build structed from a treated pine timber frame that was clad with perforated stainless steel panels. The panels are in fact a waste
product— leftovers from the manufacture of metal tiles. Once the timber frame was clad with metal panels, the gabions were partly filled with large river stones. Gabions don’t naturally hold soil, so in order to plant in ours, a geo-textile fabric ‘sack’ was laid in the centre of the gabions and filled with soil. The remaining stones were pressed between the sack and the metal panels, giving the impression that the gabions are full of stone.
PLASTIC SLEEPERS (Railroad Ties)
The very thought of plastic sleepers might be enough to send a shiver down your spine. It certainly did mine. I was envisaging faux timber grain, but when they turned up I could not have more delighted or surprised. These sleek black sleepers are made from 98% recycled plastic, including milk and juice containers, cling wrap, plastic bags, and old plastic rainwater tanks. They will outlast regular timber sleepers, and won’t warp, split, or crack.
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LEAF MAGAZINE
autumn 2012
CORTEN STEPPERS Corten is an exciting material to work with in the garden. Its beautiful, rusty patina can be enjoyed knowing that it is not going to rust away in a few years. I had never seen corten used as a paving material, but I cannot see any reason why it wouldn’t work. The shapes here were cut with an oxy torch from a large sheet of 6mm-thick corten. The steppers were set onto pads of mortar. Some of the steppers have had to be re-adhered to the mortar pads with liquid nails. The sheets from which the steppers were cut were fixed to timber posts and became a trellis to support climbers.