height, what do you think about dry stack vs mortar?

[@mamafoor]

We want to build a small scale wall to divide the grass from a wild area of our yard. Can we use these techniques for something about 8-10 inches deep and about 10 inches high?

[@greendreamsturfmanagement9773]

Can you list the stone tools you use for dry stack? Or links?

[@thebackyardexpert]

Try this kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGrbi2dtbcqGras

[@jamesjames9149]

How do prevent large weeds from growing through and knocking your stones out of place . My weeds are driving me nuts

[@thebackyardexpert]

you can try vinegar/water/salt mix. several recipes online

[@Alpha_Orionis_99]

No glue?

[@BobWidlefish]

5:28 you didn’t say how much backfill? Or how wide the gravel base is in front of and behind the wall stones? Roughly how many inches or what proportions are the various gravel dimensions compared to the wall? Or maybe said another way: how many pounds of gravel of each type did you use per unit of wall?

[@thebackyardexpert]

its good for the base to be about 6" wider on the front and back for an average wall. Hard to answer the backfill question because every wall and native backfill are different. Generally speaking 6" behind the wall for every foot in height sounds reasonable till you get up to about 18". Beyond that you are getting into structural backfill which isnt addressed in the video.