Rocks

Rocks, rocks and more rocks. Collecting, harvesting, digging up - whatever you want to call it, I have been dealing with a lot of rocks, really since I've moved here, but for the past 5 or 6 weeks, with an energized objective: to plant my vegetable garden. After all if I can't push a shovel deeper than an inch or two into the soil how can I expect to grow root vegetables when rocks are lined shoulder to shoulder just below the surface? And the satisfaction after the fact of sticking that shovel into the ground may seem trivial but sweet it is. 

There are so many different colours and sizes of rocks, and almost all are smooth and round, just like you would expect to find on a lake bottom. I have already used some of my rocks for a few projects and it seems like there is an endless supply of them, so I'm thinking of other places to use them.

                                         

Around the perimeter of the house. This will stop the chickens from scratching the ground away from the foundation and deter them from pecking at the styrofoam insulation that is under the house siding (which they seem fascinated with). The first year I started dumping rocks around the henhouse and soon discovered weeding is very difficult in rock piles so this time put down a weed barrier under the rocks. Seeds from weeds will still blow into the rocks but they will be easy to pull out if they don't have deep roots.

Fire pit. We are usually under fire restrictions for most of the summer and often fall, but for the other times having a fire pit is useful.

Around my fruit trees, again to prevent the chickens from scratching the dirt away and exposing the roots.

In my garden area I removed rocks about 6"- 8" under the existing soil and then added 8"-10" of composted soil on top. Every load of composted soil will have hundreds of seeds that have been dormant so I will have lots of weeding to do very soon! For this year my vegetable garden is planted. It looks like we will potentially get frost the second week of June (I think that is normal). Hopefully all will be ok with plants that have sprouted. My (tiny) tomato plants are still in pots so I can take those inside. Every year I will get more experienced with gardening in the north and there are things like my adventure with rocks that will not have to be done every year.  I figure another year or two of digging up rocks in the vegetable garden in the spring and that task will be done.