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[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

Your soil sounds like mine.  :-)  I don't think there's a hard and fast rule as to which rocks to remove, and which to toss back in the hole.  If it's big enough that I have to pry it separately, I generally put it the the side.  Otherwise I generally don't bother.  So the same rock may stay in the hole or be removed, depending on where it happens to be with respect to my shovel.  The fewer rocks you remove the larger a hole you should probably dig for the same size plant, so as to have about the same volume of loose soil without much competition for it to get started in.

Ginda

On May 7, 2009, at 3:13 PM, Melissa Kacalanos wrote:

So, I'm planting my trees and bushes, and I'm wondering about rocks. To dig these holes, we had to pry out lots of huge rocks, over a foot across, and moderately large rocks, and medium rocks, and small rocks... When I'm filling the holes back in, I'm not putting back the huge rocks, since I figure they'll wall the roots in, but what size of rock or pebble is too small to bother with?

Or I could just stay inside and enjoy my passionflowers, which are blooming in the next room, but I can smell from here.

Melissa