Where do you go if you need lots of rocks for a landscaping project? Well, you could go to Home…read moreDepot, a nursery, or a landscape materials business, and pay full retail price.
Or, you could gradually collect them from the woods, the side of the road, or wherever, for free, but accumulating rocks this way takes a long time.
Or, you could just come here.
After I decided I wanted to use rocks as borders for my flower beds and shrubs, I tried gathering rocks on my own, but got tired of looking at unfinished projects, due to lack of rocks. I actually found this place through a Google search, not Yelp. I called first, and the owner, Tim, was very helpful and informative. Although he sells mainly to landscape construction companies, stone masons and other professionals, he welcomes homeowners and do-it-yourselfers as well.
The business is located on Dry Bridge Road, which is off Route 2, near Schartner Farms. It's not far from the highway (Route 4).
Since I work during the week, I had to wait until a Saturday to come here (they're open until 2 p.m. Saturdays) with my trusty Chevy pickup with 1-ton payload capacity. I parked outside the office, and met Tim, the owner, who drove me on a tour of the yard. It turns out that the piles of rocks along the front entry road are only the beginning of the types of rocks they sell. With every bend in the dirt road, he'd show me another huge pile of rocks, and just when I thought he'd shown me all of his inventory, there was more: large rocks, small rocks, rounded rocks, flat rocks, angular rocks and more materials, including sand, gravel, loam, mulch and recycled asphalt product. They even sell some large, specially-shaped rocks - such as ones that would be used to build a yard waterfall - by the piece. Among his customers are stone wall builders.
I chose the pile of rocks that I wanted to pick from (rounded fieldstone, about bowling ball sized, or slightly smaller). Tim had his yardman use a heavy front loader to clear a path to the pile, and bring a 1 cubic yard bucket over to the pile. They let me hand-select the rocks, although if you're not as particular as I am, they can just scoop 'em up and load them in your truck. After I had hand-loaded the bucket, the loader gently placed them in the bed of my truck, which handled the load like a champ.
Price for one cubic yard of the stone I bought (which covered the 8-foot bed of my truck a bit more than one layer deep) was $75; to give you some perspective on how good of a value that price is, earlier that day, I stopped at a nursery near my house and saw a pallet of stone, which was probably less than I bought, and the nursery wanted around $225.
With a truck full of rocks, I was able to complete borders on two beds I had already started, and finish four additional beds, with plenty left over! In a couple of hours, I was able to accomplish what would have taken me months by trying to gather free rocks. Plus, the rocks have a nice variety of textures, colors and shapes. As I was placing the rocks around my landscape beds, several people walking or driving by my house complemented me on how nice it looked.
Although I was exhausted at the end of the day, I enjoyed my first trip to Diversified Services. The owner and I had a good conversation, as we both have a background in construction; he told me he used to run an excavation business, digging foundations for many new houses, but gave that up as running his rock and gravel supply yard became more enjoyable and profitable. I found him to be very down-to-earth and helpful. The yardman was cool, too.
Besides the landscape beds, I have other projects in the future that will need rocks, including a wishing well and a small waterfall, and look forward to being a repeat customer!
