Stone in the Garden: Inspiring Designs and Practical Projects

BEAUTIFUL pictures of projects in asst stages of completion. Great info on building stone projects that will stand the test of time. Even if I can't replicate the exact project, I now have confidence that I can take these ideas and cater them to our environment.

Of the half-dozen books I bought to help me with a stone project (old fallen-down stone walls recycled into a new retaining wall) this is the one I look at over and over. The first part of the book, under the heading Inspiring Uses for Stone, is exactly that: a group of beautiful pictures that can set your imagination running. The second part, Working with Stone in the Garden, brings you back to earth with the how-to of stonework. (The second half also includes a nice selection of full-color photos to keep your inspiration going.)Like John Vivian's Building Stone Walls and Kevin Gardner's The Granite Kiss, Hayward's Stone in the Garden has clear and concise instructions. And, like David Reed's Stonescaping, he includes extras like stone under foot, pools and fountains, and stone sculpture. In addition, he includes some interesting (and helpful) extras such as plant selection for stone-walls or near stone pools and descriptions with photographs of the many kinds of stone availble in the US. (This is something that did not appear in any of the other stone how-to books I bought.)As with Reed's Stonescaping, Stone in the Garden is just too pretty to take to the garden when you're working on your project. No matter how careful you are, when you're in the midst of digging or lifting stone, it's too easy to smear mud on your instructions. The easy solution is to photocopy the necessary pages to take to the project site for reference.

Twice now, I have gone to the bookstore to find a book on a specific topic. Both times I found a book by Hayward to be the book I had been looking for. This time I was looking for using Stone features in my landscaping. Since I had such a great use for his book on paths I picked up his book right away. I could not put it down and was up all night browsing the book from cover to cover. The photos are very useful and inspiring. His descriptions of how-tos, dos and don'ts were especially helpful. I have to give this author a lot of credit for helping us to improve our landscaping to look professional. I had a contractor ask me if I would lay stone for his wife's pond a few days ago - thank you Mr. Hayward!

My parents used stone in a variety of ways in their gardens. My father laid out walkways and patios using blue flagstone and built an outdoor grill (chimney and all) of field stones he collected on his travels through the mountains where we lived. He lined the ravine behind our house where the grill was situated with stones, including a series of stone steps down into the ravine. The banks of the ravine became a rock garden loaded with all sorts of bulbs, ground covers, ferns and low shubs, and small trees overhung with larger trees above. I had not thought about my father's handiwork in many years, not until I bought STONE IN THE GARDEN by Gordon Hayward. Hayward's book is absolutely lovely, and even if you never build a thing using stone you will enjoy all the wonderful photographs he has included in his book showing stonework he found in the gardens of folks like Frederick McGourty, Tasha Tudor, and a host of other garden writers and enthusiasts. He has captured shots of gardens from Japan to England, France to Canada, and New England to the American Southwest. Stones frequently form the basis of the "bones" of the garden -- structures that every good gardener incorporates. While fences and arbors and other structures can be made of wood, stone also fills a niche and is frequently a more appealing, practical, and long-lasting material. Hayward's book includes numerous ideas for using stone. Chapters cover garden walls and retaining walls, walkways, ponds, streams, outdoor areas with stone benches designed for contemplation, rock gardens, rock sculpture, and many other features.A third of Hayward's book covers a series of step-by-step procedures for constructing walkways, walls, ponds and pools, and other useful structures. One of my favorite constucts is the stile which consists of a stone composition built into a wall that allows one to walk over the wall and thus eliminate the need for a gate. Most gardeners are sure to pick up a few good ideas they will want to try.

I wrote STONE IN THE GARDEN in such a way that it is both inspiring and practical and it seems to have struck a chord, at the very least, with the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR who wrote in his June 3, 2001 review, "ON THAT SAME SHELF OF HARD-WORKING BOOKS, YOU'LL WANT TO HAVE GORDON HAYWARD'S STONE IN THE GARDEN, EASILY THE BEST AND MOST USEFUL BOOK ON STONEWORK TO COME ALONG IN SEVERAL YEARS." The first half of the book is devoted to inspiring text and photos from across America that will show you how to use stone in five different ways: stone walls; stone walkways, terraces and patios; boulders and bedrock; water and stone; standing stones and benches. The second half of the book, illustrated by Gordon Morrison, is the how-to section of the book. It addresses all five categories in the first half of the book in such a way that you can learn what to do with the ideas in section one. By dividing the book into these two parts, you get the inspiration and the practicality in one book. Most books about stonework are either one or the other. This does both. Here's hoping my book proves to be both inspiring and useful as you develop your own gardens. E-mail me ... if you have any questions. Best wishes, Gordon Hayward