My lovely new house has an unlovely backyard. At one time, I’m sure the landscaping was exquisite, but it’s all gone to hell and it’s a jumble of vines and rocks and weeds, and a whole year in I don’t feel like I’ve made a ton of progress. I’m doing ok with removing vines and weeds, but there are tons of rocks out there that I don’t want, and don’t know what to do with.
Most of them are small pebbles, a little bigger than fishtank gravel. I suspect the original look they were going for resembled this picture, because the worst of it is around the pool area, where the concrete ends. A few areas closer to the house have piles of larger river rocks, all smaller than my fist, and I think those were used instead of mulch, to decorate a garden or surround shrubs.
I don’t like the idea of using them in my gardens, and I don’t have a gaping pit in the yard to throw them in. Rocks are not fun to walk on, and they are a great place for bugs to hang out, and I want them gone! I had a post up on Craigslist advertising pick-your-own landscaping stones and I had two people come and take a wheelbarrow full, but I’m still left with so many rocks.
I would hire a landscaper. To do something. Maybe solely to get rid of the rocks, or to also replace with grass.
I enjoy doing yard work, but when it gets to the point of having too much debris to handle myself (such as when I removed part of my flower bed that had mulch in it), I call a landscaper who has the tools and the resources to get it done.
We bought a house once, who’s previous own had loved little white landscaping rocks. They had used them all around the yard, and then neglected it for 10 years. End result, white rocks scattered everywhere in the yard.
We put in a raised bed, to give some interested to part of the yard, and when we did that, the first thing we did was rake up all the rocks we could find and dumped them into it, then added black dirt on top of that. So, any plans to add a raised bed?
Lucky us, the previous owners of our new house loved peach colored rocks. We get to do this all over again.
Rocks are a magnet for kids. Hire a bunch of them to pick them up. It’s something even a four year old can do and he/she can earn some money and you get it done cheaply
If they’re anything like the kids I know, they’ll stuff them in their pockets and take them home with them.
I was going to say invite over a bunch of 5-year-old boys and tell them they can have all the rocks they want. Shouldn’t take more than a couple visits before all the rocks are gone!
Almost all cities have an area to dump stuff like rocks, cement chunks and other yard waste. My town has 2 sites for dumping yard debris. There maybe a county wide dumping site instead of one for your town. Try calling your city highway department and and ask them where the site is. They haul stuff there all the time.
Have you tried putting them on E bay as well? E bay draws a different crowd then CL and there might be someone who can take away more rocks then the piecemeal CL customers.
You might ask Cat Whisperer for advice. I know she can’t deal with your rocks, as she’s far away from you, but she does some landscaping and may have some good ideas on things like that.
That sounds like my pathetic yard. Neglected landscaping with smooth river rocks. It was probably very nice 10 years ago.
I used a metal rake and raked as many rocks as I could. Eventually I gave up. There are just too many and they’re packed into the dirt. I’m a renter so I don’t care *that *much. If I owned the house I’d probably pay someone to re-landscape the backyard for me.
If you do dig 'em up, I bet someone would take them if you listed it on craigslist.
I’ve got black lava rocks in my backyard. They’re kinda ugly, plus the squirells keep moving them all over the place. Seeing as how I’m a renter, I mostly just toss the rocks back under the bushes where they belong, but I still dream of getting rid of them.
I never thought of asking a landscaping company to come haul them away. They do that sort of thing?
For a while I considered packaging them up and marketing them as “landscaping stones” to make a buck, but I don’t see that working. My husband wants to get a dumpster and fill it up with the rocks, but I think the cost, because of the weight, will be astronomical. I also feel silly throwing rocks in the trash - surely there’s someone who needs them? Landscaping people, construction people, anyone? Our ad on CL said we had lots of pebbles and river rocks, good for landscaping, and they were free for the taking - is there a better way to advertise?
If all else fails, my last resort will be the Andy Dufresne method of carrying a few rocks out in my pockets every day and dumping them somewhere, although that may take a while to make a difference…
Sure, landscapers would do it. They are the companies with the crews of people who are paid to shovel stuff and get dirty and sweaty, put stuff in and take stuff away. If the task seems daunting to you, it’s probably much less daunting to a group of people who do that sort of thing all the time.
Call around, it’s free to ask and usually free to get a quote.
