We’re almost there! After a many weekends of heroic pebble shifting by my husband (mostly), his brothers and a friend, most of the pebbles are now removed from the garden beds. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, have a read here.
The side access to our backyard turned out to be too narrow to fit a wheelbarrow, so the pebbles in the backyard had to be carried out to the front of the house in large plastic tubs. I wish I were joking.
We made a large mound of pebbles on the driveway which ended up being 5 cubic metres in size, and then I put an ad on gumtree.com.au inviting people to take as much or as little as they liked for free. Frankly, I thought no sane person would want the cursed rocks even if they were free. However, within 4 hours of placing the ad we had to take it down due to overwhelming interest. Really.
The growing pile of pebbles, mixed in with plenty of dust.
A photo from the ad showing the types and sizes of the pebbles
A few callers offered us cash for them, which made me wonder if they were actually planning to on-sell them for profit, so we said no to those people. The whole point was to re-cycle them, free of charge, to people who genuinely wanted them in their garden. People came with trailers and shovels and did the back-breaking task of shovelling rocks on some very hot Spring afternoons. People thanked us with bottles of wine and even a hamper of pasta products! Incredible.
We were pleased to discover that underneath the pebbles and weed mat was lots of irrigation tubing in all the front beds, looking very professionally installed. The only problem is that we are yet to find where the tap is located in our front yard. I strongly suspect it’s deep in the privet hedge…
There are just a few pebbles remaining in the front beds to be cleaned up, and then I can order some bulk topsoil to replenish all the beds. Then – at last- it’s planting time!
The Quarter Acre Blog 
Golly, I wish we were neighbours. I need a cubic metre of nice pebbles to cover up the weed matting that’s gone down along the fence. It’s to stop the seedlings of 10million seeds dropped over a 5 year period from a now-absent palm tree. Bit too far to ship to north Queensland, though… Congratulations on your pebble free beds. Now, WHAT are you going to plant?
I wish I could give them to you! That palm tree sounds like the gift that keeps on giving – yikes.
We did keep some pebbles in the beds around the pool where they make a chlorine-proof groundcover. As for the other six beds, my list so far includes: buxus hedging, standard roses, frangipanis, a dwarf lemon, a dwarf lime, rosemary, lavender, convolvulus, azaleas, a crepe myrtle, carpet roses, geraniums… I do have a plan for each bed! Most of them are waiting in a thousand pots in the backyard.
Thanks for the comment 🙂
Great post! I can’t wait to see what you do next… That was awesome to get rid of the rocks so quickly!
Thanks for the encouragement!
I’ve been moving fast to try and get my plants in the ground before the summer heat arrives. Just 4 weeks of Spring to go..
Lucky you! It is the beginning of “F” here. I am looking forward to spring!
Pingback: Introducing The Planted Beds- Bed 5 | The Quarter Acre Blog