[.ca] The Art & Craft of Stonescaping: Setting & Stacking Stone (ISBN 1579900186)

Stonescape:
A good book for anyone interested in landscaping their yard with dry stacked stones. It teaches you much more than just making retaining walls. Learn how to make paths, steps, benches, pools, and how to integrate plants into the stonework. It could have used some more photos of finished projects, but overall it should be enough to help you finish any stonescaping project you take on.

This book is a keeper!!:
My wife and I just built a new home in Eastern CT. The site is very wooded and the area has a great tradition of drystacked stone work which is evident everywhere we travel in the "Quiet Corner" of CT. I wanted to create a 30' dry stone retaining wall as well as a set of steps to transition between the walkout basement area to the rear garage area of my new home. After the initial excavation and construction process I was left with a sandy and steep slope of about 10'in the rear of the house. The rain was causing sand and soil to block the walkout basement area - - this was not acceptable. The solution I selected for the problem was to build a dry stacked stone wall and a set of steps. Mr. Reed's book was clearly written, concise as to materials, tools, and basic techniques, and he did a good job of clarifying the underlying elements of constructing dry stacked stone retaining walls, steps, and tree wells. The book is well organized and starts with the tools then moves on to more challenging projects. After reading the book I was confident that with the basic tools, the right materials (which were in abundance) and some help from a 10 ton excavator I would be able to construct the walls, walks, and steps I needed to make the site interesting. I am just about done with my project and all of the "local" guys have been favorably impressed with what I achieved. They grew up doing this work. Make no mistake, moving 20-200 lb stones with hand tools is hard work. On the otherhand the satisfaction you receive from standing back and looking at what you have done is worth every drop of sweat. I can only recommend Mr. Reeds book - - - in theory and in parctice it was well worth the money and and easy read that is well illustrated with drawings and photos. George O'Neil

Great idea and how-to book:
When I started a stone-project at our farm in the Catskills -- re-cycling some old, fallen-down stone walls into a new retaining wall -- I bought a half-dozen books, including David Reed's Stonescaping. Although Reed's book was not the best one for my particular project, as a good how-to book, it is very good and as an idea book, it is excellent. On the plus side, Reed provides details and plenty of full-color pictures for everything from tools to stone varieties to uses for stone. He expands far beyond free-standing and retaining walls to benches, paving stones, terraces and even sculpture. After reading this book, I realized that I can use the stone I have at hand in quite a few ways besides walls. The main negative is the book is just too pretty to drag outdoor where I'm working. Of course, the easy solution to that is to photocopy the appropriate pages and take them to my worksite. It is a great book for anyone interested in adding stone texture to the garden, lawn, or general landscape.

Stonescapin:
I live in Southern California and did not find this book applicable to our terrain. Its better for the East Coast or North.

Excellent reference book:
If your looking for a book on patios, walkways, steps, or walls this book is a "must-have". David Reed has done an excellent job with this book. It is well written, with easy to follow instructions. This book is nicely illustrated; many photos demonstrate a step-by-step progression of the work, as well as showing the reader how the project should look when completed. The author also does a good job of covering tools and gives some helpful tips on the handling of stone.