Announcing Our New Design Guide to Retaining Walls - Gardenista
Retaining walls are the unsung heroes in many a landscape. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll find in our new Retaining Walls 101 field guide.
Photograph by Matthew Cunningham.
A granite pony wall creates seating for guests at landscape architect Matthew Cunningham’s Maine garden. As low retaining walls, built-in seating, and backdrops to plants, pony walls are useful features today (even in gardens without livestock).
Pony Walls
Gabion Walls
“Using regional materials ties a new space into the culture of a place,” says landscape architect Christine Ten Eyck.
Photograph by David Lake.
“Derived from an old Italian word, gabbione, meaning ‘big cage,’ gabions are enclosures that can be filled with any sort of inorganic material: rock, brick, or concrete debris,” <a href="https://www.gardenista.com/posts/hardscaping-101-gabion-walls-pros-and-cons/">writes</a> Janet.
Poured Concrete Walls
Specht Harpman Architects (now Specht Architects) won a 2013 Gardenista Design Award for a landscape created in collaboration with Gunn Landscape Architecture.
Dry Stone Walls
See more of this landscape at Homestead Act: A Family Trades City Life for a Farm on Martha’s Vineyard.
Photograph by Matthew Williams.
A steel divider from a Munden Fry Landscape Associates project in Sonoma, CA.
Cor-ten Steel Walls
Photograph by Joe Fletcher, courtesy of Fougeron Architecture.
Retaining Walls: A Primer
See more of this garden at <a href="https://www.gardenista.com/posts/architect-visit-the-medieval-mist-and-mystery-of-big-sur/">Architect Visit: The Medieval Mist and Mystery of Big Sur</a>.