Using Recycled Stone in the Landscape

There is a sort of 'Alchemy' applied when working with recycled stone. 

We had a project last week that required us to use a Fieldstone that was pulled off of the interior fireplace during the renovation of the house.

The project required us to wrap two front entryway posts with this natural stone. Using fieldstone to make a square feature can be difficult. Building with used fieldstone makes it even more complicated. 

Fieldstone is round and irregular by nature. Any type of stone can be considered a 'Fieldstone' as long as it has been weathered above ground for some time.
The weathering gives it an aged looked and usually rounds sharp edges. In Santa Cruz, we usually use Sonoma Fieldstone, because it is harvested in California.

Using a stone that is round or has rounded edges can make our job more interesting, when we are trying to create a square column. 

The stone work was capped with recycled Bluestone. The patio at the entryway is made of Bluestone, so incorporating it into our feature helped to bring everything together.