Hello r/landscaping! I'm curious as to what everyone thinks of washing off boulders!?
I have a bunch of limestone boulders and rocks that have grown a ton of stuff on them.
On one hand, I know that some of the growth can help support things like resurrection ferns and it also takes time for this growth to build up. On the other hand though, it covers up a lot of the natural colors on the stone itself.
In the following photos I included a dry picture of some rocks, the same rocks but wet, and then one with one of the rocks rinsed off with the jet setting of my hose.
I've already rinsed off a few other rocks that happen to be more specimen pieces and the resurrection friend seems to stay on, but again I do understand that there is beauty in these rocks the way they are as well. I'm curious as to how everybody else feels? Thank you!
by SexySlowpoke
1 Comment
In the trade, we call that accrued growth “patina”, and it is the only thing that money literally cannot buy at the nursery. When you blast limestone back to that quarry-white state, you are resetting the clock to zero. It ends up looking like “construction debris” that just fell off a truck rather than a geologic feature that has existed there for decades. In a shade garden like yours, that bright white rock creates a high-contrast distraction that pulls the eye away from the foliage and makes the planting look younger than it is.
If you want to tidy it up, I recommend a “soft wash” approach. Use a garden hose with a standard nozzle (not the jet setting) just to rinse off the loose mud, dead leaves, and bird droppings. This reveals the texture of the moss and the resurrection ferns without stripping the biological skin off the stone. The goal is to make the rocks look “maintained,” not “sterilized.” Let the moss act as a natural velvet that ties the hard stone into the soft earth.