The Raptor

I took out our front lawn. (It was dying anyway) I removed three inches of soil. Now I'm building a rock garden. Monday I spent $400 on rocks: river bottom stepping stones for a pathway, perimeter rocks, and large rocks. They're being delivered this morning. So, I'm getting my rocks off.....the truck.

Emil St-Hilaire

The Raptor

dlq04

If you have a lot of trees we discovered rocks can be a pain. Mine were professionally installed with strong plastic laid down first, so we're thinking - maintenance free - right? Wrong. Because our entire yard has so many trees we have to do a lot of leaf blowing both around and in the stones. What happens is dirt gets blown in and settles on top; then grass and weeds start growing in the rocks. That would be easy to kill with Round Up except we also planted shrubs through out the stone areas. Also we get an endless dropping of twigs that can't be easily removed. In fact, I just paid my grandson to pick them up - he filled several buckets. Maintenance free - no way. At least not with our set up.

Emil St-Hilaire

Clean it up yourself,Dave.
It's a good exercice to keep you young,and in shape...

The Raptor

Yeah, we have trees and I expect that there's going to be some maintenance to this, including leaf blowing and keeping after weeds. We're going to plant drought-tolerant plants, so we'll be saving water, which is the point of all this. I'm new to this approach, so we'll see how it all works out. Thanks for your input.

Vanishing Point

Xeriscaping once reserved for droughty areas has really taken off as an acceptable means of landscaping. Two words of advice, do put down a weed barrier fabric before placing your rocks and make sure you don't create a barrier for water (I know we are talking arid area now) to naturally drain away from your house. If nothing else you are creating your own "heat island", now if you could just harness that energy. Good luck, would love to see pictures of the finished project.

dlq04

Believe me, I do. He was looking for a way to make money to pay his debts - after all, he's 11. At that age they don't believe in saving first....

The Raptor

Will do. It'll be awhile. We're not planting until October when the weather cools off (I hope).

The Raptor

I moved several hundred pounds of rocks in bags and loose yesterday with a wagon and a dolly -- lots of tough lifting. I was sure I would have a very bad back this morning, enough to keep me from going to the gym. I woke up and was pleasantly surprised to find that I'm OK. A little sore but I'm good to go. I attribute it to ab and back weight work. However, I have lots and lots of more rocks to get. This project is much bigger than I anticipated. Oh well.