Garden beginnings

I started by raking rocks from the soil. The photo left shows the surface of soil with a representative natural collection of rocks. Some areas have more, some less, but all have rocks. Even where the landscapers mixed in sawdust and raked the surface smooth, I still get lots of rocks by using a 4” cultivating rake.

Then there are the piles of rocks at the base of trees, where I stored them during excavation almost a year ago. I don’t want to leave these rocks around the trees, so I have been putting them into a 5-gallon pail. Where can I possibly use so many rocks? For starters I am putting them around the base of the exterior walls. (See photo at right.) These will prevent mud from splashing onto the walls (very typical of adobe houses). 

In some areas the hard ground water with dissolved limestone rises up the stucco walls by capillary action. The water then evaporates, leaving white limestone deposits on the walls. The rocks will at least hide this.

Another project that I have started is to build the coyote fence of latillas to screen the utility boxes, which you can see in the lower photo left. I answered an advertisement for latillas. The vendor delivered them after I requested skinny ones 4-5’ long. They are actually about 6’ long but I cut them off. I am about 11 short of the 60 that I need to finish the job.