Of course I thought it was some landscaping decoration choice.
In a land where nobody has the time to bother with frills that few would see anyway.
Attractive fire shield in the form of a wide skirt of the native red shale.
But it's wearing thin now (mostly getting shoveled away with snow, etc).
Weed fabric lining is showing and one wheelbarrow showed it could use at least an inch or two more throughout.
A good time to start on the reality of the estimated 478 wheelbarrow-fulls (not my half-ones) needed to do the job right.