All you need is a shovel, a hammer, small stones, a few feet of land, and this book: master stonemason David Reed guides motivated homeowners through every step of dry-laid stonework. Have a sloped garden? Build a beautiful retaining wall with built-in benches and flowers growing out through the stone joints. Crave the soothing sound of water? Try the dramatic waterfall project constructed with two stone-lined pools. A wealth of color photography offers plenty of inspiration.
Explains how to design arrangements that highlight the natural beauty of the chosen stone, adapt designs to showcase a particular site, and then set the stones in place
Presents the basics of stonescaping, and introduces techniques and step-by-step illustrated instructions for building dry-stacked walls, paths, patios, terraces, benches, and other projects.
Old-House Journal is the original magazine devoted to restoring and preserving old houses. For more than 35 years, our mission has been to help old-house owners repair, restore, update, and decorate buildings of every age and architectural style. Each issue explores hands-on restoration techniques, practical architectural guidelines, historical overviews, and homeowner stories--all in a trusted, authoritative voice.
Handle stonescaping with professional results. Learn how to: plan, choose tools, mix mortar & improve aesthetics, along with jointing, excavating & providing drainage. Outstanding projects include a walkway, an archway & a stone pond.
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2, 2nd Edition is a how-to guide enabling you to “plant the rain” by creating water-harvesting “earthworks” or “rain gardens.” Earthworks are simple, inexpensive strategies and landforms that passively harvest multiple sources of free on-site water including rainfall, stormwater runoff, air conditioning condensate, and greywater within “living tanks” of soil and vegetation. The plants then pump the water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, timber and forage, while controlling erosion, reducing down-stream flooding, dropping utility costs, increasing soil fertility, enhancing the soil carbon sponge, recharging groundwater and springs, and improving water and air quality. This dramatically revised and expanded full-color second edition builds on the information in Volume 1 by showing you how to turn your yard, school, business, park, ranch, and neighborhood into lively, regenerative producers of resources. Conditions at home will improve as you simultaneously enrich the ecosystem and inspire the surrounding community. Learn to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen earthworks. All is made easier and more effective by the illustrations of natural patterns of water and sediment flow with which you can collaborate or mimic. Detailed step-by-step instructions with over 550 images and expanded water-harvesting principles or guidelines show you how to do it, and plentiful stories of success motivate you so you will do it!
A practical guide to simple stone building projects for your yard Nothing matches the look and feel of stone structures in and around your home. Yet most people are intimidated by the very thought of masonry, despite the obvious rewards. In Stone Building, Kevin Gardner distills his decades of experience building and maintaining iconic New England–style stone walls into this concise, informative guide. Gardner offers step-by-step instructions for building everything from flagstone walkways to classic patios and ornate fire pits. He also offers time-tested tips to help care for your stone, as well as repair and restoration advice for existing structures.
The front yard is the stepchild of landscape design, ignored in the current enthusiasm for gardening. Typically, with its high-maintenance lawn and overgrown foundation planting, the front yard doesn't enhance the house or provide useful living space for the homeowner. Yet as new properties become smaller and old ones grow shadier, the front garden may be the best place to grow vegetables or flowers, to sit outside in comfort and privacy, or even to swim or play tennis. Mary Riley Smith, a landscape designer who has often dealt with poorly planned and underused front properties, has filled this book with creative ways to make your own front garden beautiful and functional. She shows how to design paths, driveways, and parking areas and how to camouflage unattractive but necessary structures. For privacy, she describes the different virtues of fences, clipped hedges, and loose, flowing hedgerows. When it comes to planting in front of the house, the choices are surprising: instead of a lawn, you might create a colorful cottage garden, an edible landscape, a drought-tolerant meadow of regional native plants, a sea of ornamental grasses, or even a romantic orchard. All of these landscapes, and dozens more from all parts of the country, are illustrated with beautiful photographs. THE FRONT GARDEN concludes with nine case histories, including the landscape designers' plans, that will give you even more ideas for turning your front yard into a beautiful garden.
The story behind the creation of one of the world's most breathtaking public gardens--Les Quatre Vents in Charlevoix County, Quebec. Featuring photos by five of today's leading garden photographers, this is one of the most beautiful books on gardens to appear in years. Over 400 photos.
