After surrounding all of my beds with rocks, I noticed no more, and unfortunately no fewer, slugs in my garden.
Schoolhouse, since I too am guilty of harboring ivy, I think your plan sounds great. I'm looking for a backless stone bench for my garden. Any good sources?

Megardengym, thanks for posting those photos! What a fantastic place you have!

What are you thinking of planting in the big open patches shown in the pics?

Shadeeladee - there a lot of backless concrete benches out there, but an actual stone bench is hard to find, let alone afford. Last fall, I searched every garden ornament shop and spent hours on the internet to find a stone bench with a back on it. I was told that the concrete "park bench" would be too heavy to be practical, and a stone bench would be cost-prohibitive (this told to me by the local cemetery momument place). Antique ones, as found in estate gardens, were way out of my price range,too. Finally, I just bought another concrete bench top, positioned it upside down behind another concrete bench I had. Like I say, when the ivy does it's thing, it will help the illusion.
If your garden is less informal, you can build your own stone backless bench out of a large flat rock and two boulders (or blocks) for the legs. I've seen those at garden centers, and they cost hundreds of dollars!

I like to use rocks to separate the lawn from shrub beds. I dug a trench, laid the rocks in the trench (on the side furthest from the lawn) & then filled the rest of the trench with bark mulch. I replenish the bark mulch a couple of times a year and sometimes have to uproot a few weeds from it, & my wife uses her weed eater on it to keep the edge of the lawn sharp. There's a picture of it at PBase - this is the URL -

http://www.pbase.com/image/9285305

Or it may work if you just click here

"What are you thinking of planting in the big open patches shown in the pics?"

Since taking the original photos, I've planted the veggie garden, 125 strawberry plants, 140+ canna rhizomes. More pictures to come, just been too busy with early summer gardening.

Thanks to all for this feedback. I am loving all these pictures, too.

...Beverly

Beautiful borders, Herb!

What is the blue flowering bush in the center of the photo? A rhodie? Looks like one, but i wasn't sure about the color.

Thanks, ocbird! You're right - the blue flowering one is rhododendron 'Blue Bird'.

Herb, its beautiful. I know you all get great rhodies in BC, i saw them at the Vancouver botanical gardens once...

I just posted some photos of my rock planting bed borders on my web album. Here's the link -- they are in the "rock work" album.

Here is a link that might be useful: rock work pics

We have very large rocks around the rock garden and haven't had any slug problems. I've heard if you pour table salt around the perimeter of your garden, it will keep the slugs out. Don't know if it works, but I'm going to try it in my shady area because they chew up the hostas like crazy. Now if I could just keep the deer away from the hostas and the lilies . . .

I use a lot of the natural granite around here for edging. Along with the ones around the edge I usually use a second course placed above and in a little from the first course. The first course is usually continuous, but the second course is not just a rock here and there to create nooks for plants. Also put a few interesting ones in the middle of the garden. If you put down landscape fabric strips about 8" to a foot wide under the first course and layed out onto the lawn and then cover them with mulch you can create a mower strip thus avoiding the need to weed wack. The creepers will crawl out onto it a little making it look very natural.

My house used to be an old schoolhouse, and I've observed in the basement, how the foundation was laid in some areas. Now I use this same principle: one would think that the large heavy sandstone block were laid as the first course; but here they lay a foundation of small, flat stones (one-two rows in height) then set the course of large block on these. Not gravel, just short, flat stones as a base. This is not true all around the foundation, just on south and west sides.

I am going to go against the grain here. I don't like the look of melon sized rocks outlining a flower bed. What's the purpose? Do you see it in nature? Nope. Ever see a real pro do it? Nope. Ever see it in a Japanese garden? Nope. To me, it looks hokey and amaturish and visually distracting. Besides, it's a maintenance issue, slugs, weeds, grass creeping, etc. To those of you who have posted that it is not a maintenance issue, just wait. It always reminds me of Gomer Pyle and his little bitty white rocks lining the entrance to his Marine quonset hut.
Herb, I have always admired your garden and pics, but in my opinion I think your garden would look much better if you dispensed with the border rocks. Maybe you could use them for rock outcroppings where appropriate.
I know I have been rather blunt, but I do have strong feelings on this subject as you can tell.

BoTann - I guess we all have our likes and dislikes. When it comes to rocks, I very much dislike seeing them strung like a necklace round a pond or lake as they are at the Hatley Castle 'Japanese' garden in Victoria.

I have an open mind about them in our garden. Interestingly, the shrubs themselves seem to be adopting your preference - in several places they've grown so much that they now hide the rock border. If I conclude it looks better with the rocks hidden, I'll be quite happy to let them stay hidden....

I beg to differ with BoTan on surrounding beds with rocks. Yes, definately to each his own.

I don't think it's hokey or amaturish if done the right way. I was inspired to do it myself when I saw it done on a garden tour of winners of a landscaping contest. (The judges used some national guideline or whatevers - so, the gardens couldn't have been too amateurish) Anyway, it was striking. The people has dug a slight trench and they put them in. The stones were not balls of rock sitting on top of the soil. Of course, it didn't look "natural" - but, many garden edges are not natural.

I have taken 5 geology classes at the local university over the years. When I look at each stone, I often know what it is, much of it's history, how it was formed. In this part of Ohio where I live it's where the glaciers ended (called the terminal moraine). Thus, there are rocks here that were pushed into this area from a thousand miles away. Every rock tells me a story. I see it's beauty, not a hokey line of stones. It's thrilling to me & beautiful.

Everyone should be encouraged to do what is beautiful to them in there own garden. If it isn't pleasing to YOUR eye - don't do it. Gardening is a personal pleasure.

...Beverly

Catrina...I like your idea of the second course of rocks, thus, creating spots to fill in with small plants and such. Thanks so much for these ideas.

...Beverly

Most people have the ingredients in their kitchen to make a gourmet meal. It's how it is prepared and served that makes a difference between average and excellent. Proper preparation takes time, knowledge, and experience.
It's the same with creating a garden. Thirty years ago my attempts at gardening were just that. Feeble attempts. I majored in Geology in college and had a collection of different rocks in my garden that were randomly placed here and there like knick knacks on a shelf. It didn't have that natural look that I desired. I was looking at each individual rock instead of the overall look. Then I went to work for several Landscaping companies and nurseries and finally went in business for myself after several years while moonlighting on the weekends with an old Japanese American. He taught me how to use rocks that came out of the same quarry and arrange them so they looked like a rock formation instead of looking like they were dropped from a helicopter with half of them upside-down. Well here it is, almost thirty years later and I'm retired and still enjoying it! I still can't cook though.
Botann, living in the land of lateral moraines and glacial till.

I don't think it has to look bad at all. I'm in the granite state -- we grow stone here, and if you don't stack them up around your beds, you end up with ugly piles of them all over the place. I think it looks quite lovely.

Here is a link that might be useful: example

I agree, Lisa, i like your border. I don't care how rocks are used, i just think they look better than almost anything as edging and garden elements.

Do any of you ever use weed barriers before you put down all those rocks? It is a black sort of tarp that lets the water through but helps control the weeds. I used it to edge a bed and also under the bricks. It really does help keep the weeds at bay! When I edged one bed with this, I used mulch to cover it up so it looked more attractive.

I've never used weed barriers, just a layer of sand under and then poured and swept over the top to fill the cracks. But,weeds will eventually grow between rocks with or without a weed barrier; because soil will replace some of the sand in the cracks and the seeds will simply sprout on this.

I have two hosta gardens, and both of them have rocks in, around and all along the paths in the woodland gardens. We have no trouble here in the mountains of western N.C. finding rocks of any size! Everytime you dig a hole for a new hosta, you find one or several rocks. I live in the woods,literally, and rocks are not a problem! I recently tried to dig a hole for a fence post, and hit a rock immediately! Before I was through, I had dug out a rock that weighed more than me, and I weigh a little over 200 lbs! About slugs. I grow hostas and they are a slugs favorite food! There are not a huge number of them, but I am waging the good fight! The rock don't seem to make any difference in the amount of slugs. You have hostas,you have slugs!

Hey Bev!

I think your rock edges look great! The "T Gang" will be willing to "help" you get more any time, I'm sure!

Mimi

I personally love the look of various sizes of rock surrounding beds...it's a heckuva lot more natural than that black plastic liner (which I tried first, doesn't keep the zoysia out of my perennial beds) or even railroad ties or bricks. I also think that rocks each have beauty of their own, and also give one a place to grab a foothold if you need to step/reach into a bed to trim or weed. All these pictures are great, and are inspiring me to finish what I've started in outlining my own perennial borders with rocks (and getting rid of all the plastic).

We all are entitled to our own individual tastes, I just think it's a lot more pleasant to read POSITIVE opinions when it's an opinion issue at hand...and rocks vs. no rocks is an opinion issue. As my Dad would say: "If you don't like it, lump it." Why bother posting negative vibes?
Li

Beverly,
I have rocks surrounding many of my gardens, some of the size you mention, and others very much bigger. I also place rocks here and there in the gardens.
Here we garden with rocks all of the time. I have a shade garden set in huge (some 7 feet long and 5 feet wide) boulders, and when gardening in other areas of the property, I am always prepared to meet up with a challenge - and finding places for rocks which I dig up is one of those challenges. As a matter of fact, today is the day I line a garden on the southside of the property with rocks which I've had in a pile for a while...
And the slugs, well, they'll be around whether or not you have the rocks. If you're worried about them, in the spring take one part amonia, and 10 parts water, mix in a watering can, and water your rocks. If the slugs have taken residence there and have laid eggs, this will kill them and the eggs and REDUCE the population - not eradicate it. And the mixture is OK for the plants. Amonia = nitrogen.
Nicole.

I've got my herb garden surrounded by various rocks. I like the look of an impromptude stone wall. Mine isn't as pretty as I'd like. I look at stacked stone walls with all the hunger of a child in a bakery. One day I will learn how to do it.

I think the use of round stones looks more like an early, Colonial, American garden. They used round stones, and twig or wattle fences. All very beautiful in a rustic fashion, and I love rustic!

Read the post (a long thread) about midnight stone stealers. Being in New England I have no choice but to use rocks and most people here do ring their garden beds with rocks. The photos posted are beautiful examples of edging with rock. All the rocks are different and tell a story. It doesn't seem to make a difference in number of slugs. I grow many hostas as well. I think using rocks as edging depends on the architecture of your house, the style of your garden and your neighborhood.

Hi Beverly! I've been collecting 'construction' rocks, too! Goodness knows Columbus has enough new housing developments to supply countless gardens! I'd like to have hundreds more, but it's hard to get motivated to move rocks!

Here are my newest pictures of my yard showing lots of rocks. The flat ones in front were already here, part of a path that had become too uneven from tree roots. There are a few more 'rock' pictures on this page (scroll down past the frog shots.)

I had thought I would use the rocks to separate the grass from the mulch, but after mowing next to that once, I decided I didn't like it. So I moved most of them to define an area within the mulch area. The rest of them I used to make piles - as 'frogitats' and/or 'toad abodes.' I was shocked by the impact of them, at least to my eye. I think the whole back yard finally stopped looking 'new' when I added them. (Only a small part of the front shade bed was NOT covered by grass at this time last year.)

The really big ones by the little white bench were given to my Mom years ago. I can't pick them up, and rolling them is a strain on my back. They were moved here with the help of my Mom's movers a couple weeks ago. The put them in the minivan for me and I was able to roll them out myself. Incidentally, my Dad was severely complaining about 'paying people to lift rocks' so I managed to get them all to the front yard myself by rolling them into a cooler on wheels. The hardest part was turning the cooler the right way again so I could pull it around the house. This saved me from having to invent some contraption revolving around the thingie that lifts the car so you can change the tire. LOL!! Isn't it amazing how a single big rock weighs so much more than a similar pile of smaller rocks??! Or is it just me?

I love to surround my beds with rocks. I live in an area where they are the #1 natural resourse--in addition to all the clay in our soil---thinking of taking up pottery! LOL. After reading the book "The Santuary Garden" by Christopher Forrest McDowell & Tricia McDowell I think of the following statement from their book "Remember that rocks are beings too. They just don't move much, take along time to age, have few expectations, and are generally quite content wherever they happen to be". Hmmmmmmmmmmm maybe we should be more like rocks.

Just another amateur who likes--and uses--rocks to edge my back beds. I have really enjoyed all the photos above; apparently a beautiful border, like obscenity, is in the eye of the beholder.

I'm an urban gardener, and like the rustic and recycled nature of my rocks. Most of mine come from a small pond the prior owner filled in with all manner of rock, concrete chunks and brick. For the price of digging, I've got my border.

It's honestly the type of border I find most appealing for the garden I'm trying to create. I have a very loosely interpreted cottage garden, and encourage plants to tumble over the stone border. [I think I will try to take a page from Herb's books and have a little mulch trench in front, though--though my untrimmed grass certainly makes for a rather, er...*informal* look.] My latest project? Edging a new shade bed composed primarily of salvaged ferns.

This spring was a bad one for slugs, but I can't blame the rocks, just the baby hostas and tomatoes. Fortunately a little slug-be-gone seems to have held the creatures at bay....

I have a few too many photos online, including several closeups of the rocks (g). There are several pages of thumbnails at that link.

Here's a shot of my back wall when the grass around the beds was uncharacteristically tidy:

{{gwi:287341}}

I use rocks as bed borders because hubby weed eats everything that is not in a bed...Hello!! Love my rocks. They are my little soldiers protecting the fauna family from the evil attack of Sears and Roebuck equipment.

We bought a house and tore it down for the rocks in the basement! Many old houses on the east coast used quarry rock- this picture is just a portion of the stone surrounding the house.

Davena

Here is a link that might be useful:

thats what I use for borders, I take them out of the ground or take them from the old stonewalls on my property, I even put the around my vegetable garden, I tried brick before, but it breaks and rocks look more natural in my setting, sometimes I start thinking it is starting to look to fussy but then I am living in a house from 1845 and like the cottage style, it just depends on what kind of house you have.

Beverly, saw this post late, but here is what me and my husband did with our rocks {{gwi:287343}} Tamara

redblossom40- I love those rocks! Great job!

Davena

The rocks are about 3 to 4 feet in size. We had to bury most of the rocks to get them to line up, Husband used his muscles and a bar to move them. Unfortunatly we have very rocky ground and need to raise our flowerbeds. Tamara

{{gwi:287344}}

Very very nice. I love to see someone take a negative make it work so well! There are so many elements in the photo above I looked at it for 4 minutes!

Davena

Redblossom, dastowers, & housevixen....I LOVE the pictures you've posted of the way you all use rocks around the border.

Thanks so much for showing them!

...Beverly

One of our beds was bordered with rocks & I posted a picture of them (above).

Since then I started to feel they were arranged with too much of a 'necklace' effect, so I re-arranged them them.

Click here to see the change

I like your changes you made, looks so natural, very, very nice. Tamara

Herb, I really like the changes in the rock design. Getting rid of the red mulch added to naturalness.

Davena

Thanks, redblossom & Davena! But I didn't change the mulch - it eventually weathered to this more subdued color.

Beverly, thank you! Now, when do we get to see photos of your rocks (g)?

Hi HOusevixen...well, I'll post pictures as soon as I overcome my "computer challegeness" (is that a word?) I am learning about digital cameras and such!!

...Beverly

Read alot in this thread about slugs in your gardens; here's a tip- line those trenches with a sand and the slugs will not cross over it into your gardens! Beautiful pics!

i use stone in alot of different ways in my gardens. they are all lined with local field stone. i also put alot of it in the gardens. i try to get my plants and shrubs to grow over the edges to break them up. i do line my gardens with a weed barrier before i mulch. i also spray the rock borders with roundup 2 times a year. i try to keep mine looking natural. i have seen many rock borders that look awkward, especially when the garden doesnt have any stone in it other than the border. i can understand botann's opinion cause i know he bases it on his strict japanese gardening rules.

I Have edged most of my gardens in small and large rocks. I love stone in the garden in almost any way. I made a cobblestone path this spring. I love looking at it. I have made the edges easier to mow by burying a mowing strip of small rocks flat side up even with ground level next to the larger edging rocks. It gives a neater effect. maybe not natural, but I like it.

there is a joke around here, Why were the irish not bothered with the black flies? They were to busy picking up rocks. therefor all the stonewalls around here.

i never heard of the irish and there stacking of stone walls.