My new aquisition

The neighbor that was renting next door moved out suddenly, leaving a half-formed garden bed in his wake. His former landlord was more than happy to be rid of the pile of rocks, much to my delight. 

So on Saturday, armed with a crowbar, a large wheeled dolly and a rubbermaid wheelbarrow, we went out into the snow to pry rocks from the cold frozen ground.

Here is Mark, loading the first few rocks.  Doesn't he look happy?  That's pretty much his normal garden mode.  He is perfectly happy to build things for me, in that I am exceedingly lucky... but when it comes to getting his hands dirty - it's purely out of love that anything gets done.  Poor boy.

Here we see the full, unfinished border.  It was about 30 foot long and perhaps 15 deep.  We've had enough freeze/thaw that there is about a 3 inch deep layer of ice all along this area of the yard.  Did I mention that Hogglebog is a wet site? 

So the task at hand was to take the crowbar and chisel the rocks out of the ice, load them up on something with wheels, then truck them about 80 feet away to my side yard.  Going in, Mark estimated 6 hours of work, while I was more optimistic, thinking it was about 4 hours, maybe.  Given that I always underestimate how long things will take, we were greatly surprised when the whole project took around 2 and a half hours.  Amazing.

Here is the site denuded of rocks.  You can see the ice that lies under the snow where the shallow bottom of the wheelbarrow has pushed the snow away.  The snow was actually our ally in this project.  In spring, our ground is too wet for the wheelbarrow to run over - it sinks into the muck and there I am.  We were lucky that the day was warm, and that the job was over before the warmth turned our path to total slush.  I was fighting a few soft spots on my path for the last few loads, but knowing I was almost done got me past that. 

So here are a few of the larger stones under the pergola.  Come the full of spring, I will be out there, setting them a bit further in from the path and a deeper in the ground, but I can already envision how it will look. 

And here is my stockpile on the other side of the path.  We easily moved a hundred rocks, ranging from the size of my fist to nearly the size of my torso.  Quite a haul. 

Can't wait to put that border together this year.  The pergola vines were planted last year (trumpet vine and honeysuckle) and I have various shade plants that have been holding until the day that there might be a bit of shade for them...

Is it spring yet? 

The view a week later.

Comments

[Paul]

Rock and roll, Jenn!

[bill]

Brrr! That looks like a cold wet job.

[jenn]

It was wet, Bill, but the weather was cooperative in that it wasn't bitter.

A bright, warm sun. No wind. And a state of constant motion assured that although my leather gloves were soaked through, my fingers never took chill.

It was a good project!

[jenn]

Paul, thanks for the giggle. I hadn't thought of it like that! Perfect!

[Suzette]

Whoa! Waht a haul! Lucky you. I can just see how this border will look in mid-summer.