As the work proceeded, W. B. Faville, the architect, of Bliss and
Faville, made a suggestion for the building of a fence that should look
as if it were moss-covered with age. The result was that developing the
suggestion McLaren devised a new kind of hedge likely to be used the
world over. It was made of boxes, six feet long and two feet wide,
containing, a two-inch layer of earth, held in place by a wire netting,
and planted with South African dew plant, dense, green and hardy and
thriving in this climate. Those boxes, when piled to a height of several
feet, made a rustic wall of great beauty, Moreover, they could be
continuously irrigated by a one-inch perforated line of pipe. In certain
lights the water trickling through the leaves shimmered like gems. In
summer the plant would produce masses of small purple flowers.
McLaren found his experiment so successful that he decided to build a
hedge twenty feet high, extending more than a thousand feet. He also
used the hedge extensively in the landscape design for the Palace of
Fine Arts.