I’ve been thinking about rock gardens.
I even have a Pinterest board of rock gardens.
See, our property has a lot of rocks. It’s got so many rocks, it’s sort of like someone dumped a thin layer of topsoil over a gravel quarry.
(Someone did. The glaciers. We’re at the bottom of the Finger Lakes, which means we’re the dumping ground for a lot of Canadian rock. Anyone want their rock back?)
So as we do anything in the yard… we pull out rocks. Big rocks, little rocks. Tiny rocks and huge rocks.
We’ve started covering up a pretty horrid border garden to the west side of the house with large flat rocks, tucking Coleus plants in between the rocks. It’s looking decent so far; will look better once we get down more weedcloth.
But we have this wet sunken corner of the yard… and I’m thinking more rocks. Rocks, and a little water feature. Maybe a waterfall.
What do you think?
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Do you need to consider a rock wall? That would probably need a professional wall builder though and that would cost money.
I’ve considered it. But we don’t really have any need at all for a wall, where we *do* need something in that swampy corner.
A waterfall would need the water to flow and possibly be recycled through the system and that would need a pump. Is it wet enough to be a pond if you dig it out?
I plan to use one of the pond/waterfall forms and a pump. It’s really wet, but not sure *how* wet yet.
I sort of hope that if you dig you don’t find that there’s a spring under there. On the other hand, there’s no chance it could be a broken water pipe, is there? I did hear about a school once who thought they had a bit of wetland and it was all carefully conserved and used for outdoor environment learning and stuff, then someone finally got around to investigating why their water bill was so high. The plumber found a leaking pipe under the ‘wetland.’
Ah-ha. Well, probably not. It’s off away from the well, we don’t have city water, and it’s a ways away from the septic system.
The last is probably a good thing…
Definitely!
Half of the rock walls in New England are just convinient rock-stacking places, not denoting boundaries or anything.
*nods* We’re thought about that, or putting something in/through the hedgerow.
you could turn it into a place for bog plants!
Hrrrm. HRRRM.
If you were here, I’d suggest Louisiana iris.
Those work here, actually. I don’t have any yet, but I covet http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/33052/ And I’m in zone 6a
I also like dwarf cattails, golden club, both red and blue lobelia, mash marigold, monkey flower, New England, purple stemed, and New York asters, swamp rose mallow, and sweet flag. (List compiled from native bog list: http://www.aquascapesunlimited.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.main&alphaKey=ALL&whichName=common&showIntro=0&typeID=2 – I do not have most of them yet) I have pickerel weed, if you want some. It’s pretty, and it will spread.
Weeping willow?
No room for a tree there (It’s behind a maple to start with), and, while I like weeping willows, I like them in other people’s yards.
I have a soft spot for them. They’re not good city trees because they’re so good at getting into water and sewer lines, though — I can see not wanting them anywhere near any sort of water-related infrastructure. <is amused by the crochet-covered rocks in the pinterest>
I thought the crocheted-covered rocks were not-us but kind of adorable. The bikini showed up in a search for “rock garden,” and T. is always complaining there’s not enough eye candy in my pinterest, sooo…
*bad influence* 🙂
I love rocks, and particularly love rock walls – they are a huge tradition in New England (cause those glaciers left rocks all over the place here too). A pond/water feature is neat too. But yeah, I approve of rocks as objects of interest!