Short of water, holding up progress in repairing enclosures (3,5,7)

I believe the answer is:

dry stone walling

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'short' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'of water holding up progress in repairing enclosures' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found in the answer.
'in' is within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for dry stone walling that I've seen is " creating boundaries".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.