TYPES OF GARDEN WALLS
TYPES OF GARDEN WALLS There. are four major materials from which walls may be made: brick, stone, concrete, and tile. All have their articular fitness for certain situations, and all have advantages of construction, availability of material, and so on, depending on the locality in which they are to be used. If you are going to build in a rugged, rocky country where either field stone or quarried rock is easily obtainable, or if your house is made wholly or in part of stone, you may naturally turn to this medium. For the most formal effects quarried limestone is doubtless the most desirable. Durable, of soft and pleasing color and texture which weathers to an even more beautiful hue, it is a material of many possibilities. It may be laid up of blocks of the same size into a wall of coursed ashlar, capped and ornamented at the posts and ends, or the pieces may be of varying sizes producing what is known as random coursed ashlar, or less formal still, broken or random ashlar. The face of the stone may be sawed smooth or left rough with the natural cleavage of the rock. The joints may be pointed flush, raked, or finished with white, black, or other colored mortar. Where native field stone may be had for the gathering, as is the case in many parts of the Northeastern states, there is no finer material for garden use. Often lichen or moss-covered stones may be found which, if handled carefully, can be incorporated into the walls without damaging their surfaces. The most important consideration, however, in the use of field stones is that of scale. Too of ten small stones are used, giving the wall the appearance of gigantic peanut brittle, or sometimes the stones are so laid in the wall as to appear like eggs in a mesh market bag.