Hey Karin,

Thanks for the message. I'm not sure what the deal is with the email settings. They were already set to receive emails.

I really love your dry-stack stone border wall design. It really is stunning and so very appropriate in scale and form to the size and style of your borders. Very cool.

I've tried what you're doing with putting in a narrow mowing strip so you don't have to weed whack all the time (basically just a course of stone that is one layer thick w/weed barrier fabric underneath it to deter weeds).

I found that it worked great in the short run, but in the long run, not so much. The weeds/grass wiggled their way into the cracks between the stones and above the weed barrier fabric underneath.

Different gardens are different, but the best success I've had is by building short stone walls (flat stones, 2-3 layers high) and overlapping the seams to keep the weeds/grass from growing through. It's really worked great and looks pretty cool.

Granted, after mowing along the wall, I have to go back and weed whack along the wall, but it goes pretty quick.

In building the short stone wall edging, I've found that it helps to lay the stones so that the side of the wall facing the grass is a smooth edge and the side of the wall facing into the garden can be more random. Not sure if that translates without a visual. I'll try to post some pics.

In areas where the grass is particularly agressive, I've even placed that common type of black plastic edging underneath the stone wall to keep the grass from growing under the wall and up/into the garden beds. Extra work, but works great.

Please feel free to email me directly. I'm steve1young at yahoo dot com

Regards,
Steve

Hi Steve, thanks for the follow up!

Yes, that all makes sense. I agree that the grass will probably defeat the mowing strip in time. Not much can thwart grass! I think an edging material that goes down into the soil at the foot of the wall is an excellent idea. In my shorter wall, the grass has managed to come up into the bed behind it, but it's not too bad. The current wall is quite tall, so I'm hoping the grass isn't able to find a way up into the wall and the bed at the top. There is a lot of aggressive brome grass in this area but I've been trying to stay on top of that with Roundup and a paintbrush.

I'd love to see pictures of your work. Maybe we should start a new thread to call for stonework photos of all type?. It's so fun to see what others do.

Karin

Well, I was going to ask to see Karin's wall, but Karin, that's a great idea to start a new thread calling for stonework photos!

Dee

karin....

you can NOT reply to an email from GW ...

to reply privately to steve... you would click on his name.. go to his members page.. and then hit the SEND ME AN EMAIL link ...

but both of you.. when you do that.. you should include your direct email in your note.. so you can continue the discourse between yourselves...

just trying to teach you how.. not complaining or anything ...

i will be looking for the new wall post ....

ken

ps: you could have found his members page.. by putting his name in the GW search bar ...