Last year’s pile is a map, not a memory
We still see new boulder beds in Breckenridge dropped on the exact corner where last winter’s snow sat until May. The rock looks finished in August. By March the pile is a dirty berg against the same stones. Melt sits in the joints. Alpine plants that were billed as tough drown, then freeze, then heave.
Snow removal on a Summit County lot is not an afterthought to construction. The loader needs a place to put a wet March storm. If that place is your new bed, we will tell you before we set the first rock. A photo from last April, even a phone shot from the deck, is more useful than a pretty site plan.
Blue River and Boreas Pass lots often have one legal stack zone. Lose it to a decorative boulder cluster and the next storm goes on the drive or on the neighbor’s easement. Neither is a plan.
Wet snow and a boulder field do not share a pad
Summit County snow is heavy. It is not powder from a brochure. A pile against granite cooks in the sun, then refreezes around the stones. We have pulled heaved boulders that looked locked in August. The plants in the pockets never had a chance.
We mark the garage turn, the walk to the ski closet, and the corner that always takes the stack. New boulders, a seat wall, and drip lines stay off that corner. If the only aesthetic you want is that corner, we need a different stack zone first. Design and winter service have to use one drawing.
Tell us how you open the house after a storm. A full-time Silverthorne house and a Breckenridge weekend house do not get the same pile. One needs the walk at 7 a.m. The other can wait for a scheduled visit. The bed still should not live under either pile.
Irrigation and plant health fail when the pile owns the soil
Drip under a boulder bed that becomes a snow dump is a spring leak hunt. Heads at the drive edge get clipped. We flag hardware before the first storm and we do not hide valve boxes in the stack zone. Pair this with irrigation so the winter file and the plant file match.
Plant health care on alpine perennials assumes soil that freezes and thaws in place, not soil that is a melt pond for six weeks. If you already ordered plants from the garden nursery, say so. We can hold the install or move the bed. We will not install into a known dump.
Lawn care on the remaining turf strip still needs a mower path that does not climb the new rock. A pretty summer layout that forces the mower onto the boulder edge will scar both.
Move the bed or move the pile. Do not do neither.
Resetting a finished boulder bed in October is more expensive than siting it in August. Relocating the pile onto a patio you care about is also expensive. The cheap version is a stake in the ground this month that says “snow lives here.”
Before we set rock, we want last year’s pile location, the plow path, and the plant list. If a separate drainage issue shows up at that corner, it gets its own line. Call 970-468-0340 or contact us with town and a winter photo if you have one. Related notes live on the blog.
Questions about your landscape? Contact Neils Lunceford