Galcho, I'm hard pressed to decide which version of your little pelican pond I like best, the blue tiles or the marbles. These marbles really rival the glass mulch for realism and sparkle and "watery-ness." One thing is for certain, I foresee a similar pond in my future. I just have to figure where to put it and how to make it moveable (so I can mow the grass around it.) I see your marbles have plastic under them. I was thinking of a shallow dish that could be sunk into the ground and removed for cleaning and mowing. Your little pond is really cute. Even fake water adds life to a garden.

I want to do the same thing, only with a hole through the rock so that the water can flow over one side and recirculate. My biggest problem is getting the rock to my back yard because I have to go over my drain field, so I can't use any heavy equipment to move it. I posted a question about this on Dave's Garden and got some really good responses. The type of rock that I can get from a farm field around here is granite. Two people told me that Granite is hard, but would carve well. You need an angle grinder with a diamond blade. You use the grinder to cut grooves in the rock in a cross hatch pattern, like a giant tic-tac-toe board with lots of squares. Use a chisel to knock out the squares between the grooves. then repeat the process in smaller circles so that the birdbath is deeper in the center than at the edges. At this point, the bottom will have to be smoothed out. I was told that there's a very expensive grinder blade designed for this purpose, but that I could probably use the side of the regular blade to do the same thing. The regular blade isn't designed for this, so it will ruin it quickly and may be dangerous, so this is probably a bad idea. Make sure you wear the proper safety equipment. Since I haven't done any of this myself, I'm not sure how good this advice is. Maybe someone with more experience can speak up here.

Mr. Mulch on Dublin-Granville Road (north side),Ohio Mulch on rt. 23 (far north), and Oberfield's on Alum Creek Drive (south side) are three places to buy stone and boulders. I tend to use Ohio Mulch for most of my supplies. If you want smaller pieces such as for building a small wall (like those you see all over Dublin and Upper Arlington), you can sometimes get that free from construction sites -- they have to dispose of the rock they excavated to put in sewers, etc. If you need soil to fill a large area or bed, I would recommend against the "soil plus" sold by a local company that advertises its "slinger" trucks. I unfortunately bought the stuff on their recommendation and received very poor quality: high sand content, lumps of clay, construction detritus, and very little organic content. Welcome to comfortable Columbus! I hope that you will enjoy it here--I have!

Hello all Nice to see everyone like rocks,but if for some reason they won't suit the place l'd like to make a suggestion. I found out that at anyones local concrete manufactor when they do a new batch they never get it right,This being said "rejecks".They say people want perfect or nothing.They usally stack them way way back at the yard. They call them seconds of different grades.Example of the size I picked up 17x7x4 , .50cents each,(or by the half load or better yet full load,same price)but these were perfect(no chiped corners).You can really bartar on price if your not picking on getting a mix instead.They were crayon grey with pink granet swirls through them.I thought they were prefect!Now if you can get a few people together for a full dump truck load,you can get it delivered.Don't forget to tell them that "your"helping them free up valuable yard space!The whole truck load for about 75.00. Also if you tell them that it is just for fill it's even cheaper,Mind you it's mixed and there alot broken.My brother builds the foundation of his farm roads with the stuff.But picture this ,all types all colors,shapes and sizes.You can do mosaic patterns.Thought I'd give ya food for thought so go out there and brush up on you smooshing skills. Now-go get a deal! Purple