WiseAcre Gardens

Well the first garden path of the year is behind me now. Sometimes I do finish what I start. I can’t take all the blame though since getting good sandstone slabs is harder than you might think. I didn’t finish this walk last year since the supply of good slabs ran out.

Availability isn’t the only problem. The supply ‘store’ is not much more than a hole in the ground surrounded by piles of rock. Believe me hand picking stone can be a pain in the backside. Digging through the piles to hand pick usable stone, getting it to the truck and then loading it all takes it’s toll. Then once I get it to where it’s needed I have to unload. It is slabs like these and not the big 7 ft x 4 ft ones that are back breakers.

I try to lay the stone as it comes off the truck. Believe me you don’t want to move it any more than you have to. This is where the fun begins. Building a walk with slabs is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The only difference is you need to cut the pieces to fit. It really is not hard. A chisel and hammer works just fine. Now it takes some really good whacks with the hammer so you better have good eye-hand coordination. Even then, I can attest to having some fingers that don’t feel like they used to.

This is where picking the right stone makes all the difference. You want good solid stone – not flaky or loosely layered for cutting. Fresh stone (yes fresh) will cut easy, old stone that’s been exposed to the air for a long time gets hard and brittle and will shatter in directions you don’t want.

This is what I call a rough walk. The edges are not perfect and the width varies some. Since the idea is to have plants overlap the edges it doesn’t make much sense to over do the labor or to waste large slabs by cutting them up for that perfect fit. Close enough is all that’s needed here.

The boulders were placed last year.

child: – Mommy why does that guy have a big rock on his truck?
Mom:- Because he’s an idiot, sweetheart.
child: – Why is he an idiot?
mom: – Because he puts big rocks on his truck.

The snow down in the lowlands melted so I thought I’d go clean up my last of the season jobsite. I wanted to lay the last stepping stones but it was too muddy to do much of anything besides take some photos.

The hard part is done. Stone is in place, topsoil brought in and spread, rubble cleaned up and the beds are ready for spring planting.

That done I headed south to check another site to see if the flower beds needed some fall cleanup.
Here’s a pic of a boulder moved by hand about 200 feet. I’m glad the owners liked the rock and didn’t want it moved out of the daylily bed. I’m going to plant some Solomon Seal around it next year.

The snow is still present in the higher elevations. A pretty sight but I’m not mentally prepared to call it a season yet. And no, I didn’t build these rock embankments. The house builder gets that credit.

The snow meant we didn’t have to clean up the beds so I went to say goodbye to my helpers hanging out by the boulders near the main entrance.

but they never noticed me since they were too busy worshipping the sun.

After a week of hauling sandstone slabs and ‘field’ boulders the new front walk and steps are taking shape at my latest project. It’s not even close to what I first visualized but then I never know what I’m going to end up with. The rock I find dictates what I do. My job is to listen to them when they suggest where they want to go. The big ones have a habit of pulling my chain though. I swear I can hear them laughing after working to place them in one spot and then finding out it doesn’t fit.

My eyes are bigger than my truck.

Custom cut to fit – in the truck.

It’s just the beginning but so far my little Ford Ranger has hauled more than 10 tons of material to the site.  The heaviest load weighed in at 1480 pounds. Thats a ton and a quarter on a half ton pick up. No wonder both our backs are feeling bent out of shape.