Rocking Out!

The rock garden is done! Here's the proof:

This is not all the rocks. This is probably 3/4 of them, maybe closer to 2/3. They are on a tarp on the back deck in this shot. Where we'd been placing them over several days because we had to keep stopping because of rain. This is a fairly large tarp. And this does not include what I call decorative rocks - fossils, rocks from Mom, limstone, etc. We bought these when we originally built the rock garden, which was 5 years ago and I don't remember the weight but there were quite a few pounds! Think in multiples of 10 or 20 pounds.



This is the base after we'd finished removing everything. This is before we started enlarging it.


This is also before the enlargement, just a better shot. And my shadow! The fountain bowl is off to the side.

After the enlarging, the sandstone edge was back in place but the dirt wasn't finished being leveled in this shot.

First layer of plastic and some of the metal fence/chicken wire layer. The fence is actually a smaller mesh than a standard chain link fence, I can't remember what it's specifically called.

Fence parts down and the fountain is back in place. Which was a chore, sucker is heavy. The sandstone edge is in place here, as it is in the previous picture. We had to dig down (we being Bill) and place all the sandstone, then pack dirt around them on both sides and pack it down as firmly as we could so they wouldn't shift.

Gotta have a shot of Bill's Nekkid Lady!




It took several wheelbarrow loads to get all the rocks back in place - just as many as it took to get them moved! Although this was much easier than removing them. For one thing, all I had to do was level them out with the rake when Bill piled them up. Removing them entailed shaking them in a shaker box over a bucket to remove all the dirt and was hard work.

Finished with all the rocks and decorative rocks, and if you look closely you can see a certain state shape in front of the fountain. St. Francis and the cat are in place by this point.

The final, finished product! Otter placed her animals around. Some of them, anyway. She has a lot and they will be alternated out.

It's bigger than it looks. It was hard work, but I enjoy hard work and I really enjoyed this particular project. We should not have to do anything to it again, it's got several layers of plastic and the wire fencing should discourage any puppy paws that have an urge to dig here.

I'm so glad to be done!