Dan Espen wrote:
t writes:

(...)

Perhaps he was as mystified as I am about why you wanted
cracked adobe instead of soil.

I'm remediating the adobe. I notice that my shovel is
more effective in scooping it up for disposal and remediation
if there is no gravel on top of it. If I expose the adobe,
it tends to dry, which really lowers the humidity in the house, too.

Is the gravel in your area particularly soft?

But if you didn't want the
soil you should not have let them put it down.

What was I supposed to do, show up with a gun?

I did what I could. I told them what I wanted in printed
and spoken instructions.

I kept shoveling the overburden out and when the contractor
had the temerity to ask for a recommendation, I was very silent
on the subject. I'm a very enthusiastic supporter
of those few businesspeople that just 'do their jobs' and
often offer recommendations.

Not this time.

(...)

I find it interesting that these donations coincide with
landscaper visits (to neighboring properties) to a high degree.

A half inch of gravel got over your fence?
Did it rain? Are you down hill?
If so, put in a barrier (a low wall).

A low wall is unlikely to provide much of a barrier when
a 6' fence proved ineffective.

Still have no idea what you are trying to do.

I'm trying to 'garden'. My first step is to improve the soil
from it's current deplorable state. I have begun removing
and disposing of the extra clay that was added by my contractor
and I'm slowly digging past the original clay and adding
mulch. After I have soil, I hope to learn more here about
the kinds of solutions you all have developed to problems I'm
likely to encounter.

My local landfill values the overburden so highly that they
will accept nothing less than $200 a yard to allow me to
dump it on their lot. (It is not exactly gold, Dan.)

(...)

I continue to hope that one of my new friends on rec.gardens
will be willing to talk about how they:

* Converted dusty gravel into a nutritious mulch

Mulch is not nutritious. It's not meant to be.

My smiley indicates that I was joshing about the possibility
of changing rock into a material likely to provide fertilizer,
temperature moderation and soil enrichment.

(I was kidding.)

* Traded dusty gravel to a pal that needed road base for a paver
project
* Found that the county would visit and pull up clean fill dirt as a
donation on a monthly basis
* Or anything that would allow me to actually work on my garden
without having all my time wasted cleaning up someone else's mess

Still can't figure out how this stuff is getting in your yard from your
description.

I don't know either. I suspect the use of shovels, however.

--Winston