Starting a new thread
Rock Wall Construction Part 2
Bill, I am VERY impressed! Any idea how old the "old wall" is, that you say was badly put together?
Doc, that house is beautiful!!!
Gorgeous!
Hi Dawn! Where have you been?
Hi Carrie - the old wall was built 10 years ago with the house. i'm sure the builder just wanted something that looked good at the time - i've been repairing it for the last few years as it has crumpled and the stone used broke down from the winters. never realised how badly it was put together until i began tearing it down.
if you zoom in on this you will see how the wall i'm tearing down is falling out to the sides. Have taken down about 10+ ft. so far.
I like stone walls that are not so formal. Yes they do settle and need a bit of attention as time goes on. We are into rebuilding one of ours. The process if done correctly or done well seems to hold up for about twenty years. Our's is nearly three feet high. Gravity from the hillside soil and water movement pushes on it ever so little but every day of it's life. That is natures way of leveling the hill behind the wall. We can not fool Mother who would have every hill become a part of the flatland in her plan.
There you are Dawn!!! How are you???
I started this thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/906908/
and was worried when you hadn't responded.
You are so right about Mother Nature! I wonder how long our back hill garden will last.
Candyce.................Most losses are from fallow ground or bare ground over winter and very early spring. Funny............that is the exact time a cover crop of winter rye grass will germinate and grow you a green manure crop as well as hold onto the soil that likes to run away by various means. Five pounds of witner rye will nicely cover about a thousand square feet. I do not rake it in......just walk out there and hand sow lightly and come back over or add leftovers along the down hill side of the patch.
Your back hill garden will improve every year you do this. It should never wear out or be washed down the hill while holding a nice cover crop.
Anything else you add and till in before seeding the cover crop is a super plus for each item.....like manure, leaves, trace minerals and PH adjustment if required by test. Then a dollop of about six ounces of black strap molasses per thousand square feet added in water to feed your biological army for the winter's nap.
Dollop is an old old word habit of the Pennsylvania Dutch German folks. Translated it means a common sense application of anything. It is likely not found in any modern dictionary. Sorry about this....it is my childhood up bringings popping out now and again.
Other funny of difficult spellings from my desk are from a tired and somewhat worn out memory bank. Popeye said it best, " I are what I are". LOL
One day I had another interesting recall and usage of the word blurp. We bought molasses in the thirtys and forties by the blurp. It was about a pint but sold by the blurp. A blurp was the sound of the paddle lifting and spinning it out of an open barrel. When the hole went shut there was a blurp. A big blurp was a dime more but not as much as two blurps. Got the idea?
....and always to get an old order Dutch smile was mention of the sound of a one hand hand clap. When the motion was made one had to know the meaning and all smiled even more if someone in the association did not know what triggered the smiles.
And taxus if the botanical name for yew. Now yew know!
Karen
A dollop of whip cream on my pie please!
Pixie, watch that you don't get a big Tax-us for a dollop on the pork pie. Couldn't resist. I'll probable get banned for talking about the big blurp.
I have vol 1 through 4 of the Dictionary of American Regional English which is a treasure of the unique American words and usage that some of you might like to check out. The last vol is due out in 2009. Vol 1(A-C) was published in 1985, Volume II (D-H) came out in 1991, Volume III (I-O) in 1996, and Volume IV (P-S) in 2002. Here is a site that explains the work. Fascinating and fun to peruse. Patti
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html
could not resist - a pic looking towards the old wall and new construction
Reminds me of the transcontinental railroad!
here is a good pic of what i meant be the lousy job on the old wall - the middle is just crushed stone
victor i went out tonight and took shots of a lot of my walls and i posting them now - sit back and wait.
this is the front corner where the wall on the street was attached to the one going down the driveway
this is the wall going down the street - never got up here to rake this year - there are tiger lily's and BES and some purple coneflowers that i have been throwing in here. with the new house across the street it now gets afternoon sun after the cleared the lot.
here is the small wall i put in to make it easier to walk up the bank and it looks better too.
looking in the other direction. there are about 10 huge white pines here. all the "loose" stone is where i stored it for the wall construction.
When we moved in i put rody's here that did not get enough sun and lost most of them. I dug up a dozen little wild hemlocks from my sisters property in NH and built these little round walls behind each one.
this is another wall on the other side of the driveway that goes down the property line.
farther down
and more
more of the wall
this wall is over a 100 yds long - i took a few months to build - fortunately i worked from home at the time so i could play with it every evening.
one note on the pic back a few on the front wall curving and going down the driveway - behind is a sickly looking redbud that i transplanted and praying it will survive. watering twice daily - although it's leaves have turned brown and are dropping. will wait for spring and hope for the best. Have another little one in reserve from the arbor society if the worst occurs.
Amazing, Bill. What is the total length of stone walls that you have?
Really don't know - maybe 300 yds. the one on the hill in front was pretty easy it only took a day to build. took a few weeks to collect and canoe them over from the other side of the pond down back. it is only two high - they are all big & thick and relatively flat. so it went fast.
That's great looking, Bill. Hey, all that crushed stone from the old wall would be great for a rock garden for plants that like a gritty, well, drained soil. I have been wanting to do that, and need to find a place to get crushed stone of various sizes like that.
Karen
Oh my goodness, Bill! I want to live there!
Your stone works are truly fantastic, very impressive.
thx all - Karen i'm putting all those large containers you get buying trees to use to save the crushed stone. it will come in handy we i figure out where i will put down the half a pallet of brick left over from a walkway project for a monet wooden bench that has been in my basement for three years. the right spot has not "appeared" yet. wife was not pleased when she saw how much a paid for the bench and now can't understand why it is not outside. i think it needs to be by the pond i haven't built yet:)
Bill - did you once work with yellow bricks??
only use city pavers - no need for yellow bricks here only Kansas as far as i can tell.
Well, get going on that project, Bill! The wife is waiting.
Karen
Poor Bill!