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 ...

Q: I was on a tour of the Gamble house in Pasadena, California, and saw the most unusual deformed brick in a garden wall. The brick was twisted and looked more like random rocks than brick. I want ...