Thread: Hard ground = no tombstones!

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Hey guys,

I have a dilemma. My yard's dirt is hard, like rock hard, and I can't seem to sink those plastic tombstone sticks that come with the styrofoam tombstones. I have tried metal, but that doesn't work, because I can get it into the ground, but it rips through the styrofoam and isn't sturdy enough.

I have also tried gluing stuff to the back, but the ground is still too hard to hammer something in while it is glued to the tombstone.

Also, I live in California and Oct. is the rainy/windy month.

Any suggestions on how I can keep my graveyard afloat would be much appreciated.

-Jose
StrictlySplatter.com

Hi Jose.
If your ground is soft enough, you can hammer a couple lengths of rebar in, Glue a couple lengths of pvc pipe to the back of your tombstone and slip these over the rebar.
for extra security, drill corresponding holes in the rebar and pvc sleeves and secure with locking wire.

I have the same problem - I have a typical postage-stamp size front yard that isn't visible from the front of the house. I do have a large two-car+ driveway, where I set up the graveyard. I attach 12X12 boards to the base of the 'stones and wooden markers using a 3" metal right-angle mount. The boards are painted black and covered with leaves. I use a lot of leaves, but it gives the illusion of a dry Autumn field. The boards are detachable for easy storage. Here's a pic from last year. There are some other views of the graveyard in my Halloween 2008 album.

Excellent ideas, thanks. It looks like I will have to get right on that to have it ready.

Otaku, I'm new here, how do I find your Halloween 2008 album?

Originally Posted by JosePrendes

Excellent ideas, thanks. It looks like I will have to get right on that to have it ready.

Otaku, I'm new here, how do I find your Halloween 2008 album?

Here's a link -

Halloween Forum - Otaku's Album: Halloween 2008

Welcome to the forum, good to see another haunter here!

Great, thanks! Are those crosses purchased or made? The set up is very nice.

Thanks, Jose. The crosses are handmade from some old redwood fence boards that had been weathering for about 30 years.

One year I had a similar super-hard-ground issue. It was so hard that I couldn't even pound in the rebar that hold up my stones (as Baron Samedi suggested above, a lot of us use pvc pipe glued to the back of the stones, or have drilled holes in the bottom of the stones to accept the rebar). A trip to my local home center provided me with a "planting auger". Basically a heavy duty drill bit designed for planting bulbs. You may have seen the gigantic one that Billy Mays pitches on TV called "the ground aug". The one from my home center was only about 2" across. It went through that dry hard ground like nothing, leaving the soil soft enough to get the rebar in.

Alternatively, have you considered watering your lawn every day for a few hours starting the week before you need to install your stones?

Craig

You could avoid the hard ground. Attach the tombstones to a base, such as plywood, and hide the base by covering it with dirt you buy at home depot. Just make sure the base is big enough, and you use enough dirt, to avoid the wind from blowing them over.

You could rent a jack hammer that would do it.