Rosa Miller

My son lives in Okanogan, Washington (semi-arid) where residences pay for municipal river water for home irrigation purposes. The water is pumped unfiltered from the Okanogan River, and if they try to filter it at the home outlet, it clogs any filter with organic matter within minutes. (Potable water from the house system is too expensive use as irrigation, even for a small 1/2 acre home, especially at the quantities needed to keep the area green.)  They had thought about soaker hoses, but I would think they would also get clogged very quickly.

Is there any means to use this water similar to drip irrigation system, but not clog? Any advice on getting unfiltered river water to the veggies and flowers in a better manner than a wide sprayer would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for not answering for a while. We were out west visiting our son.

We haven't started the reconstruction yet, mainly due to my husband's wish to wait for cooler weather. (I fear he will then say it's too cold to start an outdoor project...!!)

Imaging my feelings to return from vacation to see a groundhog dive into the wall at its most collapsed spot. Luckily, it had not had the opportunity to complete a back exit, and we were able to dispatch it.

We may be looking at a full reconstruction in a few years, and tiers will definitely be part of it. Right now I'm having problems motivating my other half .. and he doesn't want me to start on it myself. I'm going to be ready to throw a full blown hissy fit if it's not started by October 1. (I'm the country girl and he's a city boy, and just doesn't seem to understand that you can't put a lot of things in nature "on hold" until you can get around to them.)

We've at least got vegetation on the area now to stop the soil erosion.

I'm in a CITY (Indianapolis) and I still get deer in my garden! Our house abuts Lick Creek, and the deer walk through there frequently, dining on everyone's gardens/landscape. We used to live on a farm, and I didn't have anything near the garden depredation from squirrels, raccoons, deer, or GROUNDHOGS (the worst!!) that I have since moving back in town.

--PS. Freezers are good!

You're quite right about us not having experience in stone wall building. That's why we're doing the research before we jump in. There are some controversies, though, and the vocabulary is not always the same. One site says to put landscape fabric between the wall and the aggregate behind it. Another says to put it between the soil and the aggregate. And yet another says Do Not Use Fabric! Some say a huge footer – you’ve said nearly no footer… No one says much on how often to use the deadman (tie?) stones, or if they should be even or staggered. And how deep should it go? The amount and type of backfill seems to differ, also. Some call for large rumble, some for gravel, and some for a combo. The current wall has nothing.  Some show the stones tilting slightly and others show them level.

What’s a newbie to think?

My thoughts for repairing (rebuilding!) our wall are:

1. Remove approx. 10 ft or more of old stonework from along the old wall at the low end
    a. Sort the stones for size as they come off
    b. Retain broken stones for backfill
2. Set my guidelines where I want the wall
3. Excavate the bare earth to the approx. twice the width of the wall, at a 1:6 slope
    a. This may be difficult due to the old wintercreeper vines and their roots
    b. This will be easy at the low end, but will get harder as we progress uphill
4. Excavate a nominal footer, about 4” deep from front of the wall to earth slope
5. Lay landscape fabric in footer and up the side of the earth slope
6. Fill the footer in with crushed stone
7. Lay the base course with the largest stones I have
8. Lay 2-3 more courses, backfilling as I go
    a. At the low end, the wall is approx. 6-8 courses
    b. Possibly raid the old wall ahead of the construction for needed stones
9. Insert deadman stones
    a. All on the same course, every other stone? Every third stone?
    b. Randomly?
10. When progressing forward, measure to ensure a batter of approx. 1:6
11. Stop the backfill approx. 6-8 inches from the top and use topsoil
12. Carefully place large stones on top as capstones

I still haven’t convinced my husband that we need to re-do the entire wall. He thinks we can’t get that done before the ground freezes. (We both work full time.)

The only section of the wall with batter is the short part going up the steps. It is also the only part that was constructed with mortar (which also needs replacing in many areas). Talking my husband into tearing down the wall in its entirety will take some doing... It really does need to be completely rebuilt -- it has no backfill and soil filters through it freely (not to mention making it easier for the groundhogs to dig there and push out stones, as they did). There is nothing resembling either a cap or a footer on this wall which I would like to correct.

Additional stones are readily available at landscape suppliers, albeit, not cheap. We will definitely need some replacement stones, as many have separated longitudinally.

I had sort-of envisioned repairing it in something of a ripple effect -- taking down about 10 feet at the beginning and moving down the line as we go. The other alternative would be by sections, I guess, but something tells me that getting sections go together and look right would not be easy. The two of us couldn't take down the whole thing at once and get it back up before massive erosion takes place. We may be healthy, but we're both over 60 and there are limits. Too bad we didn't have this project 10 years ago, when we had two teenage boys at home... Renting teenagers for manual labor is difficult these days.

Actually, I've been doing a lot of research, which is why I addressed this as a breast wall vs retaining wall, and wondering how I could get back fill in an area that didn't have it before. Knowing what to do isn't the same as knowing how to do it. My big question were where to start and how to integrate the old and new sections of the wall. I was hoping for advice such as, "Start at the low point of the collapsed area and work outward" or "Start at the end of the good section and gradually work down through the collapsed area"... Most of what I've read shows how to build one correctly from the beginning -- and what I've seen of repairs doesn't match what  have in my yard.

I was looking for advice based on experience.

How do I get the photos embedded instead of linked?

Newbie posting here... I hope the photos come through...

In the beginning, around 1960, there was a wall; a dry stone flagstone breast wall, extending approximately 15 yards, sloping from 7’ to 2’ as it goes. The owners decided to plant vines along this wall, evergreen vines to look nice and act as groundcover for the slope behind it. The  owners looked at this and said it was good. But alas, it wasn’t. Those were Euonymus fortune (wintercreeper) vines. Over time, (decades, apparently) the wintercreeper was no longer a ground cover – it totally concealed the wall and became a hedge at the top of the wall. Then the bank foreclosed on the house. It sat empty for 4 years, during which time, a family of groundhogs (woodchucks) decided the hedge and the nice well drained slope would make an excellent home.

This is when we purchased the home.
https://imgur.com/TxeoS3U
There was a burrow entrance at the base of the wall, another near the top of the slope and a third about halfway down. After trapping 4 groundhogs (nasty critters!) and still sighting more, we decided the only way to remove the ground hogs is to remove their habitat. So we removed nearly all of the wintercreeper that we could. (For those familiar with this horticultural plague, you know it will be a recurring battle to keep it away.)

With the wall covering and hedge removed, we could see the extent of the damage those beasties cause. Not only has the wall collapsed in two places, but the slope has become very destabilized. To my eyes, I would think the entire wall needs to be rebuilt. My husband doesn’t want to touch the first ten feet (+/-) but I think I may want to talk him into perhaps restacking at least some of the upper courses.

How do we rebuild just a portion of this? Can we even put a gravel backing/backfill on the rebuilt areas if there wasn’t any on the original?

I know we can do this, and it feels like a “good” project for us, but I’m just not sure where to start.

First few yards -- those are the "trunks" of the wintercreeper vines going up the face of the wall. This what my husband doesn't want to re-do.
https://imgur.com/XtvbmhS

The worst collapsed area
https://imgur.com/Fb3Cxyv

Last few yards, where it just kind-of melts into the ground...
https://imgur.com/Hh6wEYj