Steve Snedeker’s Landscaping and Gardening Blog

I’m recirculating this post from over a year ago, as well as making substantial changes to it. The density of posts now – and their length – means many of these get lost in the packaging of the entire blog. This is a post about boulders and big rocks – and the joys and intensity of placing them. I hope no one minds……..

Much of what I blog about refers very specifically to what I know. It gives me a certain freedom of expression within these landscaping parameters that I don’t have when speculating on matters I may think about but which I have not, in fact, done. Politics, for example, while I spend ample time considering the greatness of some famous politicians and the lying weasel aspects of others, are a pastime and not something I am utterly competent to speak of. Like most of us, I can complain  a lot! I do that pretty well, the fact is, just not in here.

But I do know rocks. By golly, I know rocks like a lover knows the curve of a spine or the taste of familiar  lips. But rocks are family too! I have such a long term relationship with rocks, stones, gravel and rock mulch, when I get to Heaven I am positive they will put me in a celestial excavator and dump some titanic load of fractured Glacial Schist for me to make stuff out of.

Yesssssss!! ………………………….. “Hey, is that all you got?” 

“I thought this was Heaven, Man!”

The not very secret fact is, I would be more than delighted. Placing rocks – the art of integrating boulders into a landscape and providing an almost immediate sense of permanency – to me is perhaps the finest form of artistic expression landscaping allows. The intensity of placing rocks lies in their permanence. As one adds boulders into the primitive beginnings to an eventual landscape, the heart always beats a little faster. I always get the feeling of “setting the stage” for everything that follows – plants, paving, the envisioned walkways. It therefore becomes something more than just a few rocks in the ground. These become the spine of the body of work. You tend to think in planes – geometrics. For example, many of my landscape rock placements have flat tops on them, hopefully virtually parallel with the ground itself. This gives yet another plane aspect to what will eventually rear up so vertical in the person of plants and constructions. In fact, it never seems enough. I want every rock to be that plane.

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Interestingly, in denser concentrations such as the “rockery” retaining system below, they can be used as virtual steps to climb and deal with plants or just to make one’s way up the hillside.

Dropping a rock into place follows some very standard guidelines – typically, you want about a third of it underground. This to insure they don’t roll over and ruin the siding or worse, but also to embed itself so that eventual erosion and winds don’t expose the bottom. Nothing looks less permanent than some gigantic marble in your front yard or patio. Boulders like the ones below – your water-formed, circular and soft-lined river rocks – form a gentle presence stuck into a landscape. I use them here as seat rocks surrounding a fire pit and they serve that function well. The mellow curves and solid appearance of such well-formed boulders makes them an entirely welcome addition, blending as they do with the gentle curves of any landscape. They have a sensual style, nearly anthropomorphic, resembling things like clouds in the sky, rich for imaginations and for their gentle acceptance.

Used economically, they can anchor a landscape with permanence and form and provide lines which break up the monotony of paving or otherwise simple constructions.

These rounded rocks, showing the effects of centuries of wear and tear – of rolling around on river bottoms and being pummelled relentlessly by rushing water – seem so innocent and placid when in place. But then, all rocks do this, don’t they? We look at a rock and we see our innate vestigal human image of something totally permanent. (Unless, of course, we are geologists.) We see rivers and we see creeks when we see these rounded items -

Or more placid settings where the pools formed over centuries are bordered by such well-worn stones -

But not all rocks are equal! These cute little round boulders are great for the gentle among us. But there are other stones whose very form challenges us, in the most riveting and jarring artistic ways -

These may also be anthropomorphic in their own rights…………what do we make of that hulking beast above? Some daemonic Chinese stone that wakes up at night to prowl our ‘hoods, made to order to scare little kids into making sure they go back to bed?

Or we can go contemplative like those tricky Japanese who always mess with us like -

Or something like this big fellow, wise beyond it’s ancient years, standing alone and all-seeing among the plants he watches over, yet still able to evince a wonder at its teetering presence?

Rocks speak to us if we care to listen. They come in a pretty stunningly wide variety and they can be placed in remarkable ways by the enterprising landscaper. Some, we put together in combination’s to simply attract attention, almost always in 3’s – (click this one twice to see the water coming out of the medium guy here)

Some we bore holes into – all the way down their length – in order to have them perform a water dance while looking gorgeous as is their wont -

And some we just plaster together to see what happens -

We hang them off stuff, just because they are good-looking -

And still others beg us to do weird things with. They plea for an arrangement where they can show off best and give us humans some wonder in our boring lives -

Working with rocks and boulders has always been one of the true treats of my trade. I am sure it’s obvious I enjoy working with them and the very obvious truth, as well, is that I like operating machines that move them around! NO – let me rephrase that – I LOVE operating those machines! Honestly, there is something more than a little appealing about arranging these behemoths in a morning and have a client come home and see 30 huge boulders set in place. For example, we did this (at least the rocks) in about one day – he was pretty shocked.

But aside from my personal inclinations, rocks themselves are a marvelous adjunct to any landscaping enterprise. They can provide lines that interrupt or they can supply lines in a landscape that emphasize a certain quality of horizontal or even vertical planes. Oh – almost forgot – they can also provide seats! These are particularly interesting inasmuch as they store heat during sunlit days. It takes hours for them to cool down, too. It makes sitting on them during cool evenings yet another experience entirely. I have often said “Warm butts, warm hearts!”   Well, OK, but I said it a few times.

In short…………………Rocks rock!

So – with the creek pretty much 80% done, we begin running the water to check the electrical and pump systems and to finish all the detail work in the crevasses and in hiding the liner.  We also run the water to clear it, of course. The first passes of water collect all the dust and grime from the initial construction phases- all the dust from feet and from spills and from the rocks themselves. Naturally, someone  washes off the rocks as well at the same initial phase of the cleaning. We’ll leave it running for just a bit and then grab the end of the hose we saw inserted inside at the top for providing the initial flow and basically empty out all the water, completely, sending it somewhere that can take it all. We’ll refill it with the automatic fill apparatus we installed and work away elsewhere while it clears itself. We’ll repeat this step more than once, looking for that clear water.

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Here we can see the water’s still running pretty murky, as we will also see in a lower photo. About this time, generally speaking, we are ready – believe it or not – to start planting the plants and running lighting wire for the outdoor lighting system. You can see our ‘12-2′ low voltage lighting cable (above) which we ran to a light under that small falls there. Some wires were also sent through the creek, between the rocks and over to the other side for uplighting trees with.

We also began adding the decomposed granite which compacts well and which will provide the traffic surfaces for the horseshoe pit, seen below leading off from the upper patio area. As well, we are adding “D.G.” to the pathways on the upper hillside which we carved out. We are pretty much at the compacting stage at this juncture. We will pack them, then get them wet and they tend to crust over nicely. In time, they make a perfect bottom.

Drainage Issue: It is a tedious chore, getting the grade just right, making sure rainwater and irrigation water all are directed away from the house to somewhere relevant that can conduct it then disperse it – in this home’s case – out to the front street, believe it or not. That’s a long way and we made small sorts of rock-filled creek beds to do this with. These end up being an added feature, in the end, adding an aesthetic touch to a very functional consideration and necessity. In the picture below, at the very top, you can make out a small creek bed we installed for this purpose. Basically, half the lawn and lower section goes directly to there.

Time to start planting! Bear in mind, as exciting as this gets for me, I always see the future in what I put in the ground. Frankly, a newly-planted landscape can look pretty doggone barren when just finished, and especially one this large. I posted a picture below all this that shows us a look at this landscaping 3 years later. Suffice to say, you won’t believe the change. Yes, it is the same place.

OK, so on with the planting and the Green part of the gig:

It’s looking a bit more orderly out there now, don’t you think?

Hey!  Here’s the sod! (below) The sod comes on pallets of about 550 square feet each, with about 65 rolls per pallet or so. We lay these suckers one at a time, just like a carpet. While it is an exceedingly reliable “plant”, the grass, since it occupies so much space, is a huge development towards finishing. It makes everyone’s day, honestly. Grass is the one finishing operation that really brings it all together and points the way downhill. There is much to be done yet, but there is something “final” about seeing the green grass outside after staring at dust and mud for a month or so.

Here, we are adding the final pieces, getting ready to trim the edges, roll it all down firmly, then give it its first dose of good watering. We will adjust the sprinklers perfectly at this time and set the clock for a test of it as well. Right now, Hugo is adjusting the radio, a constant need (!) while sodding as everyone must know! We had some good dance music going on for much of this, I remember. Yes, some of it was Mexican on demand, but I got my time in with some good R & B, too. Sam and Dave and James Brown can do a lot for motivation!

Here’s a look from above. What a difference a day makes!

The two colors of the grass were merely different crops, cut at different times. I warned them of this possibility and that it meant zero, in the end. Inasmuch as the grass comes essentially fertilized, it takes about two-three days for the green to really start setting in.

Our remaining work is all “finishing” at this stage. I term applying the irrigation to all the plants as “finishing”, although classically, it’s still construction. But one thing we can get accomplished while setting up the drip irrigation lines and running the appropriately sized pipes and emitters to the trees and plants is that we bury the lines, then rake the dirt - in other words, we finish those areas. This project would not need mulching until some future date, owing to the expense – it was one of the ways we budgeted things – and it turned out delightfully. We were able to use a pre-emergent herbicide for the first two years and weeds just never got any purchase at all. Jeff and Denise were also able to add plants wherever they wanted quite a bit easier than by dealing with a mulch cover.

Here, below, Romero is adding the emitters to the “main line”, a 3/4″ drip line that he sends a bit of smaller pipe off of with an emitter which regulates the amount of water delivered to the plants roots per hour. The coiled pipe seen in the picture above is this 3/4″ pipe. It goes to every single plant on the property, run off a valve in a timed release. Drip irrigation is the single greatest achievement in landscape technology in my recent history. It applies the water exactly where it goes – to the roots – and does not evaporate in the air or cause wasteful watering which is endemic with spray systems. For those who wonder, that’s a Weeping Larch tree beside Romero there, a favorite plant of mine. The Larch is one of only two deciduous conifers in the world. They look amazing in the Spring, when they ‘re-needle’, in a soft green that gets greener. The weeping characteristic I have always found terrific around water features. “Weepers” are a Steve characteristic.

We also did work on the upper paths, naturally, but in every respect relating to finishing, starting with the top - running the irrigation up there and then bringing it around, we were always working our way out.

Here’s the patio area. The grass is greening up as promised and the line is about to be buried.

Time for the all-important Road Testing” of the horseshoe pit. Jeff was not going to be easy to please, and especially with his Father-in-Law as competition. I gave them a break and didn’t compete with them. They got a break without knowing it, lucky stiffs.

He liked it!  Well, we were just about finished. Please note the scrawny and tiny little plants all set there looking so lonely and forlorn. Then please look at the picture at the very bottom, 3 short years later.

Meanwhile, guess where our next project was!

Here you go, three years later! Different?

Here’s another look at the more mature place:

In the end, I stood next to Denise as I collected the final check and we had a moment to assess everything – the relations, the progress, the push and pull sometimes, all in respectful ways – and we shared one of the best moments I ever had as a contractor. We hugged briefly, and she spoke of all the guys she would miss (It’s an excellent, proud, professional and nice crew) and how the action would be so slow now for her hyped-up young red heads and how they’d miss seeing us. (It did take a full month to do.). I looked at her and I quietly asked: “Denise, do you like it?”

Denise started sobbing. “God, Steve, I l-l-l-ove it!” she said, tearfully. I looked at her and was just awed. I was dumbstruck, I swear. She was telling the truth and we had shared the deepst sort of history and warmth together in just that moment. I was embarrassed, because I had put a lot into it, myself, and I began tearing up a little myself. Honestly, who wouldn’t??

It was just the best dang thing I ever heard. I’ll cherish that one moment forever. Love you, Denise!

This post is of a project we undertook in 2004 – in the Spring – for a great couple, Jeff and Denise, and their young red headed kids who were not even arguably cuter than buttons. They were a feature every day, the little guys, and who were, not surprisingly, fascinated by their daily Big Show out back of huge machinery and big fellows moving dirt and rocks all around.

(Incidentally, for those of you to whom this looks familiar – it should. This was posted just about a year ago in this blog. With me moving this week to Kentucky, all bets are off for at least a week on adding new posts. I may add one Tuesday, but I leave early Wednesday. New people show up a lot who may or may not have browsed through this now-fairly-large blog. This is for them.)

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What 4 year old in his right mind would not dig (pardon the pun) this set up?? Huge and gnarly, all these humongous toys kept them entranced as long as they were awake. Below, for example, is what it looks like when you get 20 yards of topsoil delivered to your house just a few feet from your favorite back window!

This picture is us digging those tiny (not!) channels for irrigation pipes. Hey, you use what you have!

The Story

The home was pretty much Jeff and Denise’s “dream home”. After getting the inside of their place whipped into shape, they then focused outdoors, naturally enough. They had a full acre out back and they wanted to maximize what they could get out of it. They provided me with a laundry list of things they wanted which read something like this:

1.) A running water feature with a creek and small pond. 2.) A platform and an electrical (220V) supply near the water feature for setting up a spa away from the house. 3.) A nice big irrigated lawn with a surrounding pathway for the kids and their trikes and – eventually – bikes and motorized transportation. 4.)A horseshoe pit straight out the back. 5.) A play area for the kids. 6.) Some pathways on the rear hillside. 7.) An upper level patio, very informal, bedded in Decomposed Granite.

They were looking for ways to squeeze the budget which would still allow them to get all the goodies they wanted. The list was long and challenging but I immediately saw the potential in the overall landscape. We would take advantage hugely of the hillsides surrounding the East and Rear sides of the property, using it for our creek and the spa placement. Providing pathways would be easy and interesting and would cut through the landscape in a winding way. Jeff and Denise and I huddled and came up with a reasonable budget. Helpful – no that is an understatement – what swung the deal in favor of total possibility  was that Jeff could provide all the machinery we would need. What also helped were his connections regarding trucking and rock suppliers – there being some excavations nearby that had the marvelous rocks you see throughout the property. That brought the budget down so far that suddenly it was all as doable as it could be. So we shook hands and took off on our grand landscaping experiment. It would be fun, especially inasmuch as Denise was at home with the boys and offered her opinions daily and in an unobtrusive and truly cooperative fashion. In the end, she has as much to do with the ultimate look as anyone. I consulted with her often, and as often at my request. She was always a treat, honestly.

Anyway, we began and, once we finished the irrigation issues, and after burying the pipes and backfilling them, we were ready to entertain deliveries of both rocks and soil, both in the 200 yard range as totals. So, here they came:

Once delivered, staging became an increasingly knotty problem. In the picture above you can see us placing rocks in their eventual resting places with the smaller excavator placing them and the larger one picking and separating them just after their arrival. They tended to come in 3 sizes, from humongous 2-3 ton slabs, to medium sized ones from 500-1,000 pounds, to smaller, one man sized rocks. It is actually somewhat tedious at this stage, in a way, although the placing of permanent fixtures is always bracing and challenging. You can never get bored with supplying something permanent for a client – the appearance and selection will be there for ever. Some heavy duty cosmetics here. So, anyway, things began taking some shape.  In this picture, both the “upper level patio” and the horseshoe pit have been outlined in boulder placement.

Yes, there is still one huge pile of rocks down there. That is for some detail work as well as almost entirely dedicated to the water feature, which is being scratched out in the picture below. We typically excavate the channel which the water and all acoutrements will follow, then add the liner and, of course, the rocks defining it last.

And there you have your standard-average scooped out water course. Next, we make the water feature, starting at the top:

Adding rocks on top of liner is always the single most nerve-wracking part of any large job. One false move with that machine and the rock – and especially this type of “fractured rock”  – can poke holes in the liner, the worst possible result. So we operate gingerly to say the least and we also use other pieces of the liner wedged between the new rocks and the liner to protect the all-important liner itself, providing a measure of security as we worked.

The excavators we like using for these events are amazing tools. You act like a jeweler or watch smith or something placing one and two-ton boulders as precisely as possible in place. Plus, you always get helpful advice, lol.

Looks like Chaos, don’t it??    Note also another wonderful development which is the very durable flexible pipe we use as the source. This one was a 4 inch pipe and made the project ten times more do able..

Now just add cement and we’re finally getting somewhere!

So that yields to this:

Next post, we add plants, grass and finish all the paths and stuff. I think you can see the madness all actually had some later-crystallizing plan to it. Thousands did not!  Had to say it.

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The above is a picture of my daughter on one of our rambles, back in the day (sniff, sniff) when she was much smaller than she is now. But it has always been a favorite picture, and not just for the obvious fact of a Dad inordinately in love with his own child. What she is standing on is the subject of the day here. That, ladies and gents, is Basalt – your basic igneous rock and one which has developed a huge niche in the desginer hearts and minds of landscaping people.

Basalt – most notably “Columnar Basalt” – is found in great accumulations in the Columbia River Basin, here in Oregon and across the river in Washington state. Other major concentrations are spread throughout the world in places like the Giant’s Causeway (Ireland), Organ Pipes National Park (Australia), Devil’s Tower (Wyoming, USA), Russia, India, Iceland and many other locations. Formed into crystalline formations and often referred to as “hexagonal” – 6-sided – they can actually vary into polygons with anywhere from 3 to 12 sides. From Wikipedia: “Formed by the cooling of lava on the Earth’s crust, during the cooling of a thick lava flow, contractional joints or fractures form. If a flow cools relatively rapidly, significant contraction forces build up. While a flow can shrink in the vertical dimension without fracturing, it cannot easily accommodate shrinking in the horizontal direction unless cracks form; the extensive fracture network that develops results in the formation of columns.”

It then goes on to say that the slower the cooling process, the larger the columnar “crystals”. I have seen some very large crystals in my day – and even used a few. Later pictures in this post will illustrate this.

This is a smaller scale use within the confines a modern landscape and water feature in a retired couple’s small back patio area. Actually, this is a project which may have used the fewest basalt columns of all, but the location of the foreground “seat rock” does present an excellent minor vision of the polygonal aspect, as well as just one of many functions columnar basalt can be put to use for in a landscape. They do not have to be large to be quite effective. Their horizontal lines also present us with the gift of altitude and, therefore, perspective.

Harvested from vast fields of these crystals, as remarkable as we regard them, they are hardly rare, as the production picture from a Chinese Basalt source shows us below. The fact is, their large numbers bode well indeed for landscaping possibilities.

Bored right down their length and with a water pump hidden amidst the lower levels, they make excellent “Bubble Rocks”, for one thing. Bubble Rocks give the more gentle sound of water and bring out the rich color which is hidden in all rocks:

But there are larger and more forceful roles available for columnar basalt. Notice this waterfall the company I was with at the time built for Microsoft’s Campus in Seattle, Washington. Its construction resembles the picture of many basalt sources throughout the world in high mountainous regions. This was a pain-staking project but remains one of my very favorite constructions.

Below are pictures of other uses for this interesting material. These pictures are all taken at the Portland Zoo, a minor landscaping miracle utilizing the local products in novel ways – as seats and as retaining wall effects. This is hard by the zoo’s own bus stop leading to the buildings housing the elevator which takes people down about 500 feet to where they can catch the Light Rapid Transit train.

Hey, I think the theory here was: “If you got ‘em, flaunt ‘em!”

Why more rocks?  Because I can.  I see quite a few searches from people interested in this topic, some linking here and being directed to earlier posts. I like to think I can produce even more variations and maybe some pertinent “how-to” information on working with these elements of landscape design.

In Walls

Dry-stacked rock walls are an art. My own artistic fortunes in these constructions have more often than not depended on who was working for me at the time. Some are better than  others and some, frankly, are also better than me. Just the same, I always loved working with them. Here’s one now:

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These walls accentuate the lines of all those P{onderosa Pines reaching skyward. They provide ground level interest and work well against the grass.

The next one was almost bizarre but it actually grew on me. Asked initially to use two different kinds of rocks to make retaining walls and to retain a steep bank with them, we mixed them up in what later proved to be an interesting way, I thought.

These same blue/grey fractured rocks we used elsewhere but in more congruent forms.

It’s difficult using two different colors and styles of boulders and wall blocks, yet, it happens. Here, below, is another deal we did in much the same way. This time we decided to try and salvage the narrower rocks which were slated to be thrown away.  What was originally supposed to be all boulders took on an interesting look.

What became this:

Began as something else entirely. In fact, let’s take a time lapse look at this one:

We began with this:

A really steep little bank which had a definite line at the bottom where the paver patio had been engineered to stop. It meant some pretty thick rock placements to divert water and to help the plants retain the bank itself. Also, there was a spa to put in, pretty much dead center to the operation.

We began in the spa first, having salvaged the rocks I mentioned and having also decided to build a wall with them, including a drainage system for the wall:

Then the rock work began. It was pretty much just a machine at this time. Density was asked for and we built everything bearing in mind the plants which were coming would be our eventual best friends:

I love that machine!

The small walls we used the salvaged material for can be seen better in this picture at the far end. We were pretty shameless in using them, actually, because I thought they looked real good. Needless to say, they functioned perfectly too.

We built up the spa’s walls, then bent around the coprner, sort of pasting rocks into place on our way out. We then finished the patio, then added the spa.

This is what we ended up with, panorama-style:

And here is is all planted up:

Carried away once again with the good ole construction process.

Sue me. I hope you enjoyed it.

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Rocks are some of my best friends. Let’s face it, they offer a minimum of argument over even the thorniest issues and they behave once set into place. There is a lot to be said about this sort of loyal adherence to Natural Law. And, yes, I have abused the odd rock, I admit it freely. I have thrown them, hit them with baseball bats and golf clubs, used them as weapons against my enemies – the “bike-chasing barking dog” for example – and sometimes shamefully using them against bad friends.

Some, however, you can’t do much to. They talk back.

Some of the bigger guys you can tweak with machinery the size of Texas – just make sure they roll in the right direction when you stack ‘em.

This applies to all versions of rocks larger than a fist -

No doubt, you will have noticed right away that the boulders and stones shown so far have all been of the “River Rock” variety – meaning rocks who were either tumbled under glaciers for miles and miles under enormous weight and thereby rendered rounded or else they were immersed in rapids of fast-flowing creeks and rivers with the same result.

Meanwhile

Some other rocks cracked liked broken crystals during some epoch in the less-distant past, immune from the rushing waters of creeks and rivers, and maintaining and still-ancient, yet freshly-fractured look which allows yet another approach to working with them. They can make a bizarre, yet somehow artistic mulch, and one I personally embraced, loving the mix and the radical nature of the stones themselves, especially when mixed with similarly-fractured boulders:

Surprisingly enough, they can even work well in the midst of water – the color and fractured nature revealing sharp breaks which contrast with the softness and depth of the water around it.

All in all, they also take up space and are quite handsome, taken individually – no matter their origin.

Here are a few more examples of the placement of rocks, boulders and even smaller rocks used as mulching in a few of the landscapes I have designed and installed. The primary virtue of boulder use is in their sense of permanence over time. Plants and lawns evolve, change into something more – sometimes too much more – and form the mutable and changeable side of a landscape. No one would have it any other way, either. We are talking life – imperfect, sometimes rampant, sometimes even ill-chosen, just like the lives we all live.

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The fact is, the intentions of most applications on plant design plan on about 15-20 years at best. Naturally, the environment they exist in is geared to be more permanent. Some plants have literal life spans. Others exhaust the nutrients and the available root space owing to the confinements of their planting mediums and locations. Other become overly shaded by larger plants and trees and suffer from sunlight deficiencies – in fact, there is an entire book on what can “go wrong” when, in fact it is simply part of the evolving nature of a natural garden. And this is particluarly the case with the smaller residences I have dealt with, historically.

Residential landscaping requires some fairly immediate satisfaction. Clients can be most patient to wait a year for things to develop, especially inasmuch as they probably had something highly unsatisfactory prior – or else – as was the case in many of my Reno designs – they had dust. The sheer satisfaction of the change can be rewarding enough. But they will thence be studying what they have in hopes of seeing something develop that will please them and their neighbors to a much larger degree. Unlike commercial projects who either have huge budgets and who can plant larger specimens right away or they have the wherewithal to wait for the development of their plants over time, residential customers want to get happy sooner but with less budget.

So the result can be dramatic and even far more fun. With this expectation goes a intense desire to satisfy – a fact which is especially important for the informed but newer business. Satisfying customers leads to abundant new leads as their friends and neighbors cast about for someone to address their new landscapes. With these sorts of expectations, one is impelled to make it work just that way, producing plants that develop rapidly in a mix with those who have a more permanent and slower development. It becomes, at its very best, dramatic, in the end.

It can go, for example, from this:

To this, in a year.

The use of  just a few larger plant specimens (such as the more mature Tanyosho Pine above at the top of this picture) can be mixed with the more profuse and rapidly growing perennials, as was the case here, to provide dramatic color and growth over a relatively short period of time. What appeared “boney” as we call it in landscaping (with rocks, rocks and then a few more rocks and a few struggling little plants, can become something else entirely.

Or from this:

To this: (in 2 years)

The basic fact is, once we discover this tactic and approach, it is a net gain for everyone. The other super cool benefit is that we become Hot Dogs:

The point remains, regardless of how it all works in the end – rocks form the basic structure of a landscape. It is why I wax long and hard about the sense of absoluteness involved in setting boulders. Once set, they are not going anywhere. The effort to lodge them into place – many of which can weigh up to two tons – was far too rigorous to allow for changing. Once in, always there. Therefore getting boulders “right” is not a question – it is a demand – and often makes the difference between a successful landscape and a miserable one.

Where boulders are numerous, such as Reno, Nevada and Portland, Oregon – where I have plied my trade – they become additional options for things such as merely special effects to catch the eye such as the grouping of 3 up at the top of this entry (one of which is a “bubble rock”, bored with water running through it and trickling down). They can also be used as seats – as in the picture above – clustered around a fire pit.

In fact, the mixture of boulders and pavers makes a particularly interesting combination. Both are completely permanent but they come from such radically different origins – the bricks manufactured painstakingly by the most modern equipment, geared for precision and the boulders, made by God, shaped by water and weather, and maybe a billion years old apiece – just a tad more “experienced” than the brick pavers.  I often insert them in the lines bordering patios and walkways, just to break things up and to remind one of Nature Herself during the course down the edges. The hard and disciplined lines of walkways and patios find some intruding naturalness this way.

These are a few of the ways we “naturalize” a modern landscape project. I have always held that boulders serve the “softer” function of intruding Nature into our retentive business. I can assure you this – that won’t change.

Next, mulches and some other unique roles played by rocks and stones.

Originally, brick pavers were all designed to adhere to a strict sort of glossy perfection, all snugged up and colorful and astoundingly exact. But newer technologies developed a system of “tumbling” brick pavers which allowed them to thrash around inside a rotating container filled with sand and a few other pavers and which took off all the sharp edges and yielded a very interesting look – more weathered, almost antiqued. What it allowed was an interesting sort of sense of history right away.

The muted tones and apparently irregular edges of the tumbled product became another approach altogether.

Here’s a standard “tumbled” paver look that goes all the way around front:

This next one is paired with the one following it. It’s a downright huge patio using rough, tumbled pavers with an interesting laying pattern. Click the pictures to enlarge, especially the second one:

Click to enlarge

Another “rough” style paver (tumbled), offers some “antiquing” to a newer project:

Same place from the other side of the house, leading to the rear:

Same place, just walking around the house more:

We’ve been here before in this blog, and recently, but I thought these still bore a look, considering the theme:

At any rate, one can see how these do indeed look far rougher and more sort of “historical”. The cracks are always sand filled and the surfaces are generally easily walkable. Yes, care has to be taken to select pavers which won’t cause accidents from such things as high heels or walking canes – the pavers can get pretty chipped and miss entire corners – but that’s easy to do. Next, I will contrast these tumbled pavers with the fully intact varieties.