I love it!! It is truly beautiful and it sounds like your plans to surround it are going to be fabulous. You'll have to post photos as you work on the plan now that you know how to. :O)

Ahhh, lovely. I want to sit on it and chat with a nice cold glass of wine....

How much you want to bet that you follow through on the enhancing part but don't shrinken the actual size of the bed? WSers rarely SHRINK beds!!! All real estate must be used!!!! (smile)

Beautiful bench. How much did you pay for the stones?

Nice. I'll have to show it to the DH. We have some quarries near here. :)

Caryl

v1rtu0s1ty - Skyline Quarry is about 8 miles east of where I live. They sell the stone by weight--I think they said in the range of $400+ per ton. The bench + two upright plinths (is that what they're called?) came to $148.40 with state sales tax. I must have the price wrong, however because my son brought me 2,000 lbs of stones for my front walkway and that only came to $156 with tax. Either way, much less costly than buying from a retail operation where they've set up displays etc.

I just drove up to the quarry in my little pick-up, the guy asked what I wanted and I told him a bench like the one at the office down below. He showed me one, I didn't like the rusty color so he flipped it over to show the gray stone on the other side. It's quarried stone, not cut. I took that one and he showed me the upright plinths that were 4 inches thick but only about 12 inches square. I told him I wanted it higher not only so I could get up off it easier as the years go by but also to make it visible from other places in the garden. He showed me two that were about 28 inches tall. My son & my neighbor set those down into the soil and pounded smaller rocks down in on either side of them so that the bench stone sits 17 inches above ground. The bench itself is 47 inches long by 16 inches wide. I think the price was reasonable considering the size of the bench and quality of the granite. I also like the fact the stone came out of the earth just a few miles from where the bench sits in my garden.

I welcome folks' ideas for the garden bed in which it sits. There are a lot of established perennials to work with in addition to all the WS plants I've got that need permanent homes before winter. The exposure is full sun--morning shade until 11-11:30, then sun until evening. The bed sits squarely E/W/N/S. Like I said, my folks were all about linear gardening--plant a row, turn left, plant a row. The 80 ft. row of established blueberries is planted in a straight north-south line. I'm on a mission to make things curvy and rounded and relaxed rather than regimented like a row of soldiers. I'll post more photos now that I can.

Thanks everybody!!

Wow...beautiful bench. I love the idea of natural stone used to make outdoor "furniture"!