[Greenbuilding] Annual stone harvests (was Re: tennis court surface material)

[Rob Tom]

On Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:55:39 -0400, Corwyn <corwyn at midcoast.com> wrote:


> My grandfather created a tennis court,

> his intention was to create a potato garden, but
> he discovered upon plowing it up, that the soil was almost _completely_
> clay.  His response was, 'heck with it, I'll build a tennis court
> instead'.

> The court requires some maintenance,removal of rocks (every year,  
> explain that!)

A couple of years ago in early Spring, I saw an area farmer out in a field  
(that my dogs think was put there for them to hunt for groundhogs),  
picking stones and since we didn't know each other I introduced myself by  
picking up a large boulder, carrying it over to his wagon and hollering:

    "YOUR FAMILY HAS BEEN FARMING THIS LAND FOR OVER A CENTURY AND
      YOU *STILL* HAVEN'T GOTTEN ALL THE STONES OUT YET ???!!"

... which brought a smile to his face and created the opportunity for one  
of those hour-plus chats that often occur with elderly farmers.

The explanation for the annual rock harvest at the Corwyn ancestral tennis  
court is that it was "designed" as a potato patch, not a tennis court and  
as such, the substrate likely didn't include a systematically-drained  
layer of coarse granular material (oddly enough, even more stones (but  
washed and with no fines) ... and frost action being what it is (not  
unlike what happens when squeezing on a bar of soap), stones are popped up  
and out from the soil every year.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at chaffY a h o o  dot  c a >
manually winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply