This garden wall is the first major improvement project I've done since moving into my house two years ago. All the projects I had done up to now were repairs and minor changes.

The wall serves a few purposes:

First, it is a place for people to sit when I have a barbeque. The wall is about 18" high, which is the height of a typical chair's seat. The wall is also wide enough to sit on, or lie on, or walk on, or sit a plate on.

Second, it prevents erosion on a slope where the erosion used to be checked by a huge sprawl of ivy. As we all know, ivy is evil. The ivy ruined the fence that was there before I moved in, and would ruin the new fence if not terminated with extreme prejudice.

Most importantly, the wall just plain looks cool.