Rocks/Paving Slabs/Bricks etc underground

A bit of a conundrum,
I'm in the midst of totally overhauling my garden and whilst digging up the top end of the garden I'm constantly coming across bricks/rocks/stones/broken paving slabs of all shapes and sizes buried deep in the ground which were put there by the previous tenant.
I'm a complete novice when it comes to the world of the green finger but am improving and learning all the time. What I need to know is what is the reason and fascination for having these pain in the arse objects buried underground in the first place? Is there a mystical garden enhancing reason why they're there? Also I keep coming across a sort of (I can only describe as) green netting buried underground which comes apart easily when I try to pull it up. Is this connected to turf or something? Am I undoing the work of a gardening genius or a lazy arsed individual who couldn't be bothered to throw the rocks etc away?

 

It's the rocks /paving slabs/bricks fairy. They live at the bottom of the garden.

 

Damn those sprites! If I catch one I'll use one of the buggers to break those bloody rocks I keep unearthing!

 

Aha! There's a swear filter here! I shall watch my French!

 

Yup, sounds like they had a phobia of going to the tip.

 

Absoulement

Welcome to Gardeners Corner by the way

 

Ahh...as I thought. I wondered whether there was some special gardeners reason why they did it. Also this annoying netting, is it turf related?

 

Not seen netting on any turf I've bought, so probably not.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner LA. As Zigs says, some lazy person couldn't be bothered to visit the tip so buried it instead. Parts of my garden were like that, I even found half a dinner service buried. It looks like you've got some digging and lugging to do.

I don't know why the netting is there and I don't suppose it has anything to do with turf, perhaps it has just been dumped along with the rest of the stuff.

 

The netting may well be weed control fabric. Can't think of anything else that could possibly be described as netting that should be buried.

Here's my guess. At some point in the distant past, someone decided a garden is too much work, so put down weed fabric then busted up paving slabs to make a sort of very bad patio. Because it wasn't done properly, over several years of weeds still getting through then living out their lifecycle, dying, rotting, making compost, burying slabs. All the while, weather is doing its stuff and allowing the foundation-less 'patio' to sink a tiny bit every time it rains.

My guess is based on two things.

1. There is such a bad patio still in part of my back garden (its not the patio I made, its a different one, already there when I moved in, and not yet touched by me except for having lifted some of the stones).

2. I have a separate piece of land which used to have a caravan on it before vandals trashed it. Outside the caravan there was another example of such a bad patio which I know for fact is still there, but if you stand on that exact spot now you are standing on several inches of soil and weeds.

In addition to that, there are several kinds of sprites and low ranking deities that occupy gardens. You need to be aware of:

* The hardcore fairy. Already been introduce, this one makes sure that no matter how many times you dig the same piece of ground, you will still always find that at least 1 in 10 times, your spade wont go in because its found a rock/broken brick.
* The tool gnomes. These little fellows are proper so and so's. They nick your tools. Some are fussy about what they'll take, others less so. The one in my garden likes secateurs. The one on my land likes saws. My dad has one on his allotment that takes spades. They usually bring them back after a while. Usually they wait til you've given up hope of finding the stolen item and replaced it, then they'll put the one they nicked right in the middle of the lawn or they'll hang it on the fence or somewhere else obvious, then nick your new one instead.
* The muse of indecision. This deity waits for you to come out full of enthusiasm ready to focus on one particular job, then draws your attention to lots of other things that you could do instead, so that you end up just pottering about flipping from one job to another as you can't decide what to do, so you end up not actually finishing any.
* The mud pixies. These little fellows ensure that no matter what you do to prevent it, mud will end up in your house, usually just after the floors have been cleaned. Doesn't matter if you take your boots off at the door. You might not have even been doing a muddy job. You might be spotlessly clean, but within 10 minutes of sitting down with your cuppa, the missus will suddenly roar at you and point, not at tiny specs of mud, but great massive unmissable lumps.

There are many, many more. Oh, and don't trust garden gnomes. They're the worst of all.

 

Ah yes there's certainly been plenty of lugging! Luckily I can discreetly slip the rubble bags in the non-recycle bin. Regarding the netting it definitely seems to have been laid out methodically. When I can wrench a large bit of it up it takes up a lot of the earth with it. As it happens that bit of the garden used to be covered with grass which used to go the length of the garden until things when a bit...wrong.. up there. I've managed to preserve half of the grass I once had and turned it into a nice tidy lawn. That's why I wondered whether it was turf related as there was once grass in that spot. Although I'm now drawn towards some kind of pest prevention thing....hmmm..

 

Yep, I'm definitely familiar with the muse of indecision, the hardcore fairy and those accursed mud pixies! Make you right about the abandoned patio theory, I'm guessing once upon time there was a slapdash rockery/patio up there which was lazily replaced by throwing some turf on top. I've never trusted garden gnomes, selfish sods keep all the fish to themselves!

 

When I had grass laid years ago it had green plastic netting backing it. I still come across it when I am enlarging a bed and take up some grass so obviously not biodegradable. I reckon your debris has been deliberately buried. Councils charge to uplift such stuff and in the days of black bags rather than wheely bins there was no way to hide heavy stuff and no way to get it to the tip without a car, which would surely have been a lot less hassle than digging a pit to put it in!

 

Yep, 100% certain it's been deliberately buried now! In fact I think I've nailed just where it comes from. Back in the late 80's (before my time) there was an extension put on the back of the house which reduced the width of the garden so all the concrete from the patio (which was replaced by the extension) is now helpfully buried in my garden. Also I spent 3 and half hours out the back today trying unsuccessfully to remove a rock the size of Gibraltar! Once it's out I might carve one of those Olmec heads, something nice and decorative....

 

When you finally dig it out LA offer it to the Spanish, they might accept that instead of Gibraltar!

Keep up the good work, you'll have a very satisfied feeling when you've finished and cleared it.