Garden Area at New House Covered with Landscape Rock -- Ideas? Advice?

[Silver Gaia]

Looking for ideas, advice, etc. We bought this house last year. The best and only place we have for a veggie garden is a space about 27 x 11 that is currently covered with a rather deep layer (maybe 6 inches or so) of landscape rock with half-rotten landscape fabric underneath (and a ton of weeds growing there anyhow). We originally figured we'd have to rake/dig all that rock and fabric out, but haven't had time to do a thing with it yet. It's been haunting us all winter just looking at it. We're trying to decide exactly what we need to do, but whatever we do, we've got to do it quickly, since planting time is practically here (we're in Northern CA, Sacramento area).

My hubby recently had the idea of just leaving the rock in place and building beds on top of it. We have a redwood deck we are going to tear apart (it’s not well-made and unsightly), so will have lots of redwood to work with, and building garden beds might be a good use for it. I think it might work, but have some concerns about the excessive heat we get here in the summer making raised beds, especially atop river rock, impractical from a watering standpoint. And if we do this and it doesn't work, undoing it all might be worse than just removing the rock to begin with.

We're not novice gardeners, so don't really need gardening advice. We just don't know where to begin with this ‘rocky’ situation. Gads, I wish the previous owner hadn't had such a love affair with landscape rock and fabric. It's all over the place and is really awful to deal with. Anyhow, does anyone have any ideas? Opinions? Might the raised beds work? Or would we be better off in this climate to just suck it up and start hauling that rock out? (And then what to DO with all of it presents yet another challenge.) I’m eager to get my hands in some garden dirt, but this is really holding me up. Any ideas would be appreciated!

[Kolesar]

1. I am forever picking out the rocks the glacier left in our yard

As they heave to the surface of our planting beds.

Squat, pick up, toss into bucket. Repeat.

You will get weary of hitting those rocks with your tools, too. Get rid of them. Perhaps you can start with a part of your garden plot and get your veggies started growing there. In your climate, you can plan to be starting vegetables in stages. You can start your fall garden in August or later. Hopefully, you can find some time to successively clear out more rocks as spring turns to summer. I wonder if you can sell the rock to somebody who will scoop them up and take them away.

[goddess40]

2. I've been digging out the rock in front of our house for a year

One wheelbarrow at at time. If we ever move and the house we want has this type of rock a condition of the sale will be that they are removed before closing.

Raking didn't work so I sit on the ground and push them on to an old snow shovel (with the handle broken off)and then dump them into the wheelbarrow. When it gets down to the dirt I hand pick each rock - It's slow and tedious but I really hate them. Next to go are the globe arborvitae!!!!

This spring when I start again I might try listening to a book on tape. Although if I had an area as big as yours I might have rented a bobcat - Do you have somewhere to dump them once you get them out of the bed?

GOOD LUCK, if you come up with a better method let me know.

[Silver Gaia]

3. Thanks for sharing your experiences with this!

We're thinking, right now, about maybe building various sized beds for veggies, and taking the rock out ONLY inside the bed areas. We could leave the rest of it as is (well, minus the bumper crop of weeds) in the pathways between the beds. That might work, and be less labor.

Also, I did read somewhere about a guy who said he built a screen to put atop his wheelbarrow to screen the dirt from the rock. Not a bad idea.

I'm seriously thinking of advertising on craiglist or Freecycle for FREE landscape rock. Maybe someone would want to come get it. Problem is, we'd need to clear out a bunch of stuff in the driveway first, so it's not really feasible at the moment.

As for what else to do with it, we've thought about mixing it with cement to make cobble and using that to make tiles for some other areas of the yard (like instead of the cruddy deck). Could be a good way to re-use it that would look nice.

[XemaSab]

7. I was going to suggest craigslist or freecycle

We had a big, ratty old picnic table taking up a corner of the yard for YEARS.

Less than an hour on CL, and it was GONE. :D

I bet someone's going to go "River rock! Score!" :D

[LiberalEsto]

4. For a quick garden this year

you might look into straw bale gardening or lasagna gardening. Neither of these methods involves any digging. Or build a Square Foot Garden box and plant in there. I've tried both the lasagna and square foot methods and found them to be excellent. I'm still doing Square Foot and planning to add a few straw bales this summer.

And for the rock, if you don't want it, sell or give it away via Craigslist.com
However some of it might make a nice dry creek bed if that interests you.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1999-04-01/Lasagna-Gardening.aspx

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/straw-bale-gardening.html

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

[InkAddict]

5. Oh, how I feel for you--we just finished clearing a very small space

full of SPARKLING (not any more) WHITE MARBLE CHIPS...shoveled them suckers into those huge rubbermaid tubs and buckets...FIVE TUBS LATER...voila - clay soil flower bed - time to amend - JOY!

Now trying to get rid of the tubs of rocks, and thinking maybe about creating a duck beach on the community retention pond if someone doesn't come and get them quickly as it's almost time to put the ugly cushions back on the patio chairs (have you priced replacement cushions for six chairs-OY!) and fire up the grill.

[Blue Gardener]

6. Good luck

I had the same problem when I moved in. Thankfully it was just in the flower bed in front of the house. I got rid of all the rock and ripped up the landscape fabric so I could plant a decent flower bed. If I were you, I would get rid of as much of it as possible.

[Silver Gaia]

8. Thanks so much, you guys!

We may have the problem solved, because neighbors have offered to help take it out if they can have it for their yards. WooHoo! :D

Another good reason I've discovered for wanting it GONE is that the Argentine ants love to make nests in it. I hate those ants. They are awful for gardeners. I found a nest of them in there yesterday when I was pulling out the weed crop in there. ugh.

[madeline_con]

9. How deep will these raised beds be?

Think of the plants' roots, and whether there will be enough room before they reach the rocks. Have a housewarming "rock party" and get help. :)