When I first picked up a trowel, I didn't have a clue how to use it. The people who were supposed to be teaching me how to lay bricks were too busy with their own work, so for a few months, I ...

Low, short garden walls can be built with a single wythe—that is, with only one horizontal row of bricks. But such walls are not strong. You can even push them over by hand. Double-wythe brick walls ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...