On another thread awhile back, we got into a discussion about erratics - large stone remnants from the Ice Age that have tumbled and landed in our yards and in our woods. I've also read some other interesting threads by people building their own stone walls and others using stones to form rock gardens, etc.. I thought it would be fun to have a thread for sharing ideas and information concerning the use of rocks and stones in landscaping, and also for sharing photos of interesting erratics and stones we come across. As a starter, my DH came across this interesting erratic when we hiked the 150 acres behind us (that have just been logged) to see the condition the woods were left in. I think this erratic is very beautiful......hidden deep in the woods.
stones, rocks, boulders & erratics
I heard this rumor that the glaciers went back for more rocks!
LOL, Cat!!
Pat - that's a neat set of stone steps! I have so many small rocks in the garden, I find I use them as row markers and any other way I can get them out of my way!
ooh! I like this thread. We have a street that is not a street. It was put on the map but never paved. Probably among the first two reasons that it never happened are the humungous erratics is It? that populate our little drumlin here in Saugus. I just went out and took these tonight. That is my son, 6 feet 2 inches, added for scale! These boulders would be in the middle of the street, if we had a street. I have some more in the yard.
Martha
What a great picture, Martha! Those are awesome! And that is very interesting info about your "non-street". LOL I love to see what people do with these huge boulders. Our farm must have been right in the path of the tumble, because they are all around us - especially in the woods near the house and beyond.
Here is a shot of some close to the house......
Cool thread idea and nice shots. That first shot is nice, but the rock seems lonely with all the clearing around it. I'll look for some of my hiking ones. Many around here.
Donniebrook, that first rock is amazing. I always love driving through Dublin, NH and seeing the big rock in the middle of the road.
Here is our glacier erratic on Nantucket. Not huge, but we have virtually no rocks on the island except erratics. We have two others on the property and no other rocks except ones we brought from off island via the steamship. Patti
How funny, Patti! I was going to mention that rock in Dublin. It sure is a landmark around these parts. Can't you just hear the old-timers? "You take a left a the big rock in the middle of the road ..."
This is a wonderful thread. I wanna see the Dublin rock.
We are living on a vain of clay that goes from Lake Ontario south into Pensylvania. Just clay and small annoying stones.
Donna - you've done a wonderful job with your rock gardens! They look great. Isn't it fun to take the stones and turn them into an interesting landscape feature? The price is sure right!! LOL
Victor - I'll be very interested in seeing some of the erratics from your hikes. They fascinate me........just knowing that they have been sitting there waiting to be appreciated for about 12,000 to 13,000 years makes me smile whenever I see one.
Patti - how cool! I didn't realize there were so few on Nantucket.
OK - let's have a race to see who can get to Dublin and photograph the erratic in the road first! LOL
The New York State contingent says YEAAAAA for the race to Dublin
Yes it is. There are also many examples of huge rocks perched on three small stones around the area. It's a controversial subject with some believing it's 'natural', with others believing it was done by man as a special form of cairn or marker.
What a great idea, basing them on the cinderblocks. I wonder if the weight of the rocks would break down the conderblocks over time?
We have a quarry on our farm where they took stone out for the foundations of the old house and barns. We've run into several of the foundation rocks and used them in various places and Stan has raided the quarry on occasion. This is a very bad photo of the original rock gardens we put in a couple of years after we bought the farm.
We've since put in the hardscape for three gardens at our church using rocks from the quarry and around the farm. Our first harvest is always stone before we plant.
on the topic of erratics, we recently donated an erratic with garnets in it to a local church for a memorial to a fallen soldier.
What a beautiful thought and deed! And, that's a beautiful rock garden, too. I can just imagine what the one at the church must look like. It must be spectacular.
Candyce, The cinder bloc will be fine (actually, they are cement block these days) There is a "top" and bottom to them (the top side has thicker cement around the holes) I would suggest top side down to reduce sinking into the ground.
Kathleen, wonderful to use old stones in your garden and that is a very fitting gift for the fallen soldier and no doubt a beautiful erratic. Love to see a picture of it.
Victor, have you seen the big erratic perched on a rim up on Mt Desert Island called Bubble Rock. It is about 25 feet in diameter and looks for sure like it will be rolling down any second. Your kids would be amused. Lots of them around that part of Maine. Also in some in Central Park like "Rat Rock" near the ball fields.
Nantucket was formed by the melting from the glaciers 18,000 years of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, during the Wisconsinian glacial stage. As the huge glacier pushed south it moved mountains of rock, clay and sand south and then as the climate warmed, it melted and all this stuff on the ice sheet was dumped and that is what formed the Cape Cod and the Islands as well as Long Island. We have no bed rock. The last bit of unmelted Laurentide Ice sheet, I think, is on Baffin Island in Canada called The Barnes Icecap which is now melting again. I think I need to go see it.
I love glaciers. I love rocks. Here is part of an old wall on our Vt property. I think it is about 10 feet high, but it is sad that some has fallen and is way too expensive to repair. Maybe I should call Wha in Pepperell, MA who is slaving on a huge project and doing great work. My back just hurts looking at his work. Patti http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/873748/
Beautiful Patti.I wouldn't change it. The ditch lilies are great with it.
Nice rocks
What great rocks and uses for them. Love that old wall. These aren't nearly as impressive as those mega sized ones nature left in the woods, but here are some of the prettier colored ones I have dug up. Most of them are just average everyday grey color but every now and then a pretty color will pop up, especially when they are wet.
patti love that old wall in VT! i try to use only old rock with lichens for my walls to give it that been here a long time look.
i think i will have a lot of rock left over after my wall is completed. i like what donna has done with her rock gardens and may do that to one beds in back.
OK, my street that is not a street {hereafter referred to as Burnham Ave, as it shows on the map} story gets even stranger. This is the picture I took last night up the street. the far boulder is to the right of the right hand one in my last picture. This, however, was deposited by the hand of man {actually, the hand was running a bulldozer} All three boulders sit atop the channel of a section of the Town of Saugus Phase V Sewer Project. When aforepictured son was only 2, the town connected several of the teensy streets in our area up to the main sewer lines. We sit on top of a hill made of ledge. They had to blast a channel up the street, 9 feet from the house, to get the 5 houses linked up. They moved the two erratics off to one side during the course of the work, because i wanted them. Glad to do it too, since they didn't have to take them away and dump them. Then, they blasted the channel. There were several tons of rock from that, smaller ones that were made into a retaining wall down at the edge of my property and the large table sized one to the right in this picture. When they had laid the pipe, put in the manholes, covered the whole thing up, they put my two stones back more or less where they had been and the third one down from it. Then they put in loam and reseeded the grass that had been the street. My son now mows the street. So 2 from the glacier and one from the pubic works dept. There are a couple of others up and down Burnham Avenue and much of the rock that my son used to build the two tier bed came from this project. I have many beds that have stone borders because that' s what we have a lot of up here even before the project.
Martha
No, I have not seen Mt. Desert, Patti. Sounds cool. Love the Central Park ones. Cool story, Martha.
My brother and I were just discussing the rocks moved around by glaciers, and I had no idea that they had an actual name- how interesting. I got back from Acadia a few weeks ago, and they have so many beautiful rocks up there. Like many other people in Maine and New England, my yard is pretty much sitting on one big piece of rock. I landscaped around the bigger formations in the yard. I think it greatly helped give my garden a head start as far as looking interesting...I love rocks.
This one is the bigger piece of ledge...I built a raised bed up in front of it, using rocks I unearthed when I pulled away all the weeds and brush that was totally coviering this ledge. I kind of wish the lady ferns didn't obscure it so much. I'll try to find more pics of the other rocks in my garden...
You all have such great stories!
I'll have to get outside and photograph the rocks that we are uncovering on the back hill where we are currently putting in another garden.
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