I started today to do the project Karen and I have been collecting rock for over the last 3 years. My plan is to make a mosaic of flat (somewhat) of rocks buried into the ground at grass level so I can mow over it. I am laying down the trunk shape today and will continue tomorrow with it. This is the initial start.
How will you place your rocks? My experience is they seem to sink over the years.
I would prep the area the same as you could for laying any other patio type stones. Some landscape fabric and some sand.
I love that you collected all the stone. I have plans for something similar in the future. This woman is a great inspiration for stone and mosaic work.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0220/living.html
Edited for spelling
This message was edited Jul 29, 2011 8:02 AM
I am just digging out the rock shape in the lawn and a little bigger. Our soil underneath is about 40% rock. (glacial morraine) Then I leave them about 1/4 to 3/8 inch above and they stay there. My entire garden is bordered with this rock type to make mowing easy and it doesn't sink but in a few areas and I just pull it up and put dirt underneath. This is over 10 years in place and no redo has been done.
Love her stuff but I like the natural.
It's going to be gorgeous, Steve.
OK worked my butt off yesterday. Got up to 84F (116 to southerners) yesterday! After 12 hours I have gotten this far.
As I was working I decided to make it a sugar maple rather than a Doug fir. So the trunk is shorter and the limbs are different. Acer Saccinarium is the state tree of this state. Which one is it. I am adding this to the trunk so the puzzle will be there for people to know what kind of tree it is. LOL
It is very difficult to place and make the proper depth so when I drive over it the rocks don't sink too much. So this is the height I have learned to place them at.
I have been so impressed with the change of soil that has happened. When we moved here the yard you are looking at was scraped clean to (sell = rape) remove the soil. So all we had was clay loam from the gravel pit nearby. Now look at it!
I am sooooo frustrated today. I have been trying to make the mosaic with the state of Michigan in it and there is NO ROCK shaped like the upper penninsula. Even fractured pieces dont work! 2 days wasted in the heat to get nowhere. Bummer.
I need your help. What would represent "sugar" so I can make this a Michigan sugar Maple? Give me your ideas.
It is as a quit today. I need a cold beer.
Steve, maybe leave a blank spot to fill in later with the perfect rock to represent what you're looking for. Don't let it hang you up now!
I associate Michigan sugar maples with great memories of collecting the sap in buckets and boiling it down over an open fire to make syrup. YUMMMM! Also with the gorgeous yellow and orange leaf color in the Fall. They are stately and beautiful trees along with being a food source. I don't know if that brings to mind any ideas. I think your Michigan looks reminiscent of the shape of the state. That is what I thought when you asked what state it looked like in the post above.
I wish they did better in the wet region of the Northwest and in clay soil. I would plant one.
I have 7 specimens here in Montana. They came in small sandwich bags from the trees at my home in Michigan. Now they are over 25' tall (4 to 6 "diameter) and I hope to check for sap in February. A guy in BC said that they don't sap here to make sugar. I refuse to believe him. I spent many days collecting and boiling down sap to get the best maple candies (maple sugar poured on the snow) to thrill with the treat. I am bent and determined to get the U.P. of Mich in my stone quarry. The darn Kewanaw Peninsula is the tough part. I redid it all today with a better Michigan mitten. Now to find the Thumb and UP!
Well been working in AK so no changes but the grass growing in around well.
I finally finished my stairwell yesterday and this is the finished product. I kind of like it.
You like it for good reason, Steve. The railing is fabulous!
Both look great. Love how the grass has grown up around the mosaic. What nice additions to your already beautiful garden!
I kind of like it, too. No, let me rephrase that - I LOVE both of them.
