Rocks are my gardening favorite! I have made raised beds with them, lined walkways, made paths with the flat ones, and used them as accents for some of my favorite plants. They are beautiful. I thought I had way too many when I started landscaping, but last summer I hauled in several more truckloads. You can never have too many rocks! I have a pile in reserve for this summer's projects, and plan to bring home many more this summer! They look really great with my Junk-art too!

windigo - I posted some idea pictures on the other "Rocks Rocks Rocks" entry that you have (I didn't see the duplicate listing and picture till I had posted them). WOW! Those are some great rocks!! Very good ideas here, and you are right, you will probably be bringing in more rocks when you see how much beauty they add to your yard. My DH has finally gotten used to that idea, and we make special trips to the river to haul them home. We live smack in the middle of the Rockies, and about 25 miles from the Arkansas River in Colorado, so we do not lack in rocks around here, but what I wouldn't give to have a few of YOUR beauties!! I was picturing a mini-Stonehenge after seeing some of those longer boulders you have. Of course you would have to anchor them really well to protect the pets and little ones. I will be looking at those rock piles with a little different eye this summer! Good luck and please do post pictures of your projects!

Drought will be much more your enemy. Low winter temps will hardly be an issue with root systems; soil is a fabulous insulator. Viburnum lentago is native much farther north than zone 6b. I have purchased this species from nurseries growing in zone 4 (-30ºF). Nannyberry is much less happy with high summer soil temperatures. It performs very poorly here in central KY, where we can reach zone 5b/6a temps regularly, and I have relatively deep clay loam circumneutral soils. All that said, I don't have any good advice for a different species of viburnum to attempt on such shallow soil conditions, except...Viburnum molle. Kentucky viburnum (very similar to arrowwood, Viburnum dentatum) grows quite happily in its native haunts on shallow soils over limestone outcrops. If you can reproduce those conditions, then you may have success with one of the rarest viburnums in the US.

I moved most of the compost and mulch to my trench I had been digging all week. I did not have much of a choice... smoke and lots of heat were coming from the heaps of the stuff I had stashed last night in the veggie garden. There was gray soot forming and it was almost too hot to touch. It got nearly 80 degrees in central KY today. Since part of the mulch was sitting against the house I felt it was in my best interest to quickly relocate all the stuff ASAP. So I integrated the compost with chunks of clay I broke with my shovel. I alternated layer of clay chunks with layer of compost and then stabbed and turned with the shovel. Finally I moved as much mulch as I could on top. There's probably in upwards of 8 inches of mulch along about 15 feet of fence. I watered it all down after to further reduce the heat. I had no idea how hot that pile would get. You'll all probably laugh, but I don't own a wheelbarrow and considering the volume of compost and mulch I had to move, I used a plastic snow shovel to scoop, walk over and dump..over and over and over and over again. The snow shovel actually worked great and I got alot moved faster than I thought I would. My hope is that adding the clay uniformly wedged between all the compost will act as a screen to retain some water as it moves downhill along my back yard. I am hopeful that all the digging of the clay allows a bit quicker drainage. I know the rest of the backyard will continue to hold water. The rain from the other day still is keeping the backyard muddy. Since I have reduced porosity one would think I have increased flow. We'll see what happens during the next big rain. The existing plants I had already planted, I raised up higher in the bed so they have more room for their roots below. The best part has arrived... I can now actually plant all these berry plants. We're due the occasional shower this weekend, but still unseasonably warm. I think these plants will like that.