rock wall

katrinkemp

Dear All, I build a wall with rocks to retain the soil and bark behind it. Is there anything i can do to make it more secure? Have some soil in between the rocks maybe?
thanks 

RoddersUK

I doubt the height of soil will make a wall that lowove, unless you'll be walking over it a lot?
Does it get sunny there at all, you could plant sedums etc... In the gaps.

Plantminded

They look like quite heavy stones - as long you have placed them as level as possible they should be fine.  You could plug some of the larger gaps with smaller stones to add extra security but I wouldn't bother with soil or plants - birds find them attractive and try to remove them! 

I have a similar low wall in my garden and have learned which parts are more stable to stand on, but usually just step up onto the bed behind.  As time goes on, some of the soil from the bed at the back will filter down with the weather and plug some of the gaps naturally.  If the area is shaded, mosses will also find a home there in time and add extra interest.

Uff

Your wall is fine katrinkemp. If it makes you feel better go with Plantminded's suggestion and fill the holes with small stones. Drystone dykers (that's what they are called up here) have a name for the small stones and it's slipped my mind. See part of my wall below to copy. It's holding a laurel hedge back and I walk behind it. 

Fairygirl

I don't think you need to worry too much, although it can help if there's a backward slope with rocks placed like that [the wall would angle back, bas to top, into the soil] but you can either stick the small stones in, or you could re do it with some mortar to help bind it together. I appreciate you might not want to do it again though!
I've never had a problem with birds taking plants out. The little common sedum - acre, would colonise those holes readily, Saxifrages etc too, and so would Ajuga if it's damper. 

I think it's called Hearting @Uff. The window cleaner that used to do our windows a long time ago, was a drystone waller. He did a lot of the walls in and around Glen Fyne  

Uff

No it isn't that here Fairygirl. It's a short name something like nips, thinking about it it could be pins. 

Fairygirl

I think pinning or pinnings is another term, but I thought that was more for the stones that hold across the walls - ie to pin them. 

Uff

Aye, could be. I'll ask him 

Liriodendron

Those long stones going from one side to the other are called "throughs" in Swaledale.  Don't know what the little ones are called that you use to stop the big ones from wobbling though - I use a lot of those...