Re: Progress on the garden wall

Interesting, Bonnie.  We have (or had) about 8" or more of stone dust
laid before the gravel was put down  I am sure it's compacted, but
it's still there under the gravel in most places on the drive. 
Haven't heard of a chips and dust combo here, but that's sort of what
I had in mind; something small enough to pack down into the larger
3/4" gravel.  I'm looking for something that will help pack that big
stuff down so it doesn't need periodic raking and, hopefully,
discourage some of the seeding that goes on (probably wishful
thinking).

 Now that you've mentioned that, I will ask the quarry (only about 3
miles up the road from me) if they ever sell that type of
combination.

I love stonedust.  It's the absolutely best thing in the world if
you're building drystone walls, to put behind the walls and even use
as a sort of leveler between stones.  It will wash out of large
cracks in stones, but if you're trying to fill in behind, it's super
because it does pack down and doesn't go anywhere when it does,  yet
it drains well, so makes a stable base for layers of rock.  It's also
my material of choice for bedding any kind of brick or flagstone for
walkways.  I've even used it to shore up log retaining walls.  I'm
out of it now, but have had the luxury, periodically, of nice piles
of it to mine for all sorts of projects.

It will, however, wash on a slope in really heavy rain (I have
learned the hard way), but I don't know what besides fist sized and
larger rocks will stay put with some of our gully washers.  One storm
this year dug a trench in the driveway about a foot deep and 8" wide
and another one washed quite a bit of gravel down to the road - this
is gravel that's been packed and driven on for 14 years!  Water can
be very powerful stuff.

My peagravel path that washed downhill was laid on top of assorted
larger rocks and about 6" of stonedust and in spots, that rain washed
gullies in the stonedust down to the large rock level.  We had some
*really* hard rains this last season.

That path was put in about 4 years ago now and since I had installed
it (drought year), this was the first that it was put to the wash
test....it did not pass with flying colors.  I think I am going to
have to do some shallow steps on the side that really washed to level
the ground out:-(

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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----------
> From: Bonnie & Bill Morgan <wmorgan972@ameritech.net>
> 
> Marge, we used a product called "chips & dust" over the larger fist
sized
> rock they brought in as a foundation for the big crane they brought
in to
> set our house on.  (Only about 8" deep with the larger rock.)  The
chips
> have sharper edges and the dust is dust that settles between all
the
> crevices when wet and packs down similar to a hard rock surface. 
(It is not
> as smooth as concrete.)  We had some on a grade and it did NOT roll
down
> hill.  It really isn't the prettiest thing to have, but it sure
beats
> chasing your paths down hill. :>)

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