Tim Hamm, hardscaper extraordinaire, is at it again. Nancy got ready to plant ground cover on the dirt berm that we build just above the drainage ditch at the front of the house. I'd been worrying that the berm would just melt away with time and eventually end up in the ditch. So I asked Tim to build a small wall along the front of the berm, something stylish and 18-24" high. It would go about 60 ft across the front of our lot, from near the driveway to our large (50 ft) Madrona tree.Last week we ordered up 5 tons of basalt boulders ($190), mainly 1/2 and 1 man sized with some smaller stuff for chinks. In addition, I picked up about 3/4 ton of greenish glacier mist boulders ($120), which appear to be some sort of metamorphic greenstone. The guys at these landscape places (Blake Sand and Gravel, this time) are completely brain dead when it comes to rock type. Glacier Mist, Greenstone. At least they both start with G and have about the same no. of letters. Granite and basalt, those they know. Perhaps slate and sandstone, but past that point they don't have a clue. Good enough for contractor work as they say.
Anyway, Tim put three days into the wall and has it about 95% complete at a cost of about $800 rock included. We'll need to get a couple of yards of top soil to back fill the wall, then my lovely gardener can get on with planting the ground cover. Just a little diversion from the real task at hand--get the house finished and move into it.
