Each year, I remove all the stones from our garden. Every last one of them, large and small. I put them in a wheelbarrow and give them an express ride to the remains of a nearby stone wall.
When spring comes, again there are stones in our garden. How did they get there? I have some theories.
Theory one: the stones missed their home and migrated back to reoccupy their old neighborhood.
This would be easy to disprove — not the stones’ longing for their homeland, but their ability to return. Dab paint on each stone. Next year, if the stones that appear in our garden are paint-free, they are new move-ins, not returnees.
Theory two: moles. These subterranean gardeners put stones in wheelbarrows and move them to the surface, confident that I will collect and transport the stones out of the area.
To prove this, I would have to dig up our entire garden and see if moles are, indeed, gardening underground. This would require a lot of work on my part and be very annoying to the moles. (It would be interesting, though, to see what a mole’s wheelbarrow looks like.)
Theory three: stones need sunlight and instinctively worm their way upward in search of warmth and vitamin D. This theory has promise, but I have found no scientific studies measuring the nutritional requirements of stones nor confirming their need for ultraviolet light.
Theory four: faeries, trolls, or children are responsible. My granddaughter recently lined our deck with small stones. The edges of each step and the entire perimeter were decorated. If she would so painstakingly do this, then why not the garden?
A frank discussion convinced me of her innocence. Plus, the appearance of stones in the garden was happening before she was born. (Faeries and trolls have been silent on the matter, so are still suspect.)
I am excellent at postulating theories and could go on in this vein for hours. The internet, too, is not short on ideas.
One website suggested that stones are male and female and are breeding.
Another asked this disturbing question: Have you correlated the number of rocks in your garden with the number in your neighbor’s garden? This is suggesting, I think, that our neighbor may be involved in a clandestine redistribution of garden stones.
Someone else said that because the earth’s surface freezes from the top down but thaws from the bottom up, stones are forced slowly upward. Perhaps the appearance of new stones does have something to do with the freeze/thaw cycle. But over time, wouldn’t all the stones in the frost zone be cleared out?
Another site blamed something called granular convection. Put uncooked rice and beans in a jar and gently shake it. The rice will move to the bottom, and the beans to the top. If this were the cause, the earth’s surface would be covered with boulders, which it isn’t.
My money is on moles or trolls.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
