How to Build a Rock Wall Planter

Ron's next stop is in Boulder, Colorado where he visits Ann Blonston's beautiful mountain home. This house, situated at an elevation of 7200 feet, has an outstanding view of a National Park. It is no wonder that Ann enjoys entertaining out on her deck. She has asked Ron to come and help her construct a dry stack stone wall and planter box from Colorado sand stone, quarried in Lyons, Colorado just 30 miles North of Boulder. This type of stone border is unique to the Boulder area and will help create an inviting pathway from the front of her home around to the side deck.

Click Here For a list of what you will need in order to complete this project.

1. Planter layout:

• The first thing that Ron recommended was a little layout work. Ron asked Ann to get her garden hose and they used it to create the curved shape of the planter. After Ann decided exactly what shape she liked, they used spray paint to mark the outline of the new wall.

2. Prepare flat surface:

• They needed a flat surface or foundation to build the wall on so Ron and Ann smoothed out a strip about 12 inches wide just inside the paint line. They used a tamper to compact the soil, which would prevent the wall from settling unevenly.

3. Sort and stack stones:

• The palette of rock was delivered close by, which is a good idea whenever you have to move heavy stone, but the rocks still needed to be sorted.

• They divided the stones into three piles. The largest stones were stacked in a pile closest to the wall location, the medium sized ones were placed in the middle and the small ones were placed in the back.

4. Build the wall:

• They began with the largest stones. These would form the strongest possible base for the wall. These large stones were distributed as evenly as possible along the painted line.

• With the stones actually touching, they began putting the wall together, stone by stone. After all of the largest stones put in place, they began filling it in with the medium sized rocks. This type of wall is called a dry stack wall because no mortar is used in its construction. These walls cannot exceed a height of 18 inches unless the base is at least three layers wide or built on a concrete foundation. If the stones are stacked too high, the excessive weight will cause the wall to sink and settle unevenly. Ron measured the height of the wall to get an idea of how much further up they could go.

• The top couple of layers of the wall were stacked using the smallest rocks. Ann's wall was built on a gentle slope, so they used a line level to create a wall that was stacked higher at one end and then gradually diminished into the upward slope. They attached the line level to a place on the deck that was even with the highest part of the wall. The line level helped them to determine that the top of the wall was both level and at the right height.

5. Landscape fabric:

• Before they put the dirt into the planter, Ron recommended installing landscape fabric or weed cloth to the backside of the wall. The cloth would help prevent weeds and grass from growing through the wall. They installed the cloth by actually tucking it up underneath some of the rocks in the upper rows.

• The piece that formed the front edge of the potting bench was also the piece that was designed to hold the two end pieces together. Once the front edge was in place, they clamped it firmly to the frames.

6. Add soil:

• It takes a large amount of dirt to fill a planter this size so they first tossed in a few rocks that were in the nearby area. The rocks take up space and also help with the drainage. Once the rocks were distributed in the bottom of the planter, the topsoil was finally added.

7. Planting:

• The actual planting was more Ann's area of expertise so she took over with the direction and Ron became the assistant. Ann wanted to get a feel for the color and height distribution of the plants before they started placing them in the ground to avoid any replanting later.

• They placed the higher and brighter plants to the back and the lower and darker plants toward the front so they wouldn't get lost in the background.
• All of the plants in Ann's selection had proven themselves to withstand Colorado's widely varying temperatures.