By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Recently I wrote a post about Porch, a new home/garden decor store in Carpenteria, California.  But I didn't mention the item there I lusted after the most -- this rustic yet sophisticated garden bench made of gabions -- because I didn't have a photo that did it justice at the time.  Now I do.

Gabions--wire mesh baskets filled with rocks--have been used for civil engineering purposes for centuries.  They're used to stabilize shores, filter silt from run-off, redirect flood water, and as an inexpensive material for constructing retaining walls.   

In the last few decades innovative landscape architects have been using gabions as design elements in public and residential gardens as well.  This has been especially true in the Southwest.  Phoenix-based Christy Ten Eyck was one of these pioneers.

Now Core, a Utah-based company, has refined gabions a step further, turning this unlikely, humble material into a piece of furniture as satisfying to look at as good sculpture.

The company's gabion-based water feature is pretty cool, too.