I live in a hilly area of Southern California. Lots of rocks roll off the sides of cliffs or hills. Sometimes construction work results in lots of stone being dug up.

Does anyone have experience in this area? Is it a bad idea to take without asking? Are there any places where it's clearly allowable to remove rocks?

Back then Mt. Baldy was having a growth spirt so we'd drive the just past the base, see a new home going up and right next to it a huge pile of rocks.

The skip loaders were removing the rocks where the home would be built and the pile would get bigger.

We asked the company on-site what they were going to do with the rock and the GC replied "Why? Want em? Take all you can. Saves us the expense and time of removing them from the site."

We felt like we had hit a gold mine!

From that time on when we'd see new construction we'd ask about the rock pile.

I created raised gardens over the years with all the stone (like dry stacked stone), no mortar, but last year I decided to make the raised rock gardens permanent.

Mortar and a little lifting and configuring day by day and by the end of the summer I had created 4 raised, mortared rock gardens.

Every rock, every stone collected by me and my family through the years---lots and lots of wonderful memories within my raised rock gardens.

I'd love to see photos of everyone's rock/stone/cement creations in and around their homes because I still have lots of rocks left and I'd love some more inspiration!

On the other hand, I have asked farmers if I could take some stone from their property edges, and they have always said "help yourself". But I asked first.