Permaculture rocks - no, I mean actual rocks

Chris, I believe I've seen broken concrete referred referred to as "urbanite."  They've recently demolished a building in town that was gutted by fire last year and I've been drooling over the piles of brick and concrete.  

I really enjoyed looking at all the beautiful rock creations everyone has made. Thanks for sharing! Here are a couple of my meager efforts at using my stones. I'm still working on using them all up.

I have  friends who live on a mountianous 'rock farm'
I taught them the following uses of rocks;
- on contour rock ledges in an olive grove on a hill to capture silt and moisture for the trees.
- dry stone walling for a set of walls at their gateway.
- I built a pair of loveseats at the hill top for the two of them.
- reinforcing the drive edge as it goes around a dam.
- erosion control in a manmade water channel to prevent erosion.
There are many rocks left, so I keep thinking of good uses for them.

Depending on how close your house is to the road. You may consider putting along the road. Friend of mine had a  stolen car go through her fence. She was afraid another one was going to crash and go into the house.

Another friend of mine but in dirt berm right along the road and planted a bunch trees in it.

At this house we have a rock patch with weed barrier for landscaping.  We have what I call a rock watermelon.  Each year the kids sit on the porch and spit watermelon seeds into the rocks and each spring we get a few watermelon plants.  This year we got a huge one.  I don’t water it much, just if it gets really droopy.  The summer heat in Nebraska is too much without some water.

Commenting here about our success with "rocks" and reviewing the photos from 4 years ago til last year has shown me just how much has grown with not much effort!

We repurposed an agricultural building into a home a few years back.
We took down a staircase and used the mortared bricks to make a "Rockery" where I planned to grow Prickly pears as a wind break as it roars through the valley and hits the garden. We quickly realised we had too much rubble for the project.

The original plan was to cart the knocked down bits of cement mortared clay bricks, cement stairs and plaster ceilings offsite once we had finished. We thought it would only be a few loads. But it was A LOT of material and we quickly realised the pile was getting ginourmous. We thought well, we can cover it eventually with our humanure and plant it up with wildflowers and chicken food fodder plants as it was situated in our eventual poultry yard. It would make a nice feature in our flat landscape and it wouldn't matter if stuff struggled to grow, it would still function as chicken enrichment. So we started dumping it in a log shape, then it got bigger so we curved it, eventually it resembled a horseshoe.

Still having lots to do, we covered it with shade cloth and put intersting bits and pieces on it to camoflauge the eyesore. One of the things to do was stabilise the terrace wall outside our house. My husband rebuilt the wall and topped it with a wide bank of stones and rocks.

Last autumn we finally got around to removing the camo nets and covering it with 2yo old humanure, and we had dug out some deep beds so the excess clay went on the mound too. Just before I left home for a 3 month contract, I spring cleaned my seed box and mixed all the old seed together and strew them all over the mound, ran a rake over it all and left. My husband is eating the best radishes I have ever grown! I haven't been able to produce a single radish in my deep wicking beds that are filled with good compost enriched soil! There are also various brassicas and wild flowers coming up.

As you can see from the overview picture, we have no soil, we have no rain, we have lots of heat. What you can't see is we have no unlimited water source. We catch rainwater and ferry water from the local village 600L at a time. Water is precious so we don't waste it on rockeries and mounds and re-inforcing banks. We occasionaly throw clothes washing waste water on the rockery and bank.

In all 3 instances we have seen such growth. Unfortunately I haven't got recent pictures of any of the projects but my prickly pears have taken and I even got 3 fruit off them last summer. I emptied my herb seeds onto the bank before I left in Jan so I am interested to see what has grown in my abscence. I will take updated photos when I get back.  I don't get any photos from hubby-except those of radishes. Hubby aint a gardener (yet) but this success as encouraged him to sow radishes in succession - he loves radishes, I can't stand them!

I love rocks so this thread is a favorite of mine.  

Sarah good to know you have found a use for all your rocks ...

Rock on!