Here is the pile of rocks. Our neighbors thought we were nuts. I was good at moving rocks since we had to do the same thing at our Kent house. The builder had put a construction road through the back yard and then just left it for me to find.
Since there were no instructions with the article, we had to make up our own method of construction. Jeff was the main achitect, as usual. We decided to make 4 beds, 4 feet wide and 10 feet long. The beds are spaced 3 feet apart to match up with the paths. I cleared the area for each of the four gardens down to the clay layer. Jeff cut treated 6"x6" timbers into 3 foot sections. These were put in the ground at the corners of the beds. Since the beds are on a slope, we excavated down between the posts until it was level so the cages could be all the same size. We made "cages" out of 4 foot wide pig fencing. First we cut the appropriate length, leaving enough to fold the ends into a box. We placed a 6"x12' board that we were planning to use to cap the rocks down the center and folded the fencing up on each side. This made the bottom. We cut in from the end about 6 inches on on each side of the bottom, folding up the bottom and in the sides to make our cage. The cages were fastened to the corner posts using staples. Because of the way the cages fit between the posts, there is very limited exposure of the treated lumber to the dirt in the garden. We then put a length of rebar into the ground in the center of the long sides to give it more stability. We tied wire at varying intervals throughout the cages to keep them from bulging. The above pictures show what the cages looked like before rocks.
Then I went to work filling up the cages. I tried to develop a method, placing large rocks along the bottom as a base and then spacing large rocks as evenly as possible throughout the cage as I progressed up. I tried to put the flatest side facing out. We also had a lot of concrete chunks lying around so I incorporated these as well. Even with the huge pile of rocks and concrete chunks, we still had to use some to the half man basalt rocks we had left over from the retaining wall to finish up. Once the cages were filled, Jeff capped them with cedar boards. I went around and filled the gap between the cap board and the rock wall with smaller rocks.
Once the beds were complete, we ordered 10 yards of Emu 5 way garden soil and filled them up. There was about 4 or 5 yards left over which we used for an asparagus bed and a raspberry bed.
Moving rocks can be a dangerous business as this blood blister boo boo illustrates.
We found a couple of these salamanders in the rock pile as we moved the rocks to the raised beds. I hope they will find a home in the rock walls.
Things we learned along the way: I would make the beds at least 4 feet apart instead of 3. Jeff and I disagree about the width. I think they would be better 3 feet wide because then you could reach across the whole bed from one side. He thinks they are fine the way they are. The cap board might be wider as some of the walls bulge beyond them. So far they work well to sit or kneel on while I'm working. The ten foot long sections seemed a bit too big to remain minimally bulgy after they were filled. It might have been better to dispense with the rebar and make 2 smaller cages to make up the big sides. The more cross wire ties you can put in, the better.
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