This rocks!

In my ideal garden there are five main components: plants, paths (open space), water, structures, and rocks. I've always wanted to add large rocks to some of my beds, but have had to settle for those that I could lift and move myself -- something around 12-18" in "diameter". Bigger than that and they're just too heavy.

Still, I'm pretty pleased with what rocks of even this size can do to a bed, so I've got a lot of them. I'm always on the lookout for more though, and I've just gotten a new supply of them!

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I didn't have to buy these, or salvage them from a construction site. No, these were much easier to "find".

They were part of my chimney.

As you can see, I'm having it rebuilt because many of the stones are cracked:

I've been fighting with this for years and years -- after long periods of rain, water will seep into the interior parts of the chimney (not in the fireplace, not down the wall or onto the ceiling), collect on top of the foundation, and run down the basement wall.

I've had the chimney tuckpointed a couple of times, and that never helps for more than a year. As you can see from the top of that last photo, the cracks in the stone have spread to the mortar joints too, so the mortar doesn't last nearly as long as it should.

So all of the old stone is coming out, to be replaced with new solid stuff.

They said it's pretty crumbly inside too.

I told the masons that I want to keep as much of the old stone as possible to use in my garden. Not only were they able to give me a small discount because of this, but it keeps the debris out of the landfill or wherever they would take it. I'm not sure how many good, whole rocks I'll get out of it, but there will be some for sure.

I'll have more posts about this exciting* project soon.

(*It's exciting for three reasons: 1) I'm getting the leak problem fixed finally, 2) I'm not the one having to do the work, and 3) I'm getting new garden rocks!)

Do you have ornamental rocks in your garden?

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