Rocking & Rolling Boulders

Our September project rocks! Seriously. We're talking rocks by the pallet & boulders by the truckload! Working with stone allows for much creativity but it demands a strong back! It's well worth the effort though. You can't beat the beauty of natural stone. Just look at the gorgeous colors in these beauties.

Before

We are splitting this project into  phases starting with the front garage bed. ​​Our first task was to dig up all of the existing plants and move them to the garden. The plants will be split and reused throughout this project. The large bushes along the back (Miss Kim lilacs) were also dug out and relocated to the back of the property line.

​We are removing all of the existing wall blocks that surround the home and garage and replacing them with natural stone. Jason has been busy rocking & rolling boulders to construct a two tiered bed along the front of the garage. We are salvaging more than the plants on this job. The wall blocks will also be reused along the back of the property. More on that later.

We started at the far corner using the largest boulders to anchor the wall. The shape, size, color & pattern of the rocks are equally important in the design & construction of the wall. You only want to set these monsters once so you better get it right the first time!

About the time it was starting to look like a wall... Jason spread out the pallets of smaller rock inside of the bed and started working on the 2nd tier. Hmmm. Looks like a big pile of rocks and dirt again!

Second tier starting to take shape! Time to create the transition between the sidewalk and top of the flower bed.

The photo below is a look at the backside of the garage. We have already completed the top of this bed. The hostas shown in the bottom right corner will be temporarily relocated as we extend the stone wall along the backside of the garage. We will share additional photos as this job progresses.

Trucking in stone by the ton is not practical for every landscape or budget but that doesn't mean you can't incorporate stone into your landscape. Sometimes a few well placed stones is all that it takes to add interest and help create a more natural look to your gardens. Here's a few ideas to make your garden rock for little to no money.

We added this tiny wall to our sidewalk bed years ago to soften the divide between the cement sidewalk and flower bed. It is made from scrap pieces of flagstone. We added a matching wall next to our concrete patio. Both took very little effort to construct and because we used salvaged materials it cost zero dollars to complete!

We used larger pieces of flagstone to create pathways through our flower beds. It only takes a few pieces to make a simple footpath. We used 18 flagstone steppers to create 4 footpaths connecting the sidewalk and 3 sides of our patio to the backyard. It cost very little and was super easy to install.

The contour of our yard is relatively flat so we added small outcroppings of rocks throughout all of our flower beds to add interest to our landscape. The trick is to partially bury or "heel in" the rocks so they look natural, like Mother Nature placed them there herself.

Or try your hand at stacking rocks to add a little Zen to your garden.
Here's a little inspiration from the shores of Lake Michigan!