Fourteen willing and able walling students completed 70 feet of wall over the May 5-6 weekend in Roseneath Ontario.
We had more fun than anyone could imagine (at least, anyone who hasn't tried to build a free standing stone wall before).
What a change a new 'old looking' dry stone wall makes to this rural property.
There isn't a house (or a neighborhood) that cant be improved by by a good looking , properly built dry stone wall of some kind.
Once again Canada Blooms has been an interesting opportunity for us to demonstrate how much a garden can be enhanced by introducing some of the time-tested elements of traditional dry stone walling. While we get many many comments of approval and encouragement from genuine gardeners who attend the show, we rarely get the sense that the industry's leading-edge of garden designers and landscape architects really approve of our old fashioned methods.
Its fun to take 'before' and 'after' shots of the people who take the DSWAC dry stone wall workshops. On Saturday morning, the weekend of the Feb 24-25 2007 indoor workshop in Bethany Ontario, the students positioned themselves as though they were already standing beside the wall which amazingly they did end up building by the afternoon of the next day, as well as helping in the construction of a lovely arch (using mostly rounded granite fieldstone), that will stay as a permanent feature at Groundcovers Unlimted. The class was
The Feb 17-18 winter workshop in Bethany proved to be quite interesting. Students had a chance to work with two types of stone to learn how to build two different styles of walls of quarried limestone and of fieldstone granite. By Sunday afternoon the women joined forces with the men to complete the granite wall and also help construct the small 'gnome-sized' arch which was finished in time for photos in natural light (without flashes ) and some afternoon celebratory drinks.
