has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

Has anyone (on their own) attempted to build a stone/brick wall around an existing flower bed? We have a large but shallow flower bed in our yard that is held in place by one of those plastic edgers. I'd really like to build a small stone wall around it to make it a bit taller and 'finished' looking. Has anyone attempted this on their own? Im nervous because of the existing pla nts/flowers and dont want to harm anything. Any advice anyone can share? Type of material to use? Know of any kind of reference guides/tutorials that might help?

Thank you!

Re: has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

I haven't but I know Lowes and HD have these paver-looking concrete pieces for this purpose:



Of course, you may not want one this large but if you do two layers, it could look nice. I don't think you would need any mortar to hold it in place, as long as you're not building up too much dirt inside the bed.

With things like this, it's very important to level the ground and tamp down sand before you start building. If it's uneven, the 'wall' could be lopsided. I just didn't have the patience so I used benderboard to edge my bed instead!

Re: has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

I did! I used the stones in the pic above. The key is making everything level 1st. You have to dig a trench around the flower bed and level it. This took the longest amount of time. I used a line level and a regular level. Once it was level, it was easy to stack the stones and just keep checking for level. I will look to see if I have a picture.

This is the only pic that I can find, you can see a part of the wall


Better pics from this weekend

Message edited 5/10/2011 4:36:50 AM.

Re: has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

Re: has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

I agree with the prior poster - because I used the bricks shown above but I did not level it.... dont know what I was thinking. It is pretty sad looking. I will probably go back this year to redo it the correct way. If you don't do the proper research and prep work, it will look like an amateur job.

Re: has anyone built a small stone wall around an existing flower bed?

Bumping ( I added more pics as promised)