Rock gardens?

[janedoe]

My neighbor had a big overgrown area that he said used to be a rock garden. I excavated it, dug out fifteen sapling stumps and took out all of the weeds, etc. This is the before pic and there is very little left now. Basically, just the pink flowers which make for a nice hummingbird/bee garden. There are quite a few rocks in there but they are mostly flat but I don't see any kind of pattern in terms of pathways or anything. Some were buried completely so it's been a long time since it was an actual rock garden. The rocks are really dirty as well and there's nothing to distinguish them really from the dirt - they're just getting lost. So I pretty much have a blank slate but I'm at a loss for ideas. It's flat. Fairly sunny. I've looked at about a hundred photos online and can't find anything like the area. What would you do? Just some pathways with flowers in between? I have a limited amount of time left before the end of the season. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[POPTOP]

How deep can you dig in the area?

If you can get down 6-8 inches, even in limited areas, a grouping of bulbs, daffodils/tulips, for the spring. Perfect time to plant now.

Iris and day lilies are also a good choice since they are basically shallow root plants. Same with peonies.

If there are a few flat areas, they could be used to pots in the spring though those would take more attention.

How about hens and chicks; they love growing in that type of situation. You could also tuck in some low growing ground cover type plants; thinking of the "step ons" that root in one spot and kinda cascade. Also, if you can find a more sun loving moss to tuck in cracks, even under other plants to shade them.

[Blackboy98]

I would dig out the center to about 9-10" to try to find hidden rocks and excavate them, then add back the soil as a base and add good topsoil to form a raised mound, maybe 10-12" tall. Use any rock you found to make a garden with a theme.

I did this in the early-mid summer to an island I have in front of my house. I removed ALL the rock, rototilled to bring up new soil, added top and potting soil, re-rototilled to scrupture the ground to the contours I wanted.

I picked an "astronomical theme" with many individual gardens lined in different style and type of rocks-anything from crystals gardens to rocks edges with plain limestone. I picked large rocks to represent celestrial features of the universe. I know a little weird, but I love celestrial features about outer space, i.e. Orions belt and nebule, Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebule, Sirius-the brightest star in our galaxy and also called "The Dog Star". That one is of course special to me and is the centerpiece of the garden. I tried to place various rocks in prospective of Sirius and studied "Space.com" to get ideas and the numbers I needed to make accurate placements. Then planted different types of plants in each garden.

I know, way to much work for a sane person, but then again it was me. I like unique projects like that where the end is completely different than the start.

I agree with Fran as her idea sounds much easier.

[Maxx&Emma]

I would dug out the center to about 9-10" to try to find hidden rocks and excavate them, then add back the soil as a base and add good topsoil to form a raised mound, maybe 10-12" tall. Use any rock you found to make a garden with a theme.

I did this in the early-mid summer to an island I have in front of my house. I removed ALL the rock, rototilled to bring up new soil, added top and potting soil, re-rototilled to scrupture the ground to the contours I wanted.

I picked an "astronomical theme" with many individual gardens lined in different style and type of rocks-anything from crystals gardens to rocks edges with plain limestone. I picked large rocks to represent celestrial features of the universe. I know a little weird, but I love celestrial features about outer space, i.e. Orions belt and nebule, Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebule, Sirius-the brightest star in our galaxy and also called "The Dog Star". That one is of course special to me and is the centerpiece of the garden. I tried to place various rocks in prospective of Sirius and studied "Space.com" to get ideas and the numbers I needed to make accurate placements. Then planted different types of plants in each garden.

I know, way to much work for a sane person, but then again it was me. I like unique projects like that where the end is completely differnet than the start.

I agree with Fran as her idea sounds much easier.

This sounds amazing! I would love to see a picture!

I really like Fran's suggestion as well, maybe you could combine these 2 ideas in some sort of way.

[POPTOP]

I would dig out the center to about 9-10" to try to find hidden rocks and excavate them, then add back the soil as a base and add good topsoil to form a raised mound, maybe 10-12" tall. Use any rock you found to make a garden with a theme.

I did this in the early-mid summer to an island I have in front of my house. I removed ALL the rock, rototilled to bring up new soil, added top and potting soil, re-rototilled to scrupture the ground to the contours I wanted.

I picked an "astronomical theme" with many individual gardens lined in different style and type of rocks-anything from crystals gardens to rocks edges with plain limestone. I picked large rocks to represent celestrial features of the universe. I know a little weird, but I love celestrial features about outer space, i.e. Orions belt and nebule, Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebule, Sirius-the brightest star in our galaxy and also called "The Dog Star". That one is of course special to me and is the centerpiece of the garden. I tried to place various rocks in prospective of Sirius and studied "Space.com" to get ideas and the numbers I needed to make accurate placements. Then planted different types of plants in each garden.

I know, way to much work for a sane person, but then again it was me. I like unique projects like that where the end is completely different than the start.

I agree with Fran as her idea sounds much easier.

That sounds awesome. Not weird at all. One year I hung an old wooden screen door from a low branch of the maple tree out front. DH build pseudo-steps up to the door, 2 steps, to hold it in place. Put puts of flowers on the steps and called it my door to the garden.

[janedoe]

Thank you, thank you! I was a little bit overwhelmed initially but the suggestions really helped.

First I went to the Lowe's 75% off rack. It was a jackpot. Then I picked up a bunch of bulbs from Walmart - daffodils, tulips, crocuses and alium - basically what they had. Here are the Lowe's plants. Sedum, balloon flowers, Montauk daisies, Mexican heather, emerald green bushes, begonias, lobelia, garden mums and a couple more turtleheads.

[janedoe]

Then I went back to the garden and just attacked it as suggested. Dug out almost all of the rocks, dug up the the soil which was great because there were a lot of roots from the weeds, vines and stumps then I took out the stuff on the edges back to the property line and that opened it up even more. In digging out the rocks, I realized that there was an actual pattern from the original garden. Since the garden is so old, I decided to reset the rocks in essentially the same position. Then it became apparent that there were about five distinct areas as a result so I'm going to plant five gardens - one a hummingbird garden, one a bulb garden, one an herb garden, one a shade garden and one a true rock garden. Here's where I am so far. The rocks for the rock garden were dumped on the other side of the wall. At least that's what I think. At first I thought that the wall behind the garden had partially collapsed but there are way too many rocks for that to be the case so I'm going to make that wall part of the actual rock garden. That's going to require more thought though. This is fantastic. I'm so pleased with the opportunity.

[Maxx&Emma]

That sounds awesome! You are very creative.

[Scoutpout]

jeez, you're really going to town! want to come to my house? i had to re-do my front garden 2 years ago when we added a basement window, and its STILL not totally finished!

[POPTOP]

WOW, you hit the jackpot in plants. It's going to look beautiful.

Still replanting bulbs here. Why, why did I ever think this would be easy. DH hauled home tons of mulch so that's yet to be done. The way I've set the lilies and iris, going to have to put the mulch in by the handful. My butt is really getting a workout.

Worked some more on our neighbor's yard clearing out volunteer crap bushes. They have huge thorns. The bigger stuff is going to have to wait for a new blade for the chain saw. DD is picking it up for us at work. Tried to work in her flower garden but the dirt was hard as cement. Gonna wait to after some rain. They are really not too bad, a few weeds, but the ground needs some major amendments.