LysmachiaMoon's blog: Trip to the gravel quarry

Thursday was my birthday, so I gave myself a "treat"...you have to be a gardener to understand this sort of thing. I've been meaning to bring in a load of fine gravel or grit for the garden, so Thursday I drove up to the local quarry to buy some. I've done this several times before and it's always a funny adventure...the place is huge and sells enormous quantities of gravel and stone to road-building firms, etc. So, when I arrive in a my little S-10 pickup truck, it's always a hoot to pull into line for the scales behind these behemoths hauling 60, 70, 100 tons at a time.

This time, I got the scenic tour! The nice man at the sales counter asked me if I knew where they'd put the grit pile and I said no. So he said I should pull over to the edge of the lot and wait for the loader and the man driving the loader would lead me to the correct pile. (There are dozens of different grades/sizes of gravel and stone and mountains of the stuff all over this vast area.) This loader the size of a moving house comes lumbering over and I followed him up this winding road that went up and up thru the facility...I guess I never really thought about WHERE all this gravel came from. Holey Moley! We went up above the actual quarry itself and it was spectacular! This enormous hole in the ground, about 200 feet deep and vastly huge...a sort of miniature Grand Canyon...we went around the oldest end and it had very deep water in the bottom and several small islands in the middle with trees growing on them...and waterfalls pouring down the steep vertical sides into the quarry bottom. I could only catch glimpses as we went by because I was busy trying to follow the road and also they have the edge of the road lined with gigantic boulders for safety. What a sight! I only wish I could have stopped and really got a good look.

After all that, I got back to the office with my measly 500 pounds of grit and paid my bill. $3.18. Three dollars and eighteen cents. I'm pretty sure that gigantic loader probably burned more than that in gasoline driving me up there, but they seemed happy to make the sale so who am I question it?
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I spent the rest of the Thursday re-doing a section of my asparagus bed. I dug out the 3 surviving plants, then dug out an area 4 feet wide, 6 feet long, and 18 inches deep...all heavy wet clay. No wonder the asparagus didn't do well. After I hauled all that out, I refilled the area with grit, manure, compost and topsoil, then planted 12 new plants. If they don't do well after all that back-breaking effort, then I'm done with asparagus. *LOL*
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EXTREMELY WINDY here overnight and into this morning. Very clear, cold and sunny...we went into the 30F last night and forecast to go into the 20s tonight. I'm glad I did not rush to get a lot of things out yet....we've been having that suspiciously mild weather lately that makes me think I should try to "get ahead" and plant things out. Im' very glad now I did not. I've got peas and onions in and that's it for now.

I did plant some Dutch iris bulbs in the new rock garden...used some of my grit for that too... I'm hoping they will do well up there.

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