Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Garden walls

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Garden walls
  • Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:54:19 -0700

Lynn, clean the stones of all dirt and organic material with water from garden hose. This will make the wall stronger with less concrete-- cement does not much act as an adhesive but the infinite irregularities in field stone do provide grip. If your aggregate is small enough you can mix it and the sand and cement in a five-gallon bucket with a half-inch drill and a paint mixer with long handle.

If you mix in a wheelbarrow, use a hoe rather than a shovel. It's easier on the body. You don't need a masonry hoe with the big hole in the middle, any strong garden hoe will work.

Slip-form walls need minimal concrete in the interior where voids are no big deal but every eighteen inches or so lay some old wire or fence pieces across and bed them in concrete. Smoosh outside stones down into full concrete beds. In your climate you should round cap and smooth finish outside surfaces with mortar to avoid freeze cracking.

Or you can make such a wall as I described below and just fill it with dirt. The hardest work in ferrocement walls is tying the poultry mesh together. I will this summer be trying a new system of making ferrocement planks by casting them on the ground to eliminate the need to tie the mesh together. I developed the technique on the large raised ferro bed I made last summer--lay down the four layers of mesh and then lay clean rocks on them where they bow up to flatten them. Apply mortar to all remaining surfaces. Next day, remove the stones and finish the mortar application.

If you learn to do ferro then you can forget mixing concrete except for footings; ferro uses mortar, which mixes far more easily, just sand, cement and water.

On Feb 22, 2009, at 8:58 AM, Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:

Gene; Have you developed any easier ways to work with cement? Between
lugging the 80 pound bags, all the water, finding something large enough to
mix it in, the mess, making the forms, etc., I can't get up the gumption to
start my slipform wall project. It's going to be a short wall (2'-3') on the
north side of the herb bed to retain heat for the herbs (and look nice,
divides the garden from the orchard). Any hints?

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene GeRue" <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2009 10:38 AM
Subject: [Homestead] Garden walls



On Feb 21, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

The Nearings constructed slipform stone/concrete walls that are
faster and
stronger. It takes fewer stones, but you need concrete.

And yet, to fence in a 100' x 100' garden took them 14 years. Also,
if you
read the account by the Nearings themselves, it sounds like they did
it all
themselves, just the two of them. But in reality all during that
time they had
as many as 30 people staying at their place for a few days or a few
months and
these sojourners did most of the work.

The modern way is the easy way, which is to say buy materials that go
up fast. The new world economy will change that.

In a post long ago I gave my design for a permanent, solid garden
wall: two ferro fences a foot apart with the space between filled with
stones, detritus, bottles, cans, anything solid and non-polluting,
although once the wall is capped with masonry it becomes a sealed
vault and the contents inert. I haven't made mine yet but the new web
site will report on such projects as they come to fruition.

Gene GeRue
www.RURALIZE.com




_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/lynnw1366%40hotmail.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead




_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/genegerue%40ruralize.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead




Gene GeRue
www.RURALIZE.com








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page