We’ve been noticing lately that a talent for stonework is more than an extra feather in the cap for garden designers. Wilder planting can stand or fall on the hard landscaping; crisp edges are one way of signifying that “here is a garden.”
Ecological garden designer Tom Eaglestone, based in Bath, on the edge of the Cotswolds, is as stone-obsessed as he is plant-obsessed. The native stone there is glorious, but he uses other materials as well. It just depends on what he finds on site. “I’ve always tried to see what’s already in the garden and what we can find; that makes a lot of sense for me,” he explains. Crazy patchwork paving is one way of dealing with random shapes of stone: “It’s a funny thing—people think it looks complicated, or very hard, but when you work with what you’ve got, it’s so satisfying when exactly the right piece of stone fits into the jigsaw.”
Below, we ask him our burning questions about how to be more sustainable in our approach to hardscaping.
Photography courtesy of Eaglestone Gardens.
How do you match your materials to your setting?
Eaglestone is fortunate to live and work in southwest England, known for its honey-colored limestone. The buildings seem to rise out of the rock, and it follows that pathways, edgings, and walls would be made from the same materials. When gardeners import Cotswold stone to other parts of the country, it can look completely wrong. Stone should to come from a local quarry. Materials found on site, hidden under hedges, in flower beds, lying around here and there, lead the way.
“There is something deeply satisfying about taking characterful, trodden, marked, and weather-beaten stone—stone that must have been around a very long time—and repurposing into something new and cohesive and aesthetically pleasing,” says Tom. “It is very absorbing, tactile work.”
What to do with leftover rocks?
Any stone found on site is too good to waste, and has the potential to provide habitat opportunities. Tom will make a cairn (an artfully constructed rock pile, shaped like an old-fashioned beehive). “Birds use the nooks and crannies immediately; within seconds of finishing a stone cairn, we’ve seen birds move in,” he says.
What are some unlikely materials that can be brought back to life?
Says Tom: “We have reused, remained, and repurposed so many things throughout our projects. We took an old antique plunge pool and breathed new life into it as a bubbling water feature, and used reclaimed walling stone to create some lovely garden edging. We have inlaid a historic millstone into a wall and even built an outdoor kitchen using pennant paving.”
Have you ever used only the materials you found on site?
“One of my pride-and-joy projects was a garden in Wiltshire—we hardly brought any materials on site at all, bar the gravel. By repurposing onsite boulders, elevating a concrete terrace and bringing to life a water feature that didn’t seem to be in keeping with things, we created a new and very bio-diverse space.”
Aside from sustainability, what are some other reasons for recycling found materials?
It’s cheaper. “Sometimes I do have to try and convince a client, and we say that it’s recycling, minimizing waste, and better for wildlife. And it will save money,” says Tom. “But on top of all this, I do it simply because I love it and it just feels like the right thing to do.”
See also
- Trend Alert: Beautiful Low-Impact Pathways
- Hardscaping 101: Ground Covers to Plant Between Pavers
- Ask the Expert: Molly Sedlacek of ORCA, on Permeable Hardscaping
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