hi-

i am making a dry stone retaining wall in my backyard. it will be about 20 feet long and 1 foot high, and then 10 feet of six inches high.

i'm using David Reed's "Art and Craft of Stonescaping" book as my guide.

i bought a pallet of rock called "Pennsylvania dry wall rock." it should cover about 30 cubic feet, which seemed about right for my project.

it looked great from the outside. fieldstone in color, and with flat rocks about 1 to 2 inches high.

but, i feel duped: the inside of the pallet is filled with smaller rocks (and one big boulder).

here is my estimate of the contents of the pallet (most are between 1"-2" tall, with some 3":

1 rock 2' x 2' (the boulder)

25% bigger than 10" x 8"

50% about 6" x 6"

25% about 5" x 5" or smaller

my plan is to use the big rocks as foundation and capstones.

but, i seem to be running out of suitable foundation rocks, and i'm pretty sure i won't have enough nice capstones.

plus, the whole wall will be basically made of small rocks.

is this viable? or... did i get "ripped off"?

thanks,

steve