Welcome to the Garden Wall!

Frequently it may be necessary or desirable to use a masonry wall somewhere in the landscape picture. It may serve to surround the whole property and give it privacy or merely to segregate the service area or the flower garden from other parts of the property. Or it may be used to retain grade and so make it possible to have more than one level in the scheme instead of a slope. In such a capacity it may vary from a mere foot or so in height, when it becomes really just a line of demarcation between one area and another, to many feet, when it may retain a whole extensive terrace or series of them cut into an otherwise too steep hillside. Whenever masonry is introduced it should be for a definite reason, not just a whim. Carrying out the corner of a house across the side yard in the form of a wall, for example, just to give the facade the appearance of greater width is of doubtful artistic validity. It is often a question of whether to use an enclosing wall rather than a wooden structure or just a hedge. Generally it may be said that a wall is richer, higher in key than a fence, and much more so than a hedge, and that the choice will depend on the degree of richness or elaborateness desired in the development. Many gardens cry out for a wall where nothing but informal shrubs exist, and likewise many walls are built where hedges or fences would have been more in keeping with the situation. Whether to use a retaining wall or not depends somewhat on the degree of formality to be achieved in the development, but also sometimes on the available space. The wall is more formal than a natural slope and it takes much less space than a terraced bank, and is easier to take care of. On places where the whole property slopes abruptly, practically none is level enough to be available for use unless a series of walls is provided to divide the property into several level areas, whereby nearly all of it can be reclaimed for enjoyment.