The bar they mentioned is called a "San Angelo bar" around here, at least - that may help you locate one. HOWEVER, I still don't find them very useful for seriously rocky ground. (They are good for hardpan.) If you can't find a San Angelo bar as such, you may be able to find a six foot straight pry bar, used by riggers for loading heavy stuff - it's better steel and will cost more, but works just as well. I've tried using a bulb-planter auger in a large electric drill, and you'll spin, pretzel or break it in this kind of soil. However, one thing to try would be the smallest possible auger size in a large gasoline-powered auger. Another trick is to use an SDS-Max masonry bit in a rotary hammer. And I just saw a manual rotary post-hole digger, of the manual kind, with a very small but heavy set of blades - will cut a three inch bore or so. However, the one I saw was priced at 95 dollars!

There're somethings that are totally underappreciated about rocky soil. More rain for the good plants. An inch of rainfall will find the rain deflected into the rose hole...rocks don't hold water. In my garden, rocks are good because the moles and voles can't get through them.Mole and vole and gopher barriers are very good things. Roses can survive in a soil that's half rocks. Tea roses (real teas, not Hybrid Teas) like for their roots to be warm...rocks give that warmth. I've rescued some eighty year old roses from gravel driveways at abandoned filling stations. Not exactly tender loving care, but protection from root eaters and roses have phenomenal staying power.

Hi B2, I'm still getting caught up from being gone 2 1/2 weeks! Just noticed your wonderings about sedum and hen & chicks! What you've done looks great and with ground cover sedums they'll spread fairly quickly and you won't really need mulch in there. If you want something while they're growing I'd recommend a thin layer of small bark mulch. With that you can easily pull it back as they spread, and they'll grow over whatever happens to get left and it'll eventually decompose. But the grass right next to them will keep sending rhizomes into the sedum which will be very hard to get out of the middle of the plants so I highly recommend putting some sort of edging/barrier between the grass and the sedum area. It won't stop it completely, but it'll sure help! For that little strip you have you might want to consider eventually replacing the sedums with hen & chicks. No round leaves but there would be other advantages! They spread more slowly so they'd take longer to completely fill in the area but when they do they'll be VERY dense and they do a pretty good job of keeping out most weed seedlings (still need to keep the grass out of there!) They also have less upkeep. The sedums need to be cut down once or twice a year to keep them compact and good looking, especially after they're done blooming--and it takes a while for them to come back after you cut them down. No cutting down with the hen & chicks! Every year a few of them will bloom and you just pull them out or cut those few off at the base and you're good to go! So, less upkeep and they grow denser than the sedums. The only downside is that you don't get the flowers of the sedums! But you could put a mix of different varieties in there and let them all grow together so you'd have some "variety", especially in spring/early summer when they're at the height of their color! If you have enough sun in that corner you could also plant a few of the upright sedums thru the rock mulch--varieties with dark leaves would be pretty against the white rock! Your yard always looks so neat and well-kept!!! Skybird

Hi there. I have a box of the Coretec Red River Hickory on my floor -- as a sample. It is pretty smooth to the touch. I can't speak to the advantages/disadvantages. But i suppose if it were textured, it may hide scratches better? Although these floors are supposed to be (rather) scratch-resistant. We have not installed the floor yet so... Good luck!