Welcome to the Forum!!!
Try New Egypt Agway, 14 jacobstown Rd, New Egypt NJ, 609-752-0000. They carry agricultural feed and seed supplies including Southern States brands. I'm not sure how close you are to them, but I believe they are in Middlesex Co. That would be your best bet for chicken grit. At least they won't look at you funny when you ask them about it.
There are 3 grits available- starter, grower and turkey, I use grower grit for the most part. Starter grit is too small to be really effective, and turky grit you might as well be using full sized clam shells.
(OK, I know, how do I know about Agway when I live in VA Beach? What can I say, I travel a lot.)
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Have you tried you local landscape supplier and or your local quarry.
The reason jack knows about your area is that he has a girlfreind over there.
Rgds Ian
Hi "Sewinggirl," I'm SRS4501 from Middle Tennessee. I to am planing a garden layout in my back yard with construction to begin in late March. My thinking right now is to use crusher-run for the road bed and #2 chicken grit for the ballast. Crusher-run can be purchased, in bulk, from any quary or cinder block company near you. Chicken grit comes in 50lb bags from you local farmers co-op.
Keep us posted on your progress, as I will do the same, and good luck on your project.
Oh yes, welcome to the forum....................
sewinggirl wrote:I would like to know where to buy the above gravels for ballast in Middlesex County, New Jersey and are they the same; if not which is better? If there is anyone out there who knows, I would appreciate your help. Starting a new garden railroad this spring.
Crusher fines/squeege/rock dust/quarter-minus are similar to chicken/turkey grit, but not the same. Chicken/turkey grit--depending on who makes it and where it is made--may contain varying degrees of uniformly-sized granite, but also oyster shells (especially if it's manufacturered near the water). "Gran-i-grit" mentioned above is usually all granite--at least the stuff we used to get is. Best to check the bag before buying large quantities of it, though. Jack's recommendation of using the "grower" size is spot-on. It's what we used to use before on my dad's line in MD before we found a local source for crusher fines.
The Gran-i-grit we used to get was made from white granite, so it will not look much like the ballast one typically sees. But that's an aesthetic thing, and can be overlooked.
Crusher fines (and other regional names) are essentially the stuff that's left over from when a quarry crushes rock to varying sizes of crushed stone. If there's a quarry in your area, you will be able to get this stuff from them. Otherwise, look for landscaping materials in the yellow pages. I did an on-line search for Middlesex County, and came up with:
Bedrock Stone Company in Lakewood, NJ. http://www.bedrockstone.net.
According to their web site, what you most likely want is called "Fine Screenings." Can't tell from the photo how "fine" the fine screenings are, but most likely it's around 1/4" and smaller.
Personally, I'd go with the crusher fines over the bagged grit, if for no other reason than it's much cheaper. We used to pay somewhere around $3.00 for a 50# bag of grit, where I've bought fines for as little as $6.00/ton. (My local supplier out here charges $15/ton.) You may, however, have to take delivery chages into consideration if you don't have a pick-up, or if the supplier won't load personal vehicles.
Good luck.
Later,
K
You need to go with crusher fines (AKA crush and run, slurry, quarter minus and so on). It's made from different types of rocks depending on the locality of the quarry. I see it used all the time for subroadbed and for bedding for underground pipes and fixtures.
Crusher fines has fine powder that sets the crusher up and helps to bond it together. I don't know if turkey or chicken grit has as much powder as crusher fines; kinda doubt it.
Crusher fines is what is left over when they crush rock it should be the cheapest thing you can buy from a quarry. I did a fair sized courtyard with pavers and used crusher fines as the base and it is terrific. Any reasonable landscape supplier shoyuld have them and be glad to sell them
I tried finding crusher fines when I was laying track, but the only stuff our local stone suppliers had was for gravel walkways and was way too big. And if you want to be "looked at funny", just try explaining to a landscaping supplier what you want it for.
#2 grit (grower) has worked really well. The stuff I get from the feed store is pure granite, no shells, and has lots of great dust for binding.
You will not find this stuff in a shop (store) go to a landscape supplier, they are usually located in a big yard with earth moving equipemnt and stuff like that.
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