16
It's called "granular convection" and there's really nothing you can do about it except continue to remove the stones as they come up. The winter cold and the water in the soil help this along - I'm forever removing stones - some rather large - from our garden beds and pastures. I pulled a stone out that was easily 7 inches long and 5 inches across a few ...
14
Well, in my area, unless you add about 6" of soil every year, the stones will rise to the surface each spring. Around here, we call it the 'crop'. I've heard it is frost action working on the stones in the subsoil, but I'm not sure that's the cause. In any case, it's a chore you can expect to have each spring, and eventually you'll get a system down to do it ...
11
Agree with J Musser's answer - where I lived, the soil was very stoney, and yes, they do surface every year, and you notice them particularly after winter. I used to wonder if it was the rotation of the planet that brought them up (you know how if you shake a container of nuts, the largest ones come to the top) but however it happens, it does happen. ...
8
Stone walls and piles provide a number of things for wildlife and plants:
shelter
habitat in the form of a microclimate
For a garden I favour a dry stone wall as it is more functional and of nicer appearance than a pile of rocks. However wildlife cares little for aesthetics.
Anything you build will take time to become lived in. If you don't have any ...
7
First, I have to say that many of these are so similar, you really won't find a lot of pros and cons between them. They are very similar, and though some might do better than others in certain situations, I haven't really found a reason to differentiate when using as a soil helper, and they all work.
Azomite: Can cost over twice what basalt or glacial rock ...
7
I think you are referring to a hydroponic clay aggregate known in Europe as Hydroton where it is manufactured in Sweden.
It may also be called Geolite, HydroKorrels, Hydroleca or "grow rocks". Other products such as growstones, which are made of glass, tout themselves as a superior products.
Commercial growers often use rockwool cubes or trays to start ...
7
Although much root activity occupies the top 6 inches of soil, many vegetables need 2 feet of soil or more.
Janet Beal
The depth of your bed will be determined by what you want to grow.
Shallow roots - 12-18" - Leafy greens, broccoli, cabbage, raddish
Medium roots - 18-24" - beans, cantaloupe, cucumbers, summer squash and carrots.
Deep roots - 24-36" - ...
5
This is a dry stone wall that has been built without mortar or a poured concrete foundation. The site has several challenges:
the area above the wall slopes so any rain or runoff water will go down the slope into the wall
there are trees adjacent to the wall whose roots will grow
the stone is irregular
the frost line in your area is around three to four ...
5
I'm not a fan of stone/gravel mulch. I use it in one spot for a specific reason but it's hard to keep it looking clean. Weeds will still grow in it or past it. Either because the landscape fabric underneath deteriorates or because organic material falls onto the gravel and collects in the spaces between the gravel and allows seeds to germinate.
If you want ...
5
The contradictory advice that you received about what size of rocks to remove relates to what you are growing. For tomatoes, I wouldn't be concerned with rocks the size of a baseball. If I was growing carrots, parsnips or potatoes, I would want to get any rock out that is larger than a quarter. Radishes grow so abundantly that I would just compost any that ...
4
If you will only be planting carrots in the spot, then you would remove rocks down to the level where the root would grow. Removing rocks further down would not be of any benefit to the carrots. If you plan to clear a large area all at once, and you will be planting things that require removal of rocks down to, say, two feet, then you will be screening the ...
4
I stack any larger rocks I find when gardening onto piles. I find that these piles attracts snakes and lizards who like to live between the rocks and sunbathe on top of them. The snakes and lizards eat mice and insects, so I like to encourage that.
When deciding where to make your pile, find a location that gets some sunlight to encourage animals, but also ...
4
I live in New England and harvest a fresh crop of stones every spring. I've heard that this is why settlers headed out west when the Ohio River Valley was "discovered" by the Europeans. There may be other factors at work, but for us, it is largely a consequence of freezing (we call it frost heave). When the ground freezes it expands, however, the rocks do ...
4
I don't like answering my own questions but, after speaking to my neighbors, just about the only solution is to dig the whole lot out and start again. I did just this on a smaller area with bigger rocks and it's laborious by hand - but works. Dumping the rocks onto a concrete pad and then literally raking them a few feet dislodged and exposed most of the ...
4
Honestly, due to the slope and the fact that building rock walls is a learned skill, I would recommend you hire someone to do it right.
I have seen some amazing craftsmanship in a rock wall that was built just this past summer in the old school fashion of just fitting the rocks together so they stay put.
3
This looks an ideal setup to make a sub irrigated planter. You can look on youtube for many videos on how to construct these but you've got most of the construction already completed for you.
So, in brief, your plan looks good. But to avoid the perched water table sitting above the rocks, make sure that there are gaps to allow some of the soil/potting mix ...
3
What a beautiful city you live in! Avocados are grown around the world and are very adaptable. South Africa produces over 80,000 metric tons of avocado every year. The Western Cape area where you live is a large grower.
Avocados come in different varieties and it would helpful for you to find out what kind it is. Each variety copes better with different ...
3
There was one time, when I was working in a very good, rich perennial bed, which I had been hired on for three years. The plants loved the organic soil, and showed exceptional pest and drought tolerance. The one day, While I was digging out some peonies, I found a hard, lumpy surface. I dug around a little, and to my astonishment, the majority of the bed, ...
3
In the active growing area of the beds, I prefer 1/4" screen if I'm bothering to screen for garden purposes. Given the choice of unscreened or 1" screened, I'd prefer the 1", but if I'm the guy screening it, I'd rather go through 1/4" and get a nice fine soil, especially for root vegetables.
However, much of my garden has not actually been screened, so I ...
3
Couple of things - first, the corner of the material you've found is likely the edge of a geotextile membrane which extends beneath the deck to prevent anything from growing through, and to discourage rodents from making it their home (which they do quite like to do beneath decking).
Second, the pebbles were presumably on top of the membrane in the open ...
3
You should start liking the mosses. Very nice and relaxing. And it make your garden have an "alpine look".
You may remove it (strong brush), or just turning them, but they will return quickly, unless you try to fight humidity: more sand and stones, less mulch, and maybe you should remove some trees (so having more sun). In such case you may have a more "...
2
Pretty much, your best option is to remove all the layers of rock and landscape fabric, and rebuild from there. If you are willing to hire someone, that will save you a lot of trouble. The soil underneath is likely to be somewhat sterilized and will benefit greatly from the addition of well decomposed compost in a good layer. The more the better.
As for ...
2
I also have a driveway like this, and grass grows down the middle, and along the edges. I think it looks fine, but if you can't stand it, there are several methods of elimination.
boiling water:
When cooking spaghetti, steaming vegetables, etc, we have left-over water in the pot when we're done, and we usually bring it to a full, rolling boil, and dump it ...
2
There is a distinct benefit to using greensand over DE or rock dust, that is the soil conditioning properties, as greensand adds a beautiful free-draining texture for organic potting soil applications. I must note that I use all 3 products in my typical mix, using 3mm or less DE, not dust or flour, primarily for drainage and silicon, azomite for the full ...
2
In my experience, it is the larger stones/gravel that sink into the soil while the fines come up! The only reason to ever use landscape fabric is to save your graveled areas that are normally walked upon. If you make 'beds' for your plants raising them by double digging and you don't walk on them, you shouldn't have rocks rising to the top.
The main ...
2
Step one is determine the purpose of the stone that is there. As others have mentioned, it could be for a number of reasons. It could be there for no particular reason at all or left over from some previous owner's purpose. It was unclear to me if this was a new house or new to you. It very well might be part of a drainage system - sometimes drainage ...
2
It would be nice to see what you are talking about. Please send a photo or two. I am assuming by 'stones' you mean river rock or cobble that someone has put in around the foundation of your home...on top of landscape fabric. Yes? This DOES help keep water and soil from splashing up onto your siding. Do you have any kind of foundation plantings?
If you'...
2
I see a few problems right away:
Fertilizers are known to displace natural nutrients in the soil
use a polyculture seed mix as all the plants using the same nutrients in the soil, adding clover to your lawn will naturally add extra nitrogen
purchase a bag of mycelium that is known to aid plant growth (I recommend wine caps as they're easy to identify and ...
2
A leaf blower is probably your best bet. If the rocks are dry you should be able to blow any debris out from the cracks, while a high power enough to suck anything other than light dust out of cracks will pull your rocks with it.
If you foresee the rocks getting muddy there's not a lot you can do but replace them with clean ones...
2
Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. Everything is on the table. A fence is just a fence and can be removed and replaced, or not. Heavy concrete pavers can be removed and replaced, or not. With the pavers and the fence out of the way, a small digger/backhoe on tracks could take the stony soil out, be trucked away to someplace where fill for a ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible