Our house has a rock verge. There is a strip of river rocks between the pedestrian part of the pavement and the kerb. Apparently the previous owner employed a gardener, which is why there were no weeds in this impromptu rockery when we moved in. We do not employ a gardener, and so the weeds have sprung up like... well, weeds.

The project, then, is to (1) lift the rocks out of the verge; (2) lay weed barrier fabric; and (3) replace the rocks. And an extra: (4) lay stepping stones to make it safe to cross the rockery. It's an arduous job which I have been very pleased to not be particularly involved in so far - Jen's brother came down during his spring break from college to help. Good lad.

Unfortunately, with our house being on a corner plot, there is a lot of frontage to do this rock lifting job on. Jen and her brother have worked on this three days and got maybe two thirds of it done. I did a bit of rock shifting on Monday evening, but I'll be helping a lot more on the weekend since Jen's brother has gone home...

What has been discovered is that there was plastic sheeting under the rocks from the last time this was done. Over the years soil has built up under the rocks and so there's something for the weeds to root in. One of our neighbours, who has lived in his house since before our house was built, told Jen that he remembers helping to lay the rocks in 1967.

This fills me with profound joy that, tedious as this job is, we won't have to touch it again for a long time!

Posted by Dunx at March 18, 2004 01:20 PM