I’m the kind of person who has the audacity to simply do what I want.
Have I ever built a stonewall before?
No.
Was I confident that I could do so?
Yes.
(and yes, this project happened before the infamous back injury)
we love our little stonewall, and we also love the baby shagbark hickory tree (Carya ovata) that’s growing just behind it 🌳
The Goldenrod Meadow was one of the first things that we worked to clear of invasive plants this spring.
Although the goldenrod has been spreading more every year, it was fighting to grow up in a sea of poison ivy, bittersweet, and multiflora rose (among a few other annoyingly-abundant non-native plants).
a whole wheelbarrow full of poison ivy vines — truly dangerous work
We are now able to walk freely through the small meadow (or, we would be, if we could squeeze our way through the dense goldenrod, some of which is currently taller than I am!), and I’m very excited that it has officially started blooming ✨
Goldenrod is such an underrated plant; the clusters of blossoms are absolutely gorgeous, and bring so much cheerful color into the late-summer landscape (you know how I feel about the color yellow!).
Plus, pollinators love it!
I always get excited to see the goldenrod bloom, and have used it in photoshoots before 💛
It’s also special to me, since I have a core memory of running through tall, snow-covered goldenrod stalks with my sisters, mom, and our family dogs when I was small enough that the native plant towered above me.
This meadow is inside the old goat pen; we haven’t had pet goats in a decade, but we just finally decided to take the fence down this summer (and we used the wood to create another feature on our property native wildlife habitat, which will be shared soon!).
you can watch the YouTube short of me building the stonewall here!
We love the freedom of having the fence down, but we still wanted to keep some kind of aesthetic border to indicate where the yard ends, and the meadow begins.
So I volunteered to build a mini stonewall.
two of our resident house wrens (Shrek and Fiona) moved into the bird house in the goldenrod meadow, and they most definitely made sure to chastise me the entire time I worked
I was blessed with some beautiful bug-less spring mornings to do this project, and I quite enjoyed the process.
I used all the rocks that used to surround the old chicken pen (more on that in another post), and ended up building quite a sturdy wall.
I’m proud to say that multiple chunky groundhogs have clambered over it, and it hasn’t budged!
Irma (my beloved ferret) got a place of honor right on the top of the wall 🕊
I love looking out at it, and the best thing about everything we’re adding to our property is that they’ll truly look amazing in every season.
The moss will come alive on the rocks in the spring, the ferns grow tall behind it in the summer, the cherry leaves will collect on it in the fall, and the snow will flock the stones in the winter.
I couldn’t be more happy with the results, and we even have some rocks left over to add more features to our wildlife habitat 🌿
we decided to add this stonewall feature for our own aesthetic enjoyment, but it also provides homes for plenty of bugs, and hidey-holes for chipmunks and other small critters 🐿
art by jordan rae 