Reusing Glass Bottles For Landscaping

For as long as I can remember I have tried to creatively reuse materials,

especially recycled lumber.

In this post let's look at four ideas for reusing glass bottles.

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps

In the last post we looked at a set of steps with three treads:

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,

 and this time let's look at a longer set of steps. 

Please refer to the previous post as some of the important fundamentals for steps 

that I included there will not be repeated here.

The posts to date in this continuing series for the owner builder are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps.

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps

In this post I want to go into how I build stone steps in the landscape

 as part of the dry stack stone walls that I have already shown.

We will look at how I selected and installed the three steps you see above.

For safety one should never attempt building steps, inside or out,

without a firm basis of the terms, theory, and practice of this craft.

There are many books which provide more detail

 or a search of the internet will yield many results.

The posts to date in this continuing series for the owner builder are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style

In this post I want to take a look at some of the personal style issues

 that may come up in building your own dry stack stone walls. 

The posts to date in this continuing series for the owner builder are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work

In the last post I did for this series on tips for building a dry stack stone wall 

I showed how I go about building a dry stack wall.

This time I want to drive home a few of the principles that I think explain 

why these walls work the way they do and are fundamental to the success of a wall.

The posts to date in this continuing series geared for the owner builder are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall

In this post on building a dry stack stone wall we will look photo by photo 

at the steps in building the wall, specifically aimed at the owner builder.

The photo above gives a look at part of the wall we will be working on.

The complete series are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

and Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone

In the previous post we took a look at the need for erosion control in our project area

 and the tools that we would use in building our dry stack stone walls.

The posts to date in this continuing series are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

This series is directed to the owner builder rather than the professional stone mason.

Let's look now at the stone we are using, where it came from, 

and how we determined where to have it dumped,

so that it would be readily accessible but not in our way.

In the photo above we are well into our project

 and we have just gotten the last of our three 14.5 ton loads of stone.

I have created a pathway where I can easily use the hand trucks to carry stone

or roll it down the hill if they are too large for the hand truck.

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools

This is the first in a series of tips on building dry stack stone retaining walls for landscaping,

gained from my personal experience and particularly aimed at the owner builder.

In future posts I will be discussing topics such as how to build durable walls and steps,

how to design the layout for a project, theory on dry stack walls, 

 stone as a material and what stone works best in each part of the project, site management,

and for this post we will look at the site and goal, and tools that will be needed.

The posts to date in this continuing series are:

Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #1: Project, Tools,

 Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #2: Getting Stone,

Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #3: Building The Wall,
Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Wall #4: Why They Work,
Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #5: Style,
Tips On Building A Dry Stack Stone Wall #6: Steps,
Tips On Building Dry Stack Stone Walls #7: More On Steps.

 The photo above shows the finished project which gives you a feel for the scope of this work.

Concrete And Stone Hot Spring Pools

One of our favorite pursuits while traveling is looking for hot springs 

and even if you don't have a hot spring,

 you may want to build a pool and here are some ideas.

These first three photos are from a hot springs near the small town 

of Aconchi, Sonora, Mexico in the north central part of that state.

The Home And Art Of Maria Eggleston In Mulege, B.C.S., Part 4

In this last post on the home and art of the mosaic artist,

Maria Eggleston of Mulege, Baja California Sur,

let's look at her wonderful cactus gardens.

Trail Work At Valley View Hot Springs

Allison and I found ourselves at Valley View Hot Springs 

in Colorado in 2009 volunteering to do some trail work

on a steep trail at about 9000' on the west slope

 of the Sangre De Cristo mountains. 

Above are Allison and a wonderful

 fellow, Rob Bob, who wanted to help and as Rob Bob goes by 

both names we affectionately combined them.

 He was a wonderful, fun person to work with 

in this strenuous, hard work and we all had a great time. 

Garden Ornaments- Fine Art To Folk Art

At this time of year as the garden begins to fade,

but the weather is nice,

we start to notice the extras in the garden that stay with us year round.

Glen Burnie Gardens In Winchester, Va.

Glen Burnie is a house  first built in the early 18th century next to a series of springs,
 and land from the estate was used to establish the town of Winchester, Virginia in the 1740's.

Tips On Building A Drystack Stone Wall

 I spent many years as a self taught stone mason

 doing random rubble dry stack walls which I enjoyed doing 

more than just about any other trade that I have dabbled in,

until my body just couldn't do it any more.

The last time I worked at it was this project
at Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon in the summer of 2008.

 Let me caution that stone masonry is hard work 

that requires sturdy boots, gloves and attention to what you are doing. 

It is easy to have serious accidents: 

smashed fingers or hands, broken bones, or worse, 

and what follows is not intended as a complete instruction

 but merely as notes to the process.

A safe work site is essential as well as safe practices.

(Please note that this is a reworking of the post:

Notes On Building A Drystack Stone Wall from 2/10/10.)

The Garden Path

The above path is one of my favorites. 

It reuses cast off stone in an unusual pattern 

and it is not clear where the path leads (oh the mystery); 

and it was designed and built by kids in Seattle, Washington.

Xeriscape Gardening In The Southern Rockies

When we had a house we had a garden,

and it was comprised mostly of herbs, natives, 

xeriscape perennials, and fruit trees.

Much of the time we lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico

 we were in a severe drought and under, at times, 

stringent watering restrictions,

but we both loved to garden without spending all of our time at it.

To make up for the drought we collected rainwater

 and concentrated on tough, drought tolerant plants, shrubs, and trees.

Above you may notice blue flax, rocky mountain penstemon,

 and orange poppies.

At the top with the reddish leaves is a native chokecherry

 and also a native gambels oak, both young trees  at that time about 5' or 6' high.

Peeking out on the far right is a very young semi-dwarf apple.

Ornamental Gardening In Containers

The last post having been on patios,

it got me thinking about container gardening

 as a near perfect fit for a patio.

What a splash of color above.

Patios

As someone who has built quite a few patios 

I have never done much with them in this blog.

With summer here it is time to take a look.

Above is a patio in Seattle, Washington with simple cement pavers

 with a nice creeping plant in between them.

A patio need not be fancy or expensive 

to create a pleasant and inviting place to be.

Brad Lancaster At Celebrando Las Acequias 2011

We were fortunate to be able to attend the Celebrando las Acequias 2011,

 put on by the Arid Land Institute of Woodbury University 

and Estevan Arellano, among others.

This conference was held in Dixon, New Mexico June 10-12.

Garden Sculpture

This being the time of year to be in the garden

 I thought it would be nice to look at sculpture for the garden.

Above Don Quixote and Sancho Panza 

are still riding in Guanajuato, Guanajuato.