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How to Build a Stacked Rock Wall Planter

3,739 views · Published 26 June 2015 · 6:04 · Indexed 5 October 2026

Channel: HouseCalls · 2015 · Howto & Style

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Tips on how to build a rock wall planter, how to work with stone and what materials and tools you will need.
Visit Ron Hazelton's website for more home improvement projects: http://www.ronhazelton.com/

Transcript:

Today, we're heading up into the mountains just outside of Boulder, Colorado and the view is truly spectacular.  Now Anne Blundstone has a house up on the mountain at about 7500 feet and she wants me to help her build a dry stack stone walled platter for her flower garden.  So here we go up into the high country.
 
Hey Anne!
 
Hey, Ron, I heard you pull up.
 
Oh, wow, what a great place you've got here.
 
Well, welcome to Boulder. Well, thanks very much.
 
Let me show you the best part of this place.
 
The best part.
 
Yeah.
 
There's more to come?
 
Oh, yeah.
 
Wow, look at this. Lucky you.
 
Isn't that something?
 
Now this is what I imagine Colorado to be.
 
There you go.  Well Ron, let me show you where I want to put the garden wall.
 
OK.
 
So I thought I'd like to put the garden bed over here because we have a short growing season.
 
Ok, so you get plenty of sun here.  Well, the rock got here alright. 
 
Yep.
 
You know, the first thing I'd like to do is some layout work. You have a garden hose?
 
Right over here.
 
OK, let's grab that.  So I'm going to lay this down, you just kind of arrange it there in whatever curved shape that you like.
 
After Anne decides on the shape she wants we use spray paint to mark the outline of the new wall.  Now we can put the hose away.  We'll need a flat surface or foundation for our wall, so Anne and I smooth out a strip about 12 inches wide inside the paint line.  The good news is that the pallet of rock for our project was delivered close by.  A good idea, by the way, if you're planning a project like this, the bad news is we still have to restack the stones next to our "soon to be wall".
 
This is very interesting stone, is this local?
 
Yeah, that's called Colorado sandstone and it's quarried in Lyons, Colorado, about 30 miles north of here.
 
I love the way the lichen is still on here.
 
Isn't that nice?
 
I think we've got enough of these down right now.  So we ended up dividing up all the stones here into three piles, the largest stones back here, the medium-sized ones in the middle and the small ones up there in the front.  Now I want to start with the large stones, those are going to form the base of the wall, so we're going to distribute those evenly along the line here.  Before we begin, though, we'll compact the soil using this tamper.  Compacting will help prevent our wall from settling unevenly.
 
OK.  Alright, let's just start with this guy right here. That's a nice one.
 
You want this closer?
 
Yeah, I think it can actually touch there, there you go. 
 
Very nice. 
 
This one here. Yeah, I think that's a good one. Alright. Where were you thinking?
 
Right here.  So it'll cover both of these.
 
Ok, right in here,
 
Ahuh?
 
Oh, that's nice. Oh, that's very nice.
 
Now we want to start crossing joints like this with larger stones, to sort of tie the wall together.  There you go.
 
Now, we're filling in with these medium sized rocks here.  This is what's known as a dry stack wall.  There's no mortar in here and we can only go up about 18 inches in a dry stack wall, we're at about 14 or 15 right now, without either putting in a concrete footing or making the wall really deep,  two to three courses, because the weight of the stone itself will actually cause it to sink.  I have a thought here, and that is why don't we make the top of the wall right here, level with the deck and then carry that level line right across this way into the hill.
 
OK.
 
That sound alright to you?
 
Yeah.
 
OK, good.
 
The top couple of layers in our wall are made using the smallest rocks.
 
Now this is a line level right here Anne, the line level attaches right to the string, at that end of the deck over there, it's tied off, then it's to that stake down there.  So this will, this will make sure that the top of the wall right here is both at the right height and is also level.
 
How does it look?
 
Looks good.
 
Anne has assembled a brilliantly colored selection of flowers for the nearly completed planter.  Well, now for the fun part.
 
Yeah.
 
Great planning, the wall is all done here.
 
That's great.
 
Before we actually put the dirt in, though, I want to install some of this.  This is called landscape fabric or weed cloth. Anne, just pull it out.
 
OK?
 
Just pull it up.  Keep going.  There you go.
 
So the idea here, Anne, is that we want to put this on the back side of the wall to keep any weeds or grass from growing through the wall.  We can actually tuck it up underneath some of these rocks right here.
 
It can take a whole lot of dirt to fill a planter of this size, so we first toss in a few rocks.  They will also help with drainage and there are plenty of them around the property.

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