CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Slipping and Sliding to the

1 Starting Line
Why and how to use reclaimed materials in the garden

Chapter 2: The Goods and Where to Get Them

2 Where to source reclaimed materials and how to see their beauty

Chapter 3: More than Your Hands Alone

3 The tools necessary to complete the projects

Chapter 4: Walk On This

4 Tips and designs for pathways

Chapter 5: Making Good Neighbors

5 How to design and build fencing

Chapter 6: Arbors and Other Over-the-Top

6
Ideas
Building structures that provide shade

Chapter 7: Contain Yourself

7
Design and create your own containers

Chapter 8: Sitting This One Out

8
Functional seating in the garden

Chapter 9: A Candle Against the Night

9 Creative lighting projects
 Slipping and Sliding to the Starting Line

The use of reclaimed materials in outdoor spaces is by no means a

new practice. Examples run throughout the history of landscaping

and gardening. A column borrowed from a temple here, a fountain

lifted from some exotic palace over there, and viola—it’s a clas-

sic. Today this is the most recognized form of reuse in the garden,

because contemporary practice for the most part still follows the

old ideas. To confirm this, one has only to look at all the designs

featured in the contemporary press that incorporate pavilions, stat-

uary, and furnishings from one exotic locale or another.

ABOVE LEFT A selection of plants and
toolboxes stand ready to assemble
into planters. RIGHT Holes have been
drilled in the bottom of the toolbox
for drainage.
Most gardeners rely on off-the-shelf solutions when it comes to materials.
You can select a period or locale, then go out and buy everything you need
to fit that look, all laid out for you in neat little rows. The advantage is that
the materials are uniform, readily available, and easily specified. The disad-
vantage is that the materials’ uniformity, availability, and prebuilt specifics
are likely to stop cold any real exploration of material possibilities that might
lie beyond the supply store’s shelves.
A New World of Possibilities
Any gardener who has ever been in want of a flowerpot has crossed paths
with choice. There are so many pots to choose from, so many shapes and
sizes. All those pretty things lined up on the nursery shelves, begging to be
taken home and found useful. My advice is let them lie, let the dust settle on
them, for there is a whole world of other forms to be found. To unlock that
world, the key is reuse of the materials that are local to you.
What is a flowerpot but a hole with a bottom and sides? Through reuse
a great many things can fit that description. Take, for example, an empty
toolbox. Is it not a hole with a bottom and sides? Will the dirt know the
difference? But why use a toolbox? More to the point, why not? Toolboxes
are built to be sturdy; they are often colorful and can be had for a pittance
at any garage sale.
As the toolbox example illustrates, when I say reuse, I am not referring to
the worn-thin conventions of a shabbiness made chic by repetition, where
distressed finish and rustification, either original or manufactured, swayed
the day. I am talking about the contemporary practice of reuse that embraces
exploration of materials and how those materials can and do affect the
spaces we build.
Why Reuse? ABOVE LEFT Toolbox planters, filled

Reused materials are generally not standard in size or in practice and there- with planting mix, await plants.
RIGHT We set the tallest plants in the
fore can be perceived as hard to use, difficult to specify, and inefficient.
toolboxes first. BELOW Our planters
So why bother to explore the world of contemporary reuse! You may find are complete.
yourself motivated by economic, aesthetic, or environmental reasons—or an
amalgam of the three.
 diSCover the neWeSt
garden deSign trend
Creative containers, pathways, furniture, and more
Discovering new uses for what you already
“matthew levesque have or what you discover in the salvage yard
inspires gardeners to is truly living local. From making pathways out
of scrap wood and metal to creating garden
dig the treasures of the lights from discarded indoor fixtures, Found
Hardscape features dozens of garden projects
junkyard.” and inspirational ideas for taking advantage of
salvaged materials found in the home, junkyard,
—Horticulture or thrift store.

publiCitY & promotion

found hardscape
press contact: publicity@timberpress.com IDEAS FOR REPURPOSING MATERIALS TO CREATE
• Online marketing campaign
CONTAINERS, PATHWAYS, LIGHTING, AND MORE
• National publicity ISBN: 978-0-88192-997-3, $22.95
• West Coast author events Paperback, 192 pp, full color throughout
Ships in October

about the author

A pioneer in the art of using recycled materials in cutting-edge garden
design, mattheW leveSQue is the program director and master of
recycled art at the nonprofit San Francisco company Building Resources
and the Red Shovel Glass Company. He has appeared on HGTV, the
Discovery Channel, the San Francisco CBS affiliate, and other local
broadcasts.

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