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big rock in the yard
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Posted by beckerster mi5 (My Page) on Fri, Apr 8, 05 at 22:27
| we have one of those huge rocks in the front corner of our yard. i know it's gonna be a pain for my dad and DH to mow around the thing so i want to know if maybe i can make a little garden around it. could i just square off the corner and plant flowers and stuff around the rock? has anyone done or heard of this before? how would i edge it so nothing grows into the yard? and does anyone think that the plants would get trampled cause thet're so close to the sidewalk? thanks for bearing with a newbie! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: big rock in the yard
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- Posted by Jroot 5A Ont. Canada (My Page) on
Fri, Apr 8, 05 at 22:39
My neighbours have a big rock in their lawn as well. It is about 6 feet from the road, although it doesn't look like it in this photo.
 What they did was plant a garden around it on one side, and also sunk a water reservoir near one side as well, and run a fountain from it. Truly, it is very pleasant. Also, since it has the water running, people leave it alone. Before kids used to climb, and sit on it. |
RE: big rock in the yard
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- Posted by nushie 5a / 5b ont (My Page) on
Sun, Jun 5, 05 at 13:43
When we had a new well drilled on our property, we obtained 4 absolutely huge bolders from their work. I had them placed in various places in our back yard, then placed additional smaller rocks ( to maintain the rustic look) as an edging around or between them to make a raised bed.I also planted plants along the same rustic theme- iris's etc. IF you look at the prices for obtaining a rock from a garden loaction, you will find it is very costly. So enjoy it, and make it a special focal point in your garden.
good luck |
RE: big rock in the yard
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| We grow boulders on our property. Insane, really. We could fund the mortgage on what we have in minerals. My dh put in a raised bed, 30x50, bordered entirely with boulders. 30 or so of them. He estimates the boulders and raised bed alone with no plantings would run upwords of $20,000 if done by a landscaper. He just dug out a new one recently, it's so big, even a backhoe can't handle it. What types of people buy these things and how on earth would you transport them from point A to point B? Sheesh |
RE: big rock in the yard
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| You give the gravel and dirt folks a call, maybe the landscaper company. Sell the boulders you don't want. They come and get them, give MONEY and boulders are GONE! We have a fair size boulder in our horse pasture, arena area that we use for a seat as we watch the kids riding horses. The bulldozer guy found it when he was spreading dirt and leveling the arena, pushed it off to the side. We were rather amazed, rock had started off as a small cobblestone he could not move, level, was pretty much all buried. Ended up with a rock the size of a Volkswagon!
We have had SEVERAL people stop by making an offer on the rock! Kind of surprised us, people wanting our rock so much. So far we still have it, but will see if it is still valuable when we decide to move. It is a nice SEAT. Our friend sold a few large piles of cobblestones and assorted larger rocks when she re-fenced her farm. Some old farmer had piled rocks up for years, before she purchased the land. The lanscaper/buyer came and loaded, hauled everything away, was ecstatic over the bargin. Probably tripled his money on resale, they were pretty rocks. She made enough to pay for the fence, fence installation, on quite a large acreage. Cleared the rock piles out of her way. Rocks are an asset, not a nusiance. Get even with them by selling them. Lot of thieves taking cobbles from rock piles in fields near the edges of the road around here. Seem to think rocks are piled for their convenience!! Not even shy about it, farmer stopped them with a pickup load and they couldn't understand why he wasn't glad they were hauling rocks away!! |
RE: big rock in the yard
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| I think if you plant around the rock according to it's proportion you can make it look like a "focal point" rather than something that is just plopped down. I live in a city that is very fond of rocks being as it is located on a multitude of quarries and was a glacial melt area at one point in history so we have TONS and TONS of limestone, granite, canadian jade and other deposits here. When our house was built we were told that any boulders found on the property during excavation of the foundation was ours to keep. We didn't want ANY but when our fence was put in we found and had to dig out a bouder that was 5-6 tonnes and have it hauled away. It was HUGE and much too large for even a "focal point" on our small property. At any rate, since you do have a rock, choose plantings that will compliment it, not make it look huge or tiny. Plant a tall grass behind it, a spirea shrub up next to it to soften it's edges and then varied heights of perennials (hostas, spring flowers, ferns, maybe a tall spikey perennial and then some medium height perennials around it. All too often I see people with a HUGE rock on their lawn and they plant a circle of celosia around it and it looks totally out of proportion to the gigantic rock. I think you just have to make it look more natural and soften the edges a bit by planting things as they would have grown around the rock had it been in nature. Have fun with it and let us know what you do. Barb |
RE: big rock in the yard
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I stopped by a landscaping place today, a big one and asked if they bought rocks of all sizes and boulders. Guy says how big? I said the size you have out front (huge) he says, we don't buy them but we'll take them for free. Yeah, I just bet they will @@
He says they don't get much for rocks anyways. Yeah, sure they don't.
Now, if I sent my big burly husband in there, I'll betcha the tune might change. |
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