...as it has produced a large amount of stone for my garden!
Knowing that a lot of the stones were cracked, I was originally hoping for a few decent stones out of this project.
It seems now that there will be more garden-worthy stone than I expected, which is great! I've never spoken or thought the phrase "too much stone" before.
The chimney looks so sad right now:
A lot of these stones are still cracked, and it seems to me that the original stonemason knew they were cracked or had potential to crack when he installed them:
Here you can see the back of one of the stones. It obviously has signs of wanting to split apart, and it has the original mortar inside those cracks! This was the back side of the stone, from inside the chimney. I suppose they thought or knew from experience that those sorts of cracks didn't matter, and that the stones would be good "for some time". They lasted about 25 years or so (the house is 40) so that's not bad right? (Actually, I'd expect stones to last much longer than that. With regular waterproofing they may have, but it's unlikely they got waterproofed before I moved in.)
These sure are going to look good in the garden though:
I love the way stone mixes with plants!
Maybe I'll be able to create an attractive rock pile or some other feature that will finally start attracting lizards (skinks most likely) and/or snakes to my yard. I'll have to do some research on that.
I probably won't post about these rocks again until I start placing them in the yard, which I'm hoping will be in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
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These look like good rock garden material. Maybe you'd enjoy the addition of an elevated rock garden with some wonderful hardy succulents and miniature natives that tend to get lost otherwise because of their size, or at least under-appreciated?
ReplyDeleteWherever you put them, they'll be a fine addition to your garden. Recycling rocks! (pun intended :-)
I echo what Sandy said. A mounded rock garden would be beautiful. It would also give you great drainage for more xeric plants. Or you can incorporate them into your stream. I wish I had the dilemma of having to figure out what to do with a pile of attractive rocks :-).
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Stunning rocks - I'm envious! Look forward to seeing what you do with them.
ReplyDeleteGood grief, 600 posts! Congratulations! I love how you're able to turn the inconvenience of a chimney repair into a beneficial thing for garden. I agree, natural stone looks wonderful intermixed with plants.
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