Sackhouse trampoline wall

The retaining wall around the new trampoline at the Sackhouse Gardens, just after completion, before the trampoline went in.  We excavated a big area so the trampoline could sit level with the ground, and incorporated antique chimney pots, huge sedimentary stone from North Dakota…

…and a ceramic architectural grotesque.  This figure looks like he’s flying out of the wall to me, appropriately because it’s next to a trampoline.  The large stones we hoisted into place with a bobcat, but this sculpture was too far across the trampoline pit, and Sonam and I had to lift it into place by hand.

By the way, people often ask if it’s safe to have a stone wall surrounding a trampoline like this.  Actually, the kids don’t fly off the trampoline, and it’s arguably safer than an asphalt playground.  But these beautiful walls are actually covered up by mats when a lot of kids are going to be using the trampoline.  This trampoline does get used, a lot.  I have seen some astonishing feats performed on it.  And as I’ve often mentioned, watching children enjoy my gardens is probably the single best thing to me about my line of work.