I guess I did ask my question without regard for why the stones were there or whether it was right that they should be, and perhaps on the LD forum it is right that that question would be raised. I didn't think about going to another forum because the question came from another thread here. I used the example of a raised bed in the middle of a lawn as an example of why this question might be of broad general interest, but as it happens that isn't what I'm doing. I am trying to create some topography, having a tiresomely flat yard, but at the foundation, not in the middle of the yard. Fortunately our porch is of masonry block and dirt can be piled against it. I am having to slope down to avoid putting dirt against either side of the wooden stairs, which abut the centre of the porch, so my raised bed is bound to be an imperfect design. But I want rocks, and I want relief from flatness, and I want a stepped rock garden, whether it constitutes good design in my setting or not! I was driving around the suburbs today noting the use of stone in yards both obviously professionally installed and maintained, and DIY. In one case gravel was the surface of choice outside the fairly large stones. In another case, someone had lovingly and optimistically ringed all the beds with quite small rocks, and was clearly losing the battle to keep the grass from growing between them. In yet another case, someone had installed - but not quite deep enough - plastic edging with the rolled top around another small rock edging, showing to just what dreadful extremes one can be driven by the frustration of grass invading rocks, or being unable to mow. It is perhaps surprising in these cases that the removal of the rocks is apparently not contemplated. I think it's a question worth asking in some cases, for reasons of either design OR maintenance. KarinL

Carol, Sometimes you can find it in Lowe's or Home Depot, although I have better luck finding it in the stores in bigger areas--like Dallas-Fort Worth. You also can get it, sometimes, through local landscaping contractors who sell supplies directly to the public. If your local Lowe's doesn't routinely carry it, you can order it through them and have it shipped to you, I think. The one I see in stores is either 4" or 5", and they sometimes have it in a nice brown shade that pretty much matches most bark mulch pretty well. If you get it through a landscaping contractor or a landscape supply company, you may be able to get some of the commercial grade that is taller--6" or 8" is usually available through them. Onemoreplant, You're welcome. I don't think it would be overkill at all if this is a residence in which you plan to remain for some time and you don't mind investing the money. I, too, think people might drive over steel edging alone and think the building blocks would give a nice finished look to the project. It might cost a little more money up front to put in the steel edging, the building block border, and the barrier, but you'll have a very well-executed project that should hold up well over time and that is always a plus. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Steel Edging at Lowe's

this is new jersey, as in northeast coast US near new York. I'm doing work at someone's house. Their goal initially was to just have a no-mow no water or fertilizer lawn. Then I or they pointed out how some of these no mow/water/fertilizer covers can be flowering type things instead of just grass and they liked that idea better. So we set out to find something like that online in seeds or plugs but I didn't really find anything at first. I just recently found a lot of those things are on ebay cheap seeds and should be started indoors over winter and planted in spring instead of planted now in Fall like grass seeds. At first, we kind of scrapped the idea of a flowering cover because they wanted to do the whole lawn with it but don't want it to spread to the neighbors' lawn especially underground and popping up. So we decided to just do a no-mow type lawn like Pearls Premium http://www.pearlspremium.com/ But considering the cost of the no-mow lawn seeds and not using chemical starter fertilizer or crabgrass preventers, it's a gamble to try and plant and hope it doesn't just turn to crabgrass. I have organic fertilizer but it's no where near high in phosphorus to develop good roots quickly like regular starter fertilizer, Organic starter fertilizer I can only find online believe it or not. Instead of doing the whole yard with something like Pearls Premium, It would probably cost them less for me to just till large landscape beds throughout the property and then get seeds off ebay of things like flowering ground cover (that doesn't spread underground like crazy) and things like creeping juniper etc. I'm open for suggestions on thing like this. Once these things are established, they need zero water and zero mowing and maybe a sprinkle of organic fertilizer every few years. They will need a pruning every few years but that's like an hour of work maybe. At the beginning, yes the newly planted landscape beds will have to be de-weeded well until the plants establish and thicken it up. We're leaving about a 8 foot border space from the property line that will just remain how it is now which is basically weeds with some turf grass mixed in. A no-mow lawn still needs to be cut maybe 3 times a year, so these 10' borders will have to be mowed anyway if they're left how they are or if regular grass or no-mow grass is planted there. Once the landscape beds are thriving, they can decide to plant regular or no-mow grass in the border areas. I can do that now since it's the right time instead of waiting until next Fall but we want to see how the landscape beds go first. I can probably just scalp mow the weedy border areas and that will really retard growth there so that omits the whole having to plant grass there but the yard will still look nice because of the landscape beds. Get the idea now? It's about making a nice yard with minimal mowing, watering, fertilizing, and the cost is very low thanks to ebay seeds. perennial ground cover flowering: http://www.pbcgov.com/newsroom/1211/_images/ground_covers_tibouchina.jpg http://img.diynetwork.com/DIY/2014/03/07/CI-Stepables_Groundcover-wooly-thyme_h_lg.jpg creeping juniper: http://s45.photobucket.com/user/mishmosh2000/media/misc/Oot_Picture-7.jpg.html etc

kimmq First I'm not quite sure how to take your post. Are you asking me if I'm stupid, or for more information? I'll go for the latter since we just meet. I built a dry stack or mortarless rock wall creating a flower bed in front of my house. I built the rock wall for the look of the rock, not to simply make a raised bed. The bed is 6' x 24' at the lower end is least 2' below wall height. I suppose I could use taller plants, however that is not the look I'm going for. About finding dirt. This area is very rural, the closest town is 30 miles away, and even then I couldn't find any "dirt selling" companies in that town; at least not online. like I said, I'm sure some farmer would sell me some, if not give it to me. I'll probably ask around at the farmers market, and farmers co-op, as well as facebook. BTW the wall is NOT finished yet.