stones, rocks, boulders & erratics

Southwest , NH(Zone 5b)

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.

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Southeast, MA(Zone 6b)

Way cool as the kids say. Looks like it may roll a little more if you pushed it. Nothing like that around here just little annoying rocks and stones by the billions. Did find some to make a couple of steps up a little slope, nothing to write home about but serviceable.

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Fairfield County, CT(Zone 6b)

I heard this rumor that the glaciers went back for more rocks!

Southwest , NH(Zone 5b)

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!

Oviedo, FL(Zone 9b)

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

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Southwest , NH(Zone 5b)

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......

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Southwest , NH(Zone 5b)

and one more.....

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South Coast, RI(Zone 6b)

Here’s what I did with some of the rocks that were on the property when I bought it.
This is rock garden 1 built in 2001, picture was taken early spring 2006.

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South Coast, RI(Zone 6b)

Rock garden 2, built in 2001, picture taken summer 2007

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Lower Hudson Valley, NY(Zone 6b)

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.

South Coast, RI(Zone 6b)

Rock garden 4 is in the foreground, built 2006, the back of rock garden 3 is in the background, built in 2002. This was taken right after completion spring 2006.

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Nantucket, MA(Zone 7a)

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

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

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 ..."

Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

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.

Southwest , NH(Zone 5b)

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

Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

The New York State contingent says YEAAAAA for the race to Dublin

Lower Hudson Valley, NY(Zone 6b)

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.

Oviedo, FL(Zone 9b)

Here's a two-level rock garden that faces the biggies that my son built. They are based on cinderblocks, however. This picture is from three years ago.
Martha

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

What a great idea, basing them on the cinderblocks. I wonder if the weight of the rocks would break down the conderblocks over time?

Panama, NY(Zone 5a)

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.

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

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.

Southern, CT(Zone 6a)

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.

Nantucket, MA(Zone 7a)

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/

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Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

Beautiful Patti.I wouldn't change it. The ditch lilies are great with it.

Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

WHAT was I thinking.
Smack in the midle of DD's garden.
I'm ready for the rubber room now.

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Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

most of the rocks sre this size and come from the creek between the developments.

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Pepperell, MA(Zone 6a)

nice thread:) here is a pic of an erratic from baxter state park in maine from last year. the babe on the right is my better half.

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Pittsford, NY(Zone 6a)

Nice rocks

Southeast, MA(Zone 6b)

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.

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Pepperell, MA(Zone 6a)

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.

Pepperell, MA(Zone 6a)

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.

Oviedo, FL(Zone 9b)

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

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Boxford, MA(Zone 6a)

Rocks are my life. I joined the Boston Mineral Club so I could go on quarry trips- as if I don't have enough rocks in my own yard, I haul back interesting specimens to dot my landscape.

I am going to make the assumption that the first photo is from New Hampshire, and not Florida!

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Lower Hudson Valley, NY(Zone 6b)

No, I have not seen Mt. Desert, Patti. Sounds cool. Love the Central Park ones. Cool story, Martha.

Maine, United States(Zone 5b)

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...

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

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.

The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

Remember the back hill that I showed you all back in late May? That's the area where we are creating a tiered rock garden.

Here's the before photo, taken on May 28th.

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

Now, one month later, you can see that Gregg has built a retaining wall from some of the stones and boulders we found there.

June 28th ....

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

Gregg built the stone retaining wall all in one sweltering morning. He's quite the guy, I would say. Needless to say, he was a hurtin' unit the next day!

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The Monadnock Region, NH(Zone 5a)

And, last evening, we uncovered even MORE boulders.
We still have a long way to go, but we are getting there. We seem to appreciate it more when we do things slowly!

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