Bricks and Stones make me moan

[Tone70]

I'm in the midst of totally overhauling my garden and whilst digging up the top end of the garden I'm constantly coming across bricks/rocks/stones/broken paving slabs of all shapes and sizes buried deep in the ground which were put there by the previous tenant.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to the world of the green finger but am improving and learning all the time. What I need to know is what is the reason and fascination for having these pain in the arse objects buried underground in the first place? Is there a mystical garden enhancing reason why they're there? Also I keep coming across a sort of (I can only describe as) green netting buried underground which comes apart easily when I try to pull it up. Is this connected to turf or something? Am I undoing the work of a gardening genius or a lazy arsed individual who couldn't be bothered to throw the rocks etc away?

[songbird]

if you don't till deeply you can use them as fill. many garden veggies don't go that deep and even if they do a rock or a brick isn't going to hurt their growth.

often when building a house or excavating there will be rocks, bricks or chunks of cement buried about.

probably didn't want to do anything else with them.

netting is sometimes used to hold down straw used to mulch an area after seeding in the grass or other ground cover plants. if it falls apart then leave it alone and it will be gone eventually.

enough rocks or bricks can always be useful, we never get rid of those, a small retaining wall or edge someplace. the snakes always like having a nice pile of rocks warmed by the sun to bask upon.

songbird

[Jeff Layman]

"Out of sight, out of mind". Quite often they are just thrown on the surface, and over time become buried as dead plant material collects on top of them and creates new soil as it rots down.

Is there a mystical garden

Probably put down to keep birds from eating grass seed. Once the seed was up it should have been removed, but obviously wasn't. But you are not alone - I've just had some turf removed as a preliminary to creating some new borders. Quite a few pieces of the removed turf had fruit-cage netting embedded in it.

Am I undoing the work of a gardening genius or a lazy arsed

I think the latter, although lazy is probably the wrong word - it should be "stupid". A few months ago I dug out a kerbstone half a metre down in a raised patio whilst digging a hole for a small tree. Someone had to lift this 35kg+ piece of stone up on top of the patio, then dig a large hole to put it in (along with several bricks, etc). Why? It would have been easier and less trouble to dump it in the hardcore skip at the local amenity tip. unless, of course, they had a JCB to help them do it...

[David Hare-Scott]

It is pure laziness. Usually rubble comes from the builder who calls papering over the mess that he doesn't want to take to the tip as landscaping. It is common to bring in topsoil and/or turf and just lay them over any building rubbish.

What is the netting made of and how big is the mesh?

David

[David E. Ross]

Yes, the rubble is there only because either the builder or a prior resident did not want to pay to have it hauled away and properly disposed. If there is a large amount, I would indeed remove it since it will interfere with roots of trees and shrubs. If there is only a moderate amount, leave it; the roots will grow around it.

The netting is probably the result of a grass lawn installed as sod rather than seed. Sod is farmed on shallow soil about 2-3 inches --

5-7.5 cm -- deep in which plastic netting is laid at half that depth. When the grass roots penetrate through the netting to the hardpan below the soil, the sod is cut in long strips. It is then rolled up with the grass inside and the roots outside for transportation and installation. Installation requires preparing the existing soil and then unrolling the sod. Poorly installed or poorly maintained sod lawns often show bare patches with the netting quite visible.