AboutMarc Chapelle, ASLA Expertise As a licensed Landscape Architect, I am available to answer general questions about style and design, ideas and suggestions for site amenities, larger site-planning issues, or recreational and park design. I prefer you ask somebody else why your petunias are not as perky as they should be...I'd LOVE to tell you how can use those petunias to increase your home's value!
Experience Member, American Society of Landscape Architects(ALSA); My clients are mostly contractors, developers and local civil engineering/architecture firms, plus the occasional homeowner. I am currently located in the dry Great Basin area (Reno/Sparks), so use of landscape materials OTHER than plants is emphasized. As a licensed Landscape Architect on the East and West Coasts, I have been in practice over 18 years. My website: DesertLA.com
Question I just have a very basic question which I hope you won't find too boring. I want to build a tree ring using curved 16" stones with the scalloped top. Is there a formula to determine how large it should be, or how many blocks make a circle, etc.?
Answer Your question was posted in the "question pool" and after reading it, I began to notice these pre-cast stones being used everywhere. There is no "fomula" I am aware of, other than basic circular geometry. (http://math2.org/math/geometry/circles.htm)
I usually use poured concrete curbing or pre-cast metal tree rings, installed on a metal/concrete frame. There are formulas for those.
It looks like three of these pre-cast blocks create an approximate 20-inch (inside) diameter circle. It you use four units, it looks strange. For a tree, a minimum opening is probably closer to three feet diameter, as you have to consider the size of the tree & trunk at maturity. These little blocks are not going to stop the tree from growing beyond this nice little border, if it is a larger variety.
I even saw these units the other day, stacked upside down and poured solid with concrete to make a bollard! Not pretty, but functional.
