grant, obsessive compulsive is my NORM.

I would've dug it up too ;) how is anything gonna grow THRU that rock?

Grant-

Don't have the same compulsion, but if I found that size rock I'd want it out too!

Good to hear I'm not the only one who would have dug it out, compulsion or no. :)

Below are two quick pics of it washed (okay, briefly rinsed) and partially buried to the back left of a cardon (saguaro relative, but faster growing and with nicer blue skin) cactus in a corner of my garden.

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Thanks for looking or commenting.
Take care,
Grant

I like your cactus and agave arrangement. Oh, and rocks, too.

Grant,

I had a similar situation last fall while digging a hole for plant. The "boulder" was near the edge of hole. Soil was calichey but I pursued boulder for about 40 minutes. Then, put shovel under edge of it and stomped on shovel trying to loosen boulder but it didn't even begin to budge. Decided a plant had ample room in the soil I had worked to grow around it or in another direction.

Looking back, I probably should have soaked the hole overnight and tried again in morning. However, another consideration was that I'd have to come up with a lot of soil to replace the volume of rock.

I commend you for a job thoroughly done and appreciate the effort that went into it. The results look really good.

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate them. Judy, I had just rearranged all of those plants before I found the rock, so I'm glad you like the arrangement. I had let that corner get horribly overgrown with too many penstemons, hollyhocks, and there were tons of leaves and blooms from the oleanders nearby. I like the cleaner look now. The cardon has been in that spot for three years and has grown a lot. The cactus at the left came with this house and I've moved the poor thing several times, LOL. The other plants have been in the ground for a few years too but were recently relocated the the spots in the pic.

Psuperb, thanks for the nice comments. When I started working the rock I was worried too that it would be too big to handle. I'm not sure WHAT I would have done had that been the case. Like you mentioned, I was already worrying about replacing the volume of soil that would be vacated by the rock removal. No small feat for a big rock. It sounds like you picked your battle wisely and cut your losses and still found a nice way for your plant to grow. I can totally understand the approach.

Thanks again for taking the time to look and comment. The rock and I thank you. :)

Take care, and remember folks, lift with your knees by squatting and then standing, not with your back by bending over.

That's so funny you showed the tennis ball. I was digging up my yard about two weeks ago, and I dug up a tennis ball. At least 20 years old and still bounces.

I never had a rock any where on my place for years. But I had one acre that was a low area so when property next door was being developed for houses, I asked the people if I could have some free dirt. They were glad to get rid of it instead of hauling it away. Problem is, what they brought over was from where the old irrigation line was with cement pipe. So, now I have chunks of cement pipe every so often with I dig to plant. One by one I did them out and they find their way to the dump by way of my trash barrel. I tend to walk around the property with a shovel in hand and every so often it will "thunk" and I know I've hit another one. I will get EVERY one. --smiles his jolly smile o'r his sweaty brow--