Moonridge Ranch
A ridge, a big sky, and somewhere to sit in it.
The Challenge
A limestone compound on a Hill Country ridge, with the best views on the property sitting in the space between the buildings — and nothing built to take advantage of it. Open ground, hard grade, and water looking for somewhere to go every time it rained.
Dry-stacked natural limestone boulder wall system
Natural Limestone boulder wall backfilled behind every course — geotextile fabric, geogrid reinforcement, drain rock, and compacted lifts
Subsurface drainage carrying water out behind the wall
Rock-lined dry creeks and a swale to move stormwater across the property
Boulder terracing
Decomposed granite courtyard and paths
Corten steel raised planters
Artificial turf seating panel with gravel border
Native and adapted planting — muhly, salvia, yucca, sotol
WHAT'S BEHIND THE WALL
A dry-stacked limestone wall looks like stone set on stone. That's the point — and it's also why so many of them lean, bulge, and come apart a few seasons in.
Ours is a system. Geotextile fabric, geogrid reinforcement, NDS Drain systems, drain rock, and compacted lifts behind every course, with drainage taking water out before it ever loads the wall.
None of that is visible in a photograph. It's the only reason the wall is still where we put it.
Stone that looks stacked by hand, standing on engineering nobody has to see.
Have grade and water to solve?
