Gabion design ideas for garden

I am in love with gabions. Both industrial chic and rustic folksy, the combined texture of stone and luster of metal mesh has something that really appeals. The other reason is that they are so do-it-yourself, as I found out since our first foray into gabion building a few years ago.

Then I was lucky enough to have the wonderfully talented Steve Warner (Outhouse Designs) do a quick sketch of a new backyard design for me. These included some low, curving drystone retaining walls and a free-standing ‘echo’ stone wall a few meters away and at a similar curve to help define a path. I pondered and thought about it for a while – I liked the shape and texture of the walls, but the cost of buying the dimension stone and hiring a mason to build it…

When I realized that I could build them as gabion walls at a fraction of the cost, I started thinking of all the possible ways that gabions could be used in garden design. If you have access to local fill material (which can be any rubbish rock as long as its dimensions are larger than the mesh openings), building as chips is cheap as the cages or mesh only cost a few hundred dollars.