dirtdorphins: Thank you so much for your pictoral cruise thru your roc garden. It has given me an idea. I tried to build a pocket to keep an siberian iris from suffering. Your pine tree root image was just waht I needed.
I will need bigger rocks and build a better pocket wall.
Nothing big but definitly more substantial than this which keeps shifting.



It's obvious I need bigger base stones.GS and I will work on this.
I dont want to hijack chelles thread but ,Please if anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated.

Another question: can I place stone into the perennials that are there? just one plant a nepeta Summer Dream.

Jo Ann, you're definitely not hijacking this thread. Showing situations that still need tweaking help in the understanding of the building and design process from another angle.



Dirtdorphins, your special rocks are fabulous! Thanks for showing those settings. Now I can more easily see how the placement of larger rocks affects the plants around them.

I just watched 3 "how to's" on youtube. While I only need construction of a pocket ,the basics are there. Bigger rocks as I thought and I saw pea gravel amongst perennials. I think I can make it work.

I didn't have an experienced answer to your earlier question, but was it addressed in the videos? Do you need to lift the plant, or can you just place rock around it?

Here is my thinking,if there is a fly in the ointment here let me know.
I wondered if the area could be worked without digging plants. The area is only about 3 feet by 28 inches.
I figured if I started in late March or April ( before plants fully emerge ) and just tore out that pathetic pocket and replaced it with bigger stones PLUS pea gravel . I could spread peagravel around the neteta and the nep. would come up around it.
This you tube shows the gravel and perennial mixed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
I didnt take every word for gospel but did like the gravel and stone natural look.
My area is so small and low I cant believe it will require many large stones.

I can't readily watch the videos with my internet connection, Jo Ann, but hopefully someone will come along soon with experienced advice.

Sorry about that: This is just the project for this winter. Thanks again for bring it up. My project isnt a RG but the same principals apply.
During the time of these few posts it occurred to me the gravel would just disappear in time unless its deeper than a few inches. That would mean excavation to an extent I am not able to do. "note to self :"devise Plan B.

Some flat shale might do the job, and it would take it much longer to disappear. Earthworms and rainfall can shift the soil under pea gravel and cause it to sink rather rapidly, but I'd think something larger would take quite a bit longer to move. I think if it were me, I'd reset it with the larger rock around and somewhat under the crown, then cover the rest of the crown with the gravel.

I was getting wood for the fire and thought "how about some of these interesting shapes?"
I might use wood stumpies instead of stone.

I have a blueberry and strawberry mound, fortified with wood stumpies

I can handle stumpies easier. It's still a work in progress.
Time will tell.

ge1836 said:... the gravel would just disappear in time unless its deeper than a few inches. That would mean excavation to an extent I am not able to do. "note to self :"devise Plan B.

Time will tell, Jo Ann
it always does...
The gravel doesn't disappear nearly as fast as organic material, which also has to be replaced--especially here in my Eolian environment

Organic matter? absolutly. I compost every fall.

One of the most beautiful rock gardens in Calgary was started on a mound of gravel.

I have been growing rock garden plants on a slope. The holes have been dug out of the clay soil, and filled with traction sand,--- as I plant new plants.

There are undoubtedly many different ways of achieving the same goal.
I used what is euphemistically referred to in these parts as "topsoil" (that is, clayey crud that turns to cement when dry) as a base for contouring the beds and for setting the stones in place to hold them firmly. (I did consider gravel as a base but thought it would be somewhat unstable, rolling under the rocks.... ? I don't get how this would work as a base on which to set rocks, and therefore didn't use it.) The fantastic crevice garden I showed in the other post used silty subsoil as a base - in other words, material that is cohesive and somewhat coarser than clay (in other words, you can feel grains in silt, but not in clay). The construction of this garden was written up in the NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly Volume 69 #3. (N. B. These publications are available for viewing at the NARGS site, though you have to be a member to be able to see ones from the last 3 years, which includes the one I mentioned. All the older ones are available though! )

Very nice pics and interesting posts. I just love rock gardens.

This thread is already filling with interesting information on starting a rock garden. The photos and and plants lists are great.
This link has great sources of information on creating many types of rock gardens. I have been there, it is an amazing place for learning how to make simple gardens and up to more challenging rock gardens. http://wildgingerfarm.com/
You will find a list about half way down the page.

I have been planning a simple rock/gravel bed in my front yard this coming spring/summer.

One of the neatest things I've learned so far is from a link that was sent to me via treemail. Sometimes it helps more to understand a concept and see the methodology used in a small scale application, rather than thinking solely of the much larger finished project. Here it shows that a rock garden could actually be comprised of just two flat rocks pressed together to form a plant sandwich. As long as the rocks are set upright, and above existing soil, nothing else is needed. This helps a great deal because I now know that I could actually build the entirety -just two stones and a plant or two at a time.

Thanks again, @dirtdorphins!

Near the end of the page...

http://www.wrightmanalpines.co... .

Thanks I saved that link. I might try something like that.

Jo Ann, we could use log sections to act as bookends until the next set was ready to place, couldn't we?