Landscaping Boulders

[SwirlingFloater]

I am building a boulder retaining wall in our backyard and am looking for the best place in Des Moines area to buy 2'-3' landscaping boulders.

We live in West Des Moines and the Hallett Materials quarry by Booneville has some for around $100/ton and Lounsbury Landscaping has them for $90/ton, but I didn't know if there are any other companies around Des Moines I should check with?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[CycloneGB]

I am building a boulder retaining wall in our backyard and am looking for the best place in Des Moines area to buy 2'-3' landscaping boulders.

We live in West Des Moines and the Hallett Materials quarry by Booneville has some for around $100/ton and Lounsbury Landscaping has them for $90/ton, but I didn't know if there are any other companies around Des Moines I should check with?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

You can come out to our farm and pick out all the boulders you can handle..

 

[Cymon]

You can come out to our farm and pick out all the boulders you can handle..

This. Contact any farmer. Usually they have a corner on every field full of rocks.

 

[CycloneGB]

This. Contact any farmer. Usually they have a corner on every field full of rocks.

Yup. And usually always willing to let them go for free (or at least much cheaper than $100/ton). Only drawback would be you'd probably need to load and haul them yourself.

 

[agrabes]

He's looking for 2-3' diameter boulders. I doubt that many of those turn up in farmer's rock piles.

 

[CycloneGB]

He's looking for 2-3' diameter boulders. I doubt that many of those turn up in farmer's rock piles.

I don't know about around the Des Moines area but I know we have plenty that size.

 

[FarminCy]

He's looking for 2-3' diameter boulders. I doubt that many of those turn up in farmer's rock piles.

I have some that size but not alot, but i know my inlaws in southern Minnesota have piles of rocks that size in every field.

 

[IowaCYcler]

I don't know about around the Des Moines area but I know we have plenty that size.

More plentiful the further north you go.

 

[FarminCy]

I don't know about around the Des Moines area but I know we have plenty that size.

Not a ton of them but they are there, putting on anhydrous this spring I had one come up that took three people to load it. I'm 6'7" and couldn't get my arms around it let alone pick it up.

 

[CycloneGB]

Not a ton of them but they are there, putting on anhydrous this spring I had one come up that took three people to load it. I'm 6'7" and couldn't get my arms around it let alone pick it up.

Do they pick rock a lot around Des Moines? I know some areas don't have to pick rock and sometimes question if you're sane when you tell them it's a real thing.

If they don't pick rock as much around Des Moines the OP might have a little harder time finding what he's looking for going the farm route.

 

[Acylum]

At 2-3 ft diameters and $100/ton, you're not going to be getting a whole lot of boulders for your money. That's the tightwad in me talking.

 

[CycloneGB]

At 2-3 ft diameters and $100/ton, you're not going to be getting a whole lot of boulders for your money. That's the tightwad in me talking.

That's kind of what I was thinking. Maybe I need to be loading up and making runs to Des Moines to push boulders.

 

[FarminCy]

Do they pick rock a lot around Des Moines? I know some areas don't have to pick rock and sometimes question if you're sane when you tell them it's a real thing.

If they don't pick rock as much around Des Moines the OP might have a little harder time finding what he's looking for going the farm route.

Depends on the area but nowhere near northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

 

[agrabes]

I have some that size but not alot, but i know my inlaws in southern Minnesota have piles of rocks that size in every field.

Interesting. I grew up on a farm in SE Iowa and rocks larger than 6" in diameter were very rare. I could probably count on one hand the number of rocks that were 2-3' that came out of our fields.

 

[FarminCy]

That's kind of what I was thinking. Maybe I need to be loading up and making runs to Des Moines to push boulders.

I am already talking to my father in law about doing that. We have a dump trailer that I could load and stock pile them with here. He is just east of Austin, MN and they have some really unique and interesting rocks as well as just your plain old landscaping ones. But every corner of their fields has a pile the size of a truck in it.

 

[cyadict]

When I worked for Earl May, we would get rocks from farmers and then use them all the time. We still charged a premium for the rocks too.

 

[CycloneGB]

I am already talking to my father in law about doing that. We have a dump trailer that I could load and stock pile them with here. He is just east of Austin, MN and they have some really unique and interesting rocks as well as just your plain old landscaping ones. But every corner of their fields has a pile the size of a truck in it.

Yeah, we had a neighbor a few years ago that brought some of the bigger, more interesting ones back to his yard by the highway and put a For Sale sign on them. Everybody laughed about it but soon enough the rocks were gone.

Crazy that such a nuisance to one person, is valuable to the next.

 

[josh777]

Just curious to the OP, but how are you building this? With help from others? Bobcat?

 

[Walt76]

I am building a boulder retaining wall in our backyard and am looking for the best place in Des Moines area to buy 2'-3' landscaping boulders.

We live in West Des Moines and the Hallett Materials quarry by Booneville has some for around $100/ton and Lounsbury Landscaping has them for $90/ton, but I didn't know if there are any other companies around Des Moines I should check with?

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you!

You might want to check with Mulchmart in Waukee Welcome to Mulchmart

 

[FarminCy]

Yeah, we had a neighbor a few years ago that brought some of the bigger, more interesting ones back to his yard by the highway and put a For Sale sign on them. Everybody laughed about it but soon enough the rocks were gone.

Crazy that such a nuisance to one person, is valuable to the next.

You'd be amazed how much the doctors in Rochester will pay for interesting rock and small square bales for the kids' horses.