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Kaleva

(38,164 posts)
Wed Aug 15, 2018, 09:08 PM Aug 2018

Free Rocks! Get your Free Rocks here!

As I work on my 1800+ sq. ft. vegetable garden and two 35' rows for raspberries and plotting out where to put 10 fruit trees, I am continually reminded on how blessed I am to deal with heavy clay soil, which turns into a sticky muck when wet and is as hard as cement when dry, and rocks. Lots of rocks. All sizes and shapes. Almost every time, or so it seems, I push a shovel into the ground, I hit a rock.

For awhile, I wondered what to do with my growing collection of rock and then I came up with an idea. I decided to line the ditch, which runs east to west, on the south side of the property with the rock starting at the west end of the ditch. After many trips with the wheelbarrow and sometimes with a 5 gallon bucket, I have the area around the culvert at the west end of the ditch lined with rock up to the top of the bank. As I continue to work on the garden and harvest more rock, I'll just keep adding it to the ditch working my way eastward.

Being 59 years old, I probably won't live long enough or remain in decent enough shape to completely line the entire ditch with rock but what I have done so far looks pretty good and my wife is really pleased with it.

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Free Rocks! Get your Free Rocks here! (Original Post) Kaleva Aug 2018 OP
Cool project! Crutchez_CuiBono Aug 2018 #1
Rocks are fun. GemDigger Aug 2018 #2
My father terraced his back yard at age 62. JayhawkSD Aug 2018 #3
I have a thing for rocks Bayard Aug 2018 #4
Excellent way to control runoff. Nitram Aug 2018 #5
We didn't know what rocks were until we moved to an area of glacial fill. Canoe52 Sep 2018 #6

Crutchez_CuiBono

(7,725 posts)
1. Cool project!
Wed Aug 15, 2018, 09:11 PM
Aug 2018

Good way to occupy your time (!! "Occupy Your Time/Life"!!) Do yourself a favor and get a Spud Bar. Good luck.

 

JayhawkSD

(3,163 posts)
3. My father terraced his back yard at age 62.
Wed Aug 15, 2018, 11:17 PM
Aug 2018

Well, starting at age 62. I think he was 65 when he finished.

His yard sloped and was hard to mow, plus it didn't lend itself to flower beds. He started the project of terracing by building one flagstone retaining wall. He went to the quarry and hand loaded two tons into a trailer, then wheelbarrowed it from the front to the back. Hand dug for the wall, hand laid all of the stone wall, backfilled, and went back to the quarry for another two tons.

He wound up with three levels and some 200' of wall, most of it between 2' and 3' high. All of it with flower beds at the top and immaculate turf at the bottom. It was awesome, and doing it would have killed me. He thrived on it.

If I recall correctly, he hand loaded, wheelbarrowed and hand laid some 22 tons of flagstone in three years.

Bayard

(24,145 posts)
4. I have a thing for rocks
Wed Aug 15, 2018, 11:51 PM
Aug 2018

I use them all over the place here. But they're really PRETTY rocks. Some come from our property, some were free from my vet, and another friend has brought in truck loads for me (I pay him). They're all sizes, and in shades or orange, peach, red, and tan. Lots of quartz, red clay, and limestone here. Lots of caves (like Mammoth). Around my big flower garden, I've used them in gabion pillars with log fencing, and working on the front wall being all rock (in gabion cages). I have them around the big pond, and along the driveway retaining wall. I wouldn't be able to estimate how many tons I've moved in a wheelbarrow (and I'm no pup). Also used them to build the stone hearth under our wood stove, and a future project will be building a chimney around that stove pipe.

They're very versatile for all kinds of projects. I'm into rustic around our little log cabin in the woods.

Canoe52

(2,963 posts)
6. We didn't know what rocks were until we moved to an area of glacial fill.
Mon Sep 10, 2018, 01:20 AM
Sep 2018

My wife is 71 and still moving rocks around, she puts them on a plastic kids sled, and pulls them around the yard on that. It slides on anything and is easier than a wheelbarrow.

I bet you get that ditch lined before they plant you in the ground and sooner than you think!

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