any idea where to find white "grit" for rock and sand garden?

Discussion in 'Japanese Gardens' started by hereweare, May 29, 2008.

  1. hereweare

    hereweare Member

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    Location:
    Vancouver, Canada
    I'm looking for a Vancouver area landscape supply store that might carry this. Northwest Landscape supply in Burnaby doesn't. I'd really like to avoid using sand since it won't hold the rake marks for very long.

    Any help in my search would be very much appreciated!!
     
  2. silver_creek

    silver_creek Active Member

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    Bellingham, WA, usa
    Not necessarily white, but you can find grit (decomposed granite) at feed stores. It is used for feeding to caged poultry to provide grit for their digestion. Comes in different sizes, as well, and in convenient (heavy) bags.
     
  3. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Location:
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    If you go the chicken grit route, you can whitewash it easily in a solution of white latex paint and water; fill the bucket half with the paint and half with the grit, and then give it a good shaking. Dry on concrete. Voila, white grit.

    You can also look at white quartz grit that is sometimes available in large bags at aquarium supply houses.
     
  4. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    Wow, I finally got an answer to the grit for chickens question I've had for a long time on another website. I would get the oyster shell grit they have had D&B stores for the rancher, etc.

    I didn't know the stores carried the granite stone gravel. Although that was what I was going to suggest as I've been told where to go get it at certain places along our highways in Idaho where granite stone is all over. It was a suggestion for pathways in a Japanese garden.

    Also, I know stone places around here will offer stone or gravel to fill 5 gallon buckets if you bring them. I did that with red and black volcanic rock.
     
  5. cocobolo

    cocobolo Active Member

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    Location:
    Ruxton Island, B.C., Canada
    I have been using what passes for white crushed clam and oyster shells from a beach at the head of our bay. It is somewhat coarse, nothing like sand, which is much finer. It appears closer to the sort of thing they use in Japan.
     

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  6. Karalyn

    Karalyn Active Member

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    Cocobolo,
    You are so lucky! Is the bridge and dry creek your finished garden?
     
  7. cocobolo

    cocobolo Active Member

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    Well, not exactly. It is just a part of the garden at the south end. As of a week ago it was completely invisible. Covered with some of the 41" of snow we got in December, unprecedented I might add. It has been raining for the last couple of days, today very heavily. Generally we are down to the last 4" on the ground. I hope that's it.
    Currently, the first two sections of the garden are more or less done, and this is where I have used the crushed shells. I can only imagine the mess that is going to be there when the snow clears. Those two sections are beneath cedar trees, which have a habit of shedding when we get snowfalls. Our local forecast is for considerably more rain over the next week, so it will be awhile before the cleanup will start.
     

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