Greengirls » Blog Archive » Wanted: A rock out of a hard place

Wanted: A rock out of a hard place

Posted on June 16th, 2008 – 8:08 AM
By Robyn Dochterman

Ever start one little gardening project and suddenly it blossoms into something much, much bigger? Sort of like the time I pulled the ugly wallpaper off a bathroom wall and the entire wall crumbled and pretty soon we were rebuilding the whole bathroom?

I’m not the only one this happens to, am I?

Apparently, my turn came up again this weekend. On Friday, I was at a nursery that had John Cabot climbing roses half-off. Oooh, who could resist that? I bought two and brought them home to flank the base of an iron entrance arch in the yard. On Saturday, I set out to plant them. Should’ve been a 15-minute job.

It wasn’t long before I heard that hideous shovel-scraping-rock sound. That happens around here a lot. I usually just dig around until I can get under the stone. Most chunks of granite in these parts are about the size of a really big onion, or a muskmelon if it’s serious. This time, everywhere the shovel hit, it still scraped. Slowly, it began to dawn on me that this rock, the one right where I wanted to plant my rosebush, was big.

Maybe a smarter person would have moved the entire arbor or just found a new home for the roses. But I am stubborn and was curious about the true size of the rock. And it looked kind of cool. Maybe I could put it in a bed in the front of the house. So I dug: With the shovel. With a trowel. With my hands. After a couple of hours, I was able to ascertain that the rock was big. Big as in bigger than a breadbox. More like the size of a case of breadboxes, actually (does anyone still use bread boxes?)

I’d like to tell you a funny or happy end to this rocky tale, but it doesn’t have one yet. I have absolutely no idea how to get the big rock out of the deep hole so I can plant my little rose.

Got an idea? Advice? Thoughts? Wanna barter? (I could make a mean stone soup with this thing!) Please tell me — what you would do?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Starting new beds, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

12 Responses to "Wanted: A rock out of a hard place"

Sandra says:

June 16th, 2008 at 8:38 am

Dynamite?

I’d actually love to have that big old rock. It looks like a meteorite.

judybusy says:

June 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am

Hmmm, how deep is the rock? Could you just plant the rose on top of it? Would its roots just grow around it?

Otherwise, this is a two- or three-person job, with coordinating shovels and lots of grunting!

bsimon says:

June 16th, 2008 at 9:07 am

You need a buddy with a skid loader. Or a winch on their truck.

Its time to find that friend/neighbor/relative/associate that can remove the rock mechanically. For the kind of person you need, a 12 pack of beer is probably all it will cost - if they’re someone you know.

Robyn Dochterman says:

June 16th, 2008 at 9:23 am

The rock is about 5 inches below the surface of the ground, so the rose would have nowhere, vertically or horizontally, to grow, I’m afraid.

An excellent idea, bsimon! I actually do have a friend with a Bobcat. And normally I wouldn’t hesitate to ask him.

As it happens, though, I’d asked him two hours earlier, to help move a hawthorn tree (bought at same sale as rose bushes) with a 400-pound ball and burlap root ball that I couldn’t get out of my pickup truck, much less dropped into a hole 400 yards away. He had run to the job site to get the Bobcat and fill it with fuel, then come here. So I felt bad about that and really didn’t want to ask a second favor since he was just here. Maybe I’ll wait a few days then ask him.

Barb says:

June 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am

Not sure if this is okay to do in town, but at the cabin when we are moving rocks we use fire. We dig around the rock as much as we can and then start a campfire ontop of the rock. Make a big fire and let it burn so it gets really hot. Then get some friends and give eveyone a 5 gallon bucket of water. All at once you throw the water on the fire and the rock breaks into smaller managable chunks. Pretty neat! Again, not sure if this is safe/okay to do in the middle of the city :-).

Robyn Dochterman says:

June 16th, 2008 at 11:23 am

Barb — now that’s a creative idea! I’m going to keep that strategy in mind.

jeff says:

June 16th, 2008 at 11:42 am

Barb - that’s sort of the reverse process of waterlogged river rocks in a hot fire.

debw says:

June 16th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Another idea is to dig a “ramp” on one side of the hole and go in with a two wheel dolly and a long prybar. Unless it is really thick it could then be relocated to a spot to gloat over what a “whopper” you found and moved.

Patty says:

June 16th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

Robyn - from the picture it almost looks like the cement cover of a well or septic system - you’re SURE it’s just a rock…right??? When digging the foundation for my folks house about 45 years ago, they ran into just such a rock as yours - it became a highlight of the home’s landscaping (and my favorite imaginary ‘horse’ as a child!).

gina says:

June 16th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

cover that sucker up, move the arbor and pretend this never happened.

Sandra says:

June 16th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

Yeah, what Gina said, OR…create a little mounded area there, and give the rose enough room. It could create a little ‘feature’ if you have a little raised mound, no?

Peter Hoh says:

June 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

Found one of these while working in my sister-in-law’s garden. I wanted to call in a Bobcat. She said no. We covered it up.

I still wish we had pulled it out.