For decades Newtown resident Frank Gardner has worked meticulously to craft stone walls throughout his Surrey Trail property. Now, at 81 years old, he is delighted to bask in the beauty surrounding him.

A self-proclaimed outdoor person, Frank and his wife, Jan, have always enjoyed being in nature and are part of local garden clubs.

Together, they have worked to transform their home’s acre-and-a-half land into a serene oasis that attracts everything from frogs and painted turtles to chipmunks and foxes — and even a pair of mallard ducks that have their babies there each spring.

While Jan has always tended to the designing and planting of lush shrubs and flowers to add year-round life to the yard, Frank has focused on crafting decorative and functional stone walls since they moved to the home in 1971.

“We’ve done a lot of work on our property. It’s been on tours. It’s very well landscaped,” Frank said while sitting on a bench in his backyard, overlooking the pond as Japanese koi and large goldfish swim by.

His stone walls in particular attracted The Newtown Bee’s attention in 2012, when reporter – now editor – Nancy K. Crevier gave the public the opportunity to see his creations.

At the time, the stone walls stretched nearly 200 feet along the property.

Today, Frank estimates they total roughly 600 feet. There are sections in the front yard running beside the driveway, a stone retaining wall along the pond in the backyard, and many segments of stone wall accenting various plantings.

“What I’ve done since the article is lined the inside of my pond with retaining walls, back filled them, and planted things like hostas and winterberry – different shrubs and perennials,” Frank said of the large undertaking.

Not only has assembling the walls been a labor of love, but just getting the right stones has also caused him to travel across state lines.

“What I’ve done is I’ve collected rocks from in Connecticut, but a lot I’ve brought in from the Catskills in New York. The rocks that I’ve gotten in the Catskills in New York are very flat and they’re gray with lichen and moss on them. It’s a different kind of rock then you’d find here in Connecticut,” he explained.

When assembling the stone walls, he does not use any binding agent, which causes him to rely on his craftsmanship and how he positions each rock.

He says for the center of the walls, he mainly uses the rocks he has collected from Connecticut as fill then uses the more aesthetically pleasing rocks from the Catskills to line the sides and top. Topping the walls with these rocks allows for a smoother line across.

His stone walls have weathered many storms, even Tropical Storm Isaias in August, and remained standing.

“We’ve been lucky,” Frank acknowledged.

He does have to continue regular maintenance on the stone walls due to frost and natural settling, which he says keeps him busy “fine-tuning” them.

It does not discourage him in the slightest, though.

“I just have an interest in building walls. I don’t know why,” Frank said.

He admitted that while he is no longer building new sections of stone walls on his personal property, his hobby work has grown to expand from just his yard.

“My wall building has become addictive,” Frank said lightheartedly.

When his oldest daughter, Christina Egan, purchased a home on Riverside Road that was in need of some landscape revamping, he was happy to build some stone walls in the front of her property. The walls are just one element of the many updates that were made, including new plantings.

“You should see the house… She’s done a phenomenal job,” Frank said of his daughter’s gardening.

Ultimately, that is what the creation of his stone walls is about — having another reason to be out in nature with his loved ones.

His greatest joy to come from the project, he says, has been spending time with Jan after a long day.

“We come out every night after a full day, or half a day, working in the yard. We bring out our favorite wine and we sit on our bench,” Frank said.

During the pandemic, working and appreciating their backyard has become “a sort of therapy” for them, he added.

It has also been the perfect spot for safely entertaining guests.

“We have two benches and we have friends come over in the evening and sit 10 to 12 feet away and have hors d’oeuvres and have wine,” he said.

When outside, sitting on their bench, Frank and Jan can see just how much their backyard has become a place of peace for not only them, but their friends and the wildlife around them. They tell each other all the time how lucky they are and that “life is good.”