My favorite landscape projects are the ones that begin with salvaged materials that reform themselves into structure with renewed life.
I design and build garden structures with recycled lumber and paths paved with broken stone from the marble dealers scrap heap. The garden is an excellent location to make use of cast off items.
Too many landscape designers rely heavily on virgin extraction of stone and lumber for their projects. It is more environmentally friendly to recycle used materials and it is cheaper. Sometimes the cost is only in the labor to haul, design and arrange the materials.
One of my favorite recycle projects is an 8’X10’ solid redwood greenhouse that cost only $57. in materials. The lumber was rescued from the landfill and turned out to be redwood of a quality that is hard to buy today.
