Four years ago I created two new gardens. One was a "formal" (I say formal in quotes because it is small-only six roses and six boxwoods) and the other was a rock garden. I bought a book on rock gardening and it did help, however like I typically do I through myself into it. I purchased bags of topsoil and bags of compost and made my own mixed soil. I created contours. And this is going to sound crazy, but I let the area "tell" me what it wants to be. So the contours and small valleys were those areas left after the final rototilling and I just fine graded them. I installed the rocks-none of them very large. Then I purchased my rock garden plants. I usually purchase my rock garden plants in one (or both) places-LaPorte Avenue Nursery in Fort Collins, Colorado or at the Denver Botanic Gardens spring plant sale. This summer was a very hot summer for Colorado, so due to the late start on the garden it was very hot when I planted and majority of my plants did not survive. I replanted in the fall. There was some settling that occurred, something I did not take into account when I created the garden. I should have waited a bit before planting. I learned my lesson. However, I was very happy with the garden. It is a scree bed. The area where my bucket sits is and area that I had to think about a bit more and my thoughts about the area changed over time. I decided on doing another rock garden with a dry river bed that led down into a small curved basin on the far side where I would put a copper basin for a bird bath. As I moved closer to installing I decided I wanted a real water feature. So began the research of a waterfall/pond feature. It took me all summer last year to build the addition. And there are three years between the two gardens. But the rock gardens have become my pride and joy. In my next post I will share a photo of the rock garden from just last week and some of the plants I have in the garden.
