Anything big enough to impede your digging or jar your wrist when turning over the soil can come out. I usually pull anything over an inch square out and bung it dow the bottom of the garden in the pile with all the rest.
I agree with all above. I'm also in the middle of digging a border (my first one : 3)... the problem being that apparently my bungalow is built on top of old pig stys belonging to an old grand hall we had here, and so I am quite literally excavating a bunch of pig's houses! I've already found a rib bone : /
Anyway, I'm not just digging up stones, I'm digging up huge chunks of rock that were once the stone walls of the stys, and the rounder cobbles of the old cobble floors. I'm also finding glass, brick, huge long nails and other unidentifiable but interesting things.
All I'm doing is removing the largest rocks, all the glass and brick etc, and leaving the smaller stones. As said, they're actually a good thing if you can tolerate them. My neighbors say that they've lived here for six years, and try as they might to get rid of them, they're still digging up huge chunks of rock out of even their most established borders. So I really wouldn't fret too much... or you'll never stop!
And you could always play a part in the bringing back of garden rockeries : )
I agree with using them elsewhere. I'm planning on using at least some to make paths, rockeries etc. The rest will be re-homed down at the quarry or the river. But do make sure your responsible and respectful when re-homing your rocks : )
Stones and rocks are good for drainage and heat retention. Mediterranean plants like Lavender will appreciate this: if you have ever been in a Lavender field in the south of France the soil is rocky.
Black stones in sun will retain heat overnight, so good if you have half hardy plants.
I was half way through digging the ground where I intended to build my raised beds and grumbling to myself about what seemed to be a dense layer of stones and what looks like furnace slag in my way, when I looked up and noticed that I was in line with my drains and busy trying to clear the overburden that is supposed to protect the pipe.....
The raised bed is however high enough to grow root veg like carrots without them hitting the layer of stones below.
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Anything big enough to impede your digging or jar your wrist when turning over the soil can come out. I usually pull anything over an inch square out and bung it dow the bottom of the garden in the pile with all the rest.
I agree with all above. I'm also in the middle of digging a border (my first one : 3)... the problem being that apparently my bungalow is built on top of old pig stys belonging to an old grand hall we had here, and so I am quite literally excavating a bunch of pig's houses! I've already found a rib bone : /
Anyway, I'm not just digging up stones, I'm digging up huge chunks of rock that were once the stone walls of the stys, and the rounder cobbles of the old cobble floors. I'm also finding glass, brick, huge long nails and other unidentifiable but interesting things.
All I'm doing is removing the largest rocks, all the glass and brick etc, and leaving the smaller stones. As said, they're actually a good thing if you can tolerate them. My neighbors say that they've lived here for six years, and try as they might to get rid of them, they're still digging up huge chunks of rock out of even their most established borders. So I really wouldn't fret too much... or you'll never stop!
And you could always play a part in the bringing back of garden rockeries : )
You mean rocks like these?
I live near the beach so there are an awful lot of stones in my garden. If I do not remove them, there will not be ANY soil to grow things in!
Have you ever looked at Terry Jarman's beach garden at Dungeness? I don't think he removed any stone... just moved it!
Another use for the smaller stones.
I did not make this path though, it is probably Victorian or even earlier, but I have done similar things elsewhere.
@ Berghill... no, not quite that big!
I agree with using them elsewhere. I'm planning on using at least some to make paths, rockeries etc. The rest will be re-homed down at the quarry or the river. But do make sure your responsible and respectful when re-homing your rocks : )
Stones and rocks are good for drainage and heat retention. Mediterranean plants like Lavender will appreciate this: if you have ever been in a Lavender field in the south of France the soil is rocky.
Black stones in sun will retain heat overnight, so good if you have half hardy plants.
I was half way through digging the ground where I intended to build my raised beds and grumbling to myself about what seemed to be a dense layer of stones and what looks like furnace slag in my way, when I looked up and noticed that I was in line with my drains and busy trying to clear the overburden that is supposed to protect the pipe.....
The raised bed is however high enough to grow root veg like carrots without them hitting the layer of stones below.