Goshen Stone for Landscaping

I love Goshen Stone. It is versatile, durable and beautiful too. The first time I saw it, I was amazed at the possibilities for using it in the garden. Back home in NH, all we had for local stone was granite, which is very hard to work with. Goshen Stone is very flat, and available in pieces that are 10' long by 10' wide. Now, moving such a piece is a different story!


Goshen Stone is unique because it is a sedimentary stone that has been metamorphized. The stone was formed when ancient ocean bottom was squeezed between tectonic plates 400 million years ago. What this means is that the stone is very strong and dense in one direction, and yet it can be easily split and worked at the edge. This allows the stones to be made very flat for paving (You can literally plane bumps off with a chisel) and they can be hand trimmed to fit extremely tight together. The stone is also strong enough to pave a driveway with, or to make a bridge across a waterfall.


Goshen Stone is usually a silver color, but there are also many browns, orange and reds found in different veins. At the Goshen Stone Company on Route 9 in Goshen MA, they let me choose which color stones I want. That way, we can pick for colors most suited for each job. The stone blends well with other materials, such as brick, granite or bluestone.


For anyone interested in learning how to work with Goshen Stone, I will be teaching a class at the Goshen Stone Company in July. We will be teaching folks how to build walls, stairs and patios. We will go over different ways to move and work the stones. This will be the 12th year that I have taught the class. For more info, check out this link: HOW TO CLASS

No snow here.

Here is the scene in my yard this afternoon. Some blizzard. All of the weathermen had called for at least 4" - 6" of snow! I'm glad they were wrong, I can't wait for spring to be here. And you never know in New England when that will be. Some years the ground is thaw and dry in mid-March. Unfortunately though, mud season usually extends itself to the end of April.

Until then, the landscape can seem so barren without snow. All the browns and greys are a downer. That combined with the short days can make you want to reach for the prozac. To fight off the S.A.D. winter blues, I like to use a good mix of rocks and evergreens in my landscape designs (as you can see in the shot of my front yard). To me rocks are always interesting. Perhaps it's from growing up in the Granite State (NH). I even have a rock on a spring (Thank you John Sendelbach). That way, the rock is always moving.

The value of community gardening

Lately I have been thinking globally about how I can act locally to help with our slow economy. A basic underlying problem with the modern world's economy is the deficit and growing debt incured by Europe and the United States, and this will not be easily reversed. However, using locally manufactured goods and local products keeps wealth in our community. Our gardens should create wealth for us rather than taking value away.

Quoting from Tom Hartman LINK
"Manufacturing and extraction are the only two ways to “create wealth.”
“Wealth” is different from “income.” Wealth is value, which endures at least for some time. Income is simply compensation for work. If you wash my car for $10 and I mow your lawn for $10, we have a GDP of $20 and it looks like we both have income and economic activity. But no wealth has been created, just income"
On the other hand, if I build your car, I’m creating something of value. And if you turn my lawn into a small farm that produces food we can all eat, you’re creating something of value. Not only do we have an “economy” with a “GDP,” we also have created wealth."


GOSHEN STONE PATIO WITH FRUIT TREES IN AMHERST

With this in mind, I plant to use more local products like Goshen stone, Black Locust lumber, and native plants in my projects. I already do this as much as posible, but now I see it more as a mission of educating folks. I also hope to plant more edible plants.

Increasing energy efficiency through landscaping, as well as reducing maintenance expenses, helps preserve wealth too. Reducing lawn size and using appropriate plants is the way to go.



There are several community gardens around the valley, and I hope to see more. Getting a community farm share, joining a coop, or planting fruit trees are ways we can create symbiotic relationships with our local landscape. Any way that our community can become more self sustaining will help preserve our wealth. I believe that globalization is an issue best addresed by working toward a localpermaculture.