Check our latest material, Rustic River boulders.  It will go great with any landscape design!  Rustic River is a granitic boulder that is golden colored with rust overtones.  For more information on our boulder products, click here.

Southwest Boulder & Stone hosted a workshop last Saturday and, despite it being cloudy and chilly, was a great success. (The event was also live tweeted. Check out SWB's Twitter by clicking here.)

Owners Mike and Michelle McLeod were on hand to discuss a very important, yet often overlooked, aspect to landscape design: proper boulder placement. One mistake many of us make is placing landscaping rocks as an afterthought. In reality they should be deliberately placed first so as to create a sort of landscaping skeleton in which to frame the plants and trees. One comment Mike was explicit about was that, "There is one rule for placing boulders... There are no rules. You can do whatever you want."

In case you missed the workshop because you were busy or too far away, Mike will be giving a second talk at the Desert Horticultural Society's 6th Annual Desert Garden Community Day at the Henderson Community Building, 72559 Highway 111 at El Paseo (Entrada del Paseo), Palm Desert. Click here for more information on that event.

Some highlights from the seminar are below:

- Artificial rock can cost 5 times more than natural stone.
- When choosing a boulder look at all sides to see how you want it placed.
- Softer stone can be cut with a diamond drill.
- “All SWB boulders personally guaranteed for 10 million years” – Mike
- Largest stone moved by SWB is 200,020 lbs.
- Cobble accents and softens boulders in landscapes.
- Stone naturally bleeds and leeches. Keep that in mind.
- Three foot boulder weighs about 2000 pounds.
- You need to dig boulders in place. About one third of the size of the boulder.
- Clusters of boulders look better than one boulder in a landscape. Looks more natural.
- Size is important. Remember, they’re heavy. Make sure you have access to where you want it placed.
- There are multiple colors and types of boulder. There is a rock for each color.
- Consider the fact that boulders will not grow, plants will. Use larger boulders in landscaping.
- Boulders have been around since the beginning of civilization. If done well its looks great.

 

Bradley Landscape Development created a wonderful exhibit for the most recent Del Mar Home Show featuring many of Southwest Boulder & Stone’s most unique products.  Among the material used were:

• The exotic Turquoise Green Boulders

• Tumbled Bluestone, one of our more specialty flagstones

• Mexican Beach Pebbles, Black

• Our recycled glass products Blue Ice and the premium Kaleidoscope

• Palm Springs Gold Decomposed Granite, Fines

For more information on our all of our products, click here.  To contact Bradley Landscape Development, click here or call (760) 436-0554.

Check out the pictures below.  Thanks for Bradley Landscape for sending these in!

Blogger Emily Green’s “The Dry Garden” recent entry coincides wonderfully with our two latest workshops.  It discusses the benefits of growing California native plants in pots.  She also remarks that sometimes it is beneficial to not grow them in the ground because, “Many California natives are dormant in summer, so potting allows you to rotate them to recesses of the yard when they’re not at their best. It’s an especially good strategy for the pricey native bulbs and corms.”  To read the rest of the blog click here.

In case you missed it, our  September 18 was about living walls and plant propagation and was hosted by Marilyn Guidroz of Marilyns Garden www.marilynsgarden.com.  (You can read our two blog entries on the workshop by clicking here and here.)

Southwest Boulder & Stone’s next workshop will be help on October 9th at our Fallbrook/Rainbow yard.  Greg Rubin of California’s Own Landscape will be leading a discussion on California Native and drought tolerant plants.  As always, the workshops are free!  Here is the information:

“California Natives vs. Drought Tolerant Landscapes”
with Greg Rubin of California’s Own
Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at 9:00 am
Southwest Boulder & Stone
5002 2nd st.
Fallbrook, CA 92028

Click here for directions.

To RSVP, call (760) 451-3333 ext 709 or click here to sign up at our website.