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| | Irene and Drew wanted to come home to boulders in the front yard. They didn’t want a monochromatic look to their stone, they wanted variety and character. | |
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| | We went to American Soil Products and wandered in the boulders field evaluating possible choices. I told Irene and Drew that a boulder must speak to them, that they must really love it. Sounds corny I know but it’s the best way to narrow the choices when you are standing amongst hundreds of boulders. We gave each contender a name, ‘undulating dough’, ‘mountain’, ‘birdbath’, which is how we kept track of the ones we liked best. The names also helped us better understand how our collection was falling together. Irene was wearing open toed shoes and she smashed into the corner of a pallet which disabled her temporarily. The kids wanted to play on top of the boulders, a big no no, it’s unsafe if they fall. The boys also wanted to throw pebbles into the display pond and a staff member asked that we restrain them. A typical day of picking out boulders, really. | |
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| | When we got back to the home we talked about the boulder placement and again, the names of the boulders helped us decided which should go where. It’s best to prep holes for the boulders so that they immediately have a ‘nestled in’ look. I had notes on our boulders shapes and how their perspective holes should be prepped. Sometimes there is a certain shape to the bottom of the boulder, it’s pointed or lobs off to one side, or maybe it is fairly flat and I don’t want to dig to deep and hide too much of the boulder. | |
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| | I made sure there were no distractions when the boulders were delivered and I would be working with the forklift driver. My crew was on another job and Irene and Andrew were at work. It was a mild sunny morning on a quite street in the Temescale area of Oakland. | |
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| | Each boulder was lowered into place. The front loading tongs of the fork lift gently pushed this way or that depending on my direction. I balanced one of the boulders so that the depression in the top created a perfect pool for a birdbath. Another boulder needed to be tipped just so to show off all it’s ridges. Placing boulders is one of my favorite activities. I get a charge from how permanent the results are.
The plants and irrigation went in and a bark was placed to cover the bare soil. People from the neighborhood dropped by and the kids played on the boulders. I could look at this new garden and see what it would look like a year from now. The grasses flowing over the stone, the flowers attracting hummingbirds, the burgundy of the maple and Berberis punching out from the various surrounding greens. | |
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| | I’ve been in touch with Irene over the course of the year. There was a hitch with the irrigation clock when the power went out and she checked in on the winter maintenance practices required by the grasses. I was really happy to see the garden this spring, one year later, and just what I had envisioned for them. | |
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