nichepoetryandprose

This fall, we have begun a new landscaping project, using rocks to embellish a length of road on our property. 

On our travels this summer, we were impressed by the many ways home landscapers use stone as a signature element.  Some of these ventures were as simple as a stone wall snaking through the woods.  Some had elaborate stone benches, stone sculptures, or carefully-built piles of stones. 

We have an offshoot to our driveway, intended some day to form half of a circular road.  Over the years, we have added some stone embellishments to this road and its associated path, so it seems to me to be the perfect place to develop our own rock project.  

To date, we have the following features in place, some in an advanced state of disrepair:

• two stone pillars, about three feet in diameter – each is a page-wire cage filled with rock
• an ‘old-fashioned’ rock wall constructed of granite stones, each about the size of a large honeydew melon
• a lopsided (fallen-down) sundial built of small angular rocks in the shape of a cone 
• a chunk of black basalt, a five-sided, columnar volcanic feature, harvested from the shore where my ancestors came to Canada via shipwreck
• a stone ‘stream’ built years ago before we purchased more property and Fern Gully Brook entered our lives – this stream is a one foot wide course of small stones screened from a pile of pit-run gravel.  It ‘runs’ from a small artificial pond and is now completely overflowing with dry leaves.

existing rock and stone features on the road and path

Over the next months, we want to add some features to the road:

• rebuild our formerly wonderful granite fire pit in a new location along the road
• create two new lengths of stone wall to match the existing wall
• build a stone statue or monument 
• lay out a circle of stones to mark the one area where we can see the Milky Way from our property (star-gazing is difficult since we have so many trees) 
• build a stone embankment-with-moss feature to emulate a lovely roadway we saw at my brother’s wedding last year.

rock and stone features we plan to add

Over the next year, it is my intention to report back on the progress made on our Rock Project.  If you never hear another word about this project, remember – I like to plan.

Copyright   Jane Tims 2011