Mouse and Garden: May 31, 2006 Archive

It's the new craze: move a couple of tons of rock from one area of your yard to another. Lose weight, feel lousy. That’s how I spent my Memorial Day weekend.

I have a leftover-from-the-previous-owner problem: rock mulch. I know this was a fad at one time to fill a yard with this stuff so that you didn’t have to pull weeds or maintain a yard. Then everyone learned the serious drawbacks of this kind of mulch. Rocks heat up—too early in the winter and revive trees and plants that shouldn't be waking up. then it overheats plants in the summer. Result? I now have a lot of sickly plants, broken trees and mess in a supposedly no-maintenance yard. Rocks are impossible to dig in, rake around; and pull out plant matter. And if you think that layer of black plastic is going to keep out the weeds, just wait for ten years of dirt to fill in all the crevices on top of the plastic. How do you separate the rocks from the dirt? Very slowly.

The next question is what to do with all the rock when I am done pulling it out. I don’t have an answer for that one yet. Suggestions, anyone?