The Prairie/Rock Garden is Taking Shape

I have been spending a lot of time out at the land as we build our home. As such, I spend a good deal of my time near this Prairie/Rock Garden I built last summer. I am so happy I put it in so that I can enjoy its beauty because it is a spot of tranquilness in all the wildness of our land. By tranquil I mean it is 'cultivated'. Those of you with wild gardens will understand my need for cultivation. Sometimes wild is great (I love it too!) but sometimes wild is just-wild and not really a garden at all. Well, this side of the garden area is finally looking like a garden. The above view is looking west and shows the sloping land fairly well. Our house is going to be built to the right of this picture up on the hill in the field. Behind me is the 'Wildflower Hill'.

Here we are looking north from the gazebo. I have spent some time weeding here by pulling mainly wild garlic from the bed. Other than that the mulch and newspapers has helped to make this a true garden bed and not just an area with some perennials. We have in this bed: amsonias, baptisias, asters, Tartarian asters, helianthus, catmint, salvias, daylilies, liatris, compass plants, Japanese anemones, Culver's Root, obedient plant, geraniums, spirareas, gladiolus, creeping phlox, sundrops primrose, coreopsis, hyssop, and heucheras.

The cultivated area of this garden bed is divided by stepping stones. Here we step over the stepping stone path to the wild area next to a vernal pond. I have not planted anything in this area due to the native wildflowers such as hawkweed (blooming yellow flowers), American Columbo, and others. Tree roots also tend to get in the way. I did however plant about 20 azaleas in this area and I am happy to report they are doing well and bloomed this year.

Looking down from the top of the hill and the front of the bed we see this is a rather large bed area and while it does not have much color right now, there is some foliage. Including the old ratty foliage of tulips. I wish tulips would just fade away gently like Virginia bluebells tend to do.

I planted two 'Glow Girl' spiraeas sent to me by Proven Winners last spring. These spiraeas are doing really well and the chartreuse foliage looks great in this bed because it provides a bit of excitement.


One last picture of is 'Lemon Drops' Oenothera primrose. These were given to me by my friend Angie and I am happy to report they are doing awesomely in the Prairie/Rock Garden....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

The Prairie Garden on the Farm After a Few Months

Time in a garden passes by in a blink of an eye! Just ask the little frittilary who found the newly planted stokesia on the farm a nice place to land and get some nectar.

For the gardener time is ticking right along too, and I for one cannot believe it is already September! Anyone else feel the same way? It seems like only yesterday I was starting summer working hard on moving my garden out to our farm and here it is nearly the fall and things have slowed down a bit. Fortunately, this summer has been the best ever as far as weather wise and plant growth and health. It is a good thing or I think I would not have been as successful in getting some gardens started out at the farm. So far many perennials have gone into the above garden, a fairly large viburnum collection has been moved and is doing well (though I have had to water often), five crepe myrtles are blooming their hearts out, all of the PG hydrangeas (12) I moved back in the spring are doing well in full sun though they have not bloomed, our orchard and berry patch have begun to take shape, the pond area is a work in progress, and overall things are slowly taking shape. 

There have also been some losses and mistakes throughout the last few months. I moved about eight oakleaf hydrangeas out to the farm for placement along the driveway. All but a few have died and what ones are left wind up being deer food. It did not help that I planted them straight into the ground without thinking about drainage. Farmer Fix-it and I had to rectify that by building a rock garden and back filling with on site soil. A big process but hopefully the few oakleafs remaining will do fine and I can move more out there in a month or two. Oakleaf hydrangeas are notorious for not liking wet feet and as we have found out, our soil is a heavy clay that doe snot drain all that well. Raised beds have rectified the problem now. Sometimes it helps me when I write down all Farmer Fix-it and I have done I feel better, but then I remember all that is yet to come and I can get a bit overwhelmed. The good news is I can pace myself and really, if everything does not get moved and situated it will be okay. I will most likely open up my current garden for a plant sale-you dig! I can tell you stories about digging but today is about my new Prairie Garden. It is not really a prairie garden (that is the wildflower field in another spot on the property), but more of a drought tolerant garden with mostly native plants.

Late fall and winter is the absolutely best time to move trees and shrubs and I will be starting this process probably in November. Before I can begin moving shrubs and trees Farmer Fix-it and I must clean up all the trash our neighbors in Stewart County dumped on the property out by the road, and thin out some trees. This job alone will take a few weeks and involve delivery of a large dumpster, but we have a plan and slowly work it out. I just read in the newspaper that Stewart County has the second lowest recycling rate in Tennessee. I believe it. If you could see what folks trash and dump on the side of the road you would understand. It is really an awful thing I'm ashamed of when it comes to my chosen state to live. If the front area was cleaned up, I'd be moving trees like some of my many Japanese maples. In the meantime my trees and shrubs are getting bigger. Some, like my Limelight hydrangeas and serviceberry tree are huge. It will be a big job to move them all and I am dreading it. The payoff will be further down the road. More on them later.



Today I was kind of going to talk through my process of gardening on the farm. Keep in mind we have no water or electricity but we do have a small shelter in the form of the gazebo I built back in April. Near the gazebo was where I began my gardening process since I am sure it is located in an area that will not be disturbed by the home building process, although the electric lines may come by this area. I can however direct the installation away from the gardens since I allowed space for them in my plan. You would think that as a landscape designer I could plan more of the gardens logically and most of the time I do, but not in the case of these gardens around the gazebo. Back in March, in my haste to move daffodil bulbs to the farm (nearly 6500 so far!!) I planted 600 'Sun Disc' daffodil bulbs in the area that is now located under about two feet of top filled soil in the above garden. I seriously doubt I'll see many of those bulbs. On the other (right) side of the gazebo I planted 600 'Minnow' daffodil bulbs. Those ones will be okay because I did not have to back fill that side of the garden. I am not too terribly upset about losing the bulbs to the ground, but I am kind of mad I wasted my time planting here only to then fill in over them. That is where good planning comes in and while I've tried to eliminate all future problems since this one, I have not always been successful. When designing a garden I think you should plant once and that is it! Even though I think that way it is not always the reality for me.

Back to the left side (the side pictured in the two above pictures) I focused my attention on this part of the garden. The property slopes down here a bit and I wanted to level it out. I managed to make several trips to move all of these rocks from my current garden out to the farm and had the great idea to make a rock wall. It all somehow worked out nicely. Building the rock wall enabled us to backfill the area and to level the very large garden and also made a good spot for a new garden. This area is about 100 feet away from the back of our home to be. As such it needed to be an area that would show up nicely from a great distance. The rocks fit the bill. The next step was to backfill; which was done by Farmer Fix-it and his handy tractor. All soil was taken from where the house will be built and unceremoniously dumped into this garden area. Weeds and all. Once things were leveled up a bit I tried to smooth out the fill dirt, mulched with newspapers and cardboard, then spread three trailer loads of shredded hardwood mulch on top of the cardboard. All the while I was envisioning this new garden. My vision is to have prairie style plants tiered down toward the front. All plants had to be very drought tolerant, butterfly attractors, and hardy tough plants that won't need any fussing from me. This side of the garden has a color scheme of yellow, blue, pinks, and purples. There will be no red or orange in this side of the garden. Each perennial will have about a 6-7'+ circle area in which to grow into. The spacing was the hardest part for me. You know gardens look rather bare when spaced appropriately and my new garden is no exception. It is at the time of planting I make most of my mistakes by planting too closely. I therefore disciplined myself to show restraint and to measure the distances from each plant. If, for example, an amsonia gets three feet tall by 4-5' wide, I would plant it midway in the garden and half of its widest distance from its neighbor. That meant amsonias were planted 2.5' from the space of an adjoining amsonia; which actually totalled 5' by the time you add in the space for both amsonias. That's a long way apart for a new garden not to have any plants but in a few years the result will be a much better garden easier for me to maintain since I won't have to divide and move plants. Underestimating just how big plants will get and planting too closely is a common mistake for all gardeners.

The plants for this side of the garden from the wood line out include: 5 heucheras, 7-9 'Stella de Oro' daylilies, 5 'Sun Drop' primroses, 5 Amsonia hubrichtii, 5 native baptisias, 5 catmint, 9 'Autumn Joy' sedums, large clumps of: Compass plant, 'Maximillion' helianthus, asters, native beebalm, Joe Pye weed, Tartarian asters, obedient plant, Culvers root, rudbeckia, coneflowers, veronica, stokesia, cannas, salvia, low growing sedum, and lantana. All plants are tiered with the shortest to the front leading up to mid level plants and the tall overbearing plants like helianthus, compass plant, tartarian asters, and Joe Pye weed along the back outside of the wood line. As you can see from the pictures only the catmint, Stellas, and 'Autumn Joy' have filled in and are most visible. If you look closely you can see the other clumps of perennials in the background but they are still small and will take time to fill in. The amsonias I planted had to have a 5' circle diameter just for them and they were quite small so they are not even visible in these pictures. I explained this process above. It kind of looks like a lot of mulched area there but believe it or not there are perennials there and with time they will fill in nicely. I have done nothing to this garden as far as watering or pruning it but I do occasionally pull sassafras trees and other weeds out of it as they push through the mulch. All of the colors in this part of the garden are like I described above: yellows, pinks, blues, and purples. Standing back from this garden I am finally able to see the bones and getting it together. I can't wait for next year now!

Now the right side of the gazebo is a whole other story. This side is already quite level and is surrounded by rocks (moved from my current garden). To the right of this side is a drive spot to our back lawn we affectionately call our 'Back 40'. This is also where I anticipate the electric lines to come through-underground. I had an issue with this garden in that there are many wildflowers already growing in this area. I am trying to use what we already have on the land so I did not disturb this area. One bonus was the numerous clumps of native butterfly weed. I posted on it here. The butterfly weed was in a perfect spot in that it is centered in the garden. Since butterfly weed is a hot colored orange I have leaned toward the reds and oranges over in this half of the garden. The two sides of the gazebo should be quite the contrast with the left being yellows, blues, and purples and the right being reds, oranges, and yellows. I may throw in some other colors but for now this is the direction I am leaning.

While I have planted some things over here I have not prepared this garden at all. Can you see how the natural state is? It is all overgrown and full of wildflowers. Goldenrod joins the butterfly weed as well as other unknown things. I would love to start on this garden but have other priorities ahead of it. Toward the front of this garden I have sprayed Roundup to kill some of the existing vegetation. I plan to do this with the whole garden less the butterfly weed and other plants I have already planted here. Once the vegetation is killed off I will mulch it in the same manner as I did the left side of the garden area. Then I will begin planting in earnest-hopefully. It may be too late in the season to move many perennials so it might not get planted until next spring. In the meantime there are 600 minature 'Minnow' daffodils plus some 60 Lycoris radiata planted here that I can enjoy.

You might notice the two rain barrels next to the gazebo area. I had a total of 5 rain barrels here at the house and decided to move two unused ones out to the farm to help out with watering. Farmer Fix-it and I had the idea to run gutters around the 10' x 12' gazebo area. It is really not a gazebo but mainly a wooden frame with a gazebo top on it. Since the cover is fabric not much water runs off from it to the gutters but we do manage to catch some water from it and from the falling rain. Enough in fact to fill up both rain barrels after a couple inches of rain. Even with these full rain barrels I have not had to use much water from them in order to water these gardens. I normally use the water to water the large trees we have planted. The trees are what soaks up all the moisture and need a lot of watering. Especially a new special oak tree. Each time I plant a tree I feel like I am planting for the future and someday my grandchildren will enjoy the shade from those oaks. That is why I focus most of my attention on trees. Most perennials will take care of themselves once they have received at least one rainfall after planting. At least it seems that way to me this summer but then again I did plant drought tolerant perennials and we have had AWESOME rains this summer.

If you look at the left side of the garden from behind it (from the direction of the Back 40) you see a completely different view. This picture shows that in addition to the wildflowers we have some native grasses in the form of Little Blue Stem.  I knew we had some blue stem but did not realize just how much. As such the fact it is growing here has changed my whole way of thinking. I am trying to figure out how to preserve it and leave it in place. This particular garden in the wood line and on the back side will be left all natural and the little blue stem will be a big part of the design component. Initially I honestly thought to leave all the area around gazebo native and natural but I just don't like the messy messy look of it all and have found that with cultivated plants I can actually enjoy the butterflies and wildlife even more. As I start on this area of the garden I will move the little blue stem to other areas on the property. It is widely adapted for our land and should transplant well.

The above picture is the Back 40. While I'd love to leave this area all natural the fact that the chiggers are unbearable and the fact that we'd like to enjoy our land I have decided to mow it and turn it into a back lawn area. If you look in the distance the land slopes down. This hill is actually several hundred feet long. Once you go over the crest of the hill, the area is all natural and I have left the little blue stem and dropseed alone to colonize down there. I am hoping with proper management we can get it back to its natural state with minimal care. Allowing the natives to take over here helps me out with no mowing and hopefully less erosion on the hill, but on the top part of the hill there must absolutely be fescue grass so as to enable us to enjoy the area.

Many people said the deer will devour my new garden but so far I've had pretty good luck. This luck was not only due to Lady Luck but I also chose perennials and shrubs well. Fragrant perennials and native perennials are what I reasoned would be safe from the deer. I was correct to a point. The only things the deer have nibbled are: Joe Pye weed, a plum tree (not the pears), and some of the hydrangeas-oakleafs. I find it weird they did not eat more but consider myself lucky. The lantana, catmint, butterfly weed, asters, bee balm, amsonia, blueberries, and numerous other things have not been bothered-thus far. Perhaps by this winter when food becomes more scarce we may have more nibbling.We also have rabbits as evidenced by the nibbling on the newly planted corn Farmer Fix-it and planted back in July. That nibbling did not kill the corn and only set it back a bit. We put out repellents and it seemed to help. Even so, our corn has not done well at all.  I did eat one ear right off from the stalk while on the land. Baby corn that is fresh picked is good uncooked--and no worms! And good for you!

Well, this is a long post. I am not known for not being wordy. HA! I like keeping track of the land and what we have done and the blog is a great reference tool for me. As we are learning all sorts of new things on the land I find I am on the computer more and more to learn of others' experiences. Oftentimes it is hard to find good references so I do tend to be wordy with my experiences so that not only can I look back at them, but perhaps my posts can help others....

in the garden....

And speaking of experiences, many thanks to Gaia Gardener for sharing her experiences with restoring her native area back to its natural state. She sent me several emails detailing her processes. I am a researcher and love to learn and experiences are usually the best school! 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Stopping Erosion

BY SKEETER

This circled area had an erosion issue for some time. A bit difficult to see in this picture but the grass slopes down to the asphalt driveway. Rain runoff was slowly eroding the earth at the corner of the retaining brick wall. I say slowly as we are under drought conditions most of the time in my Georgia Gardens.  After 10 years, erosion was becoming a problem.

I failed to snap a "Before" photo of this eroded area last Fall. The day I created this little Rock Garden, I was not planning it. It just kind of happen. I collected some large stones and placed them around the larger eroded gaps. I then added pea gravel into the smaller gaps. I pulled some Phlox Moss sprigs from a planter and dug it into the ground in hopes it would root over winter. I planted a Mexican Petunia in the center and I was careful to remember to water this little spot often. A few little statues of dogs and a frog and I decided this garden was complete. Is any garden ever complete? Ha... The above picture was snapped in early May.

Moving to late July, we see the Mexican Petunia (Ruellia brittoniana) is blooming. We also see a blooming Crepe Myrtle bush. This bush was a tree until last year when a storm had Miss Myrtle doing the splits. Click HERE to see that sad saga. She is making a comeback! Back to the Petunia; this is a new plant to me as I added 3 of them last fall. I believe it was Darla that told me they are a bully plant in Florida. They are on the FL Exotic Pest Plant Council (EPPC) so I am a bit concerned with these new additions to my gardens. I shall keep an eye on them. 

At 10:00 in the morning, I find beautiful purple blooms!

By 8:00 in the evening, they have all fallen to the ground. Is this normal?

They look pretty lying on the lush green Moss Phlox but I would think that the butterflies, bees and hummingbirds would rather they remain on the plant.

If you follow the brick wall down a bit, you can see a second Petunia in the Tri-angle Planter which is outside the Porch Planter. This is the West side of the house. The Porch Planter faces North and holds Japanese Maple, Nandina and Camellia.The third Petunia is located on the East side of the other Porch Planter. In the other Tri-angle Planter. These two Porch Planters and Tri-angle Planters are a sort of mirror image of each other. 

This little Rock Garden is thus far doing its job of STOPPING EROSION, In the Garden...

Gift

BY SKEETER
The best gift in the world for me is to receive a gift card from a Garden Center. I can take that card and turn it into something new for my Georgia Gardens!
The Saints sister sent me such a gift for my birthday last month. As usual during the month of March, I am so busy playing in my gardens that my birthday just seems to creep up on me. I spent the day playing in the garden and even though the Saint wanted to take me out to dinner, I had him run for Sub Sandwiches and we ate them at the patio then back off to the gardens I went. My kind of birthday! I was not expecting much as my gift will be a bit later with a Trip to Ashville in May! So, What a surprise to find a gift card in a birthday card from the Saints sister!
I failed to snap a before picture as I really did not know what I was going to do until I did it. That is how a lot of my project's come about. I had cleared the debris and mess from in front of the planter in the Semi-Formal Garden and then the idea struck. A rock garden to break up the small area! This photo is to the far right going right up against the upper level of gardens. Creeping Phlox has been transferred from another spot in this garden with pulling sprigs. They should take off at some point. You can barely see them just below the Begonia. I had that one odd plant remaining from a 6 pack and it kind of got stuck there. There are also two daffodils in this spot that happily bloomed last month. I shall add more bulbs this fall.
Moving a bit to the left of that picture, we see one of two stepping stones and some creeping plants. I haven't a clue as to the names of these plants. The names were printed on the containers and I recycled them before thinking to write down the names. All are creeping plants and perfect for a Rock Garden.
Moving on to the left a bit more and you see both stepping stones and more creeping plants. I put the stepping stones so as to have a spot to step while tending to the plants in the planter above. I need to add some of these to the large Rock Garden as I am walking on the Lava Rock all the time thus pushing it into the ground more and more with each step into the Rock Garden.
To the very left of this Garden is where the Lavender begins. I stopped the Lava Rock at that point and started to pick up the Cypress Mulch. I have mulched most of the Gardens with Cypress this year. The Saint had this idea instead of Pine Straw to see how differently it would act verses the Pine needles. The theory being, thicker layers of mulch will keep the weeds down and last longer then the pine needles. Only time will tell but I think the Saint may be onto something. I have spread about 100 bags of mulch thus far and I have one more area yet to work on. I will say it is a lot easier to work with verses the Pine Straw.
Here is a view of the little Rock Garden from end to end. I like the way the Lava Rock breaks up the area from the planter to the walkway and adds another type garden in between. Neat and clean looking just the way I want this garden to be.... Sis B, Thank you so much for the wonderful GIFT, In the Garden...
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Rock Garden; Spring & Summer

By SKEETERI enjoy "Before and After" picture's in my Georgia Gardens. I can see the progress from season to season. In these photos, you will see the Rock Garden during Spring then we shall jump to the current time, being Summer. This picture above, shows you the area before the Rock Garden began.
Here is the Rock Garden the day I created it a year ago. *Click HERE to see how the Rock Garden began.

In the above picture, we have Spring of this year. The Month was April.
The same view in Summer. Everything has filled in nicely.
This recycled birdbath was a planter last year with its deep bowl. The bowl was broken when a limb fell on it while the Saint cut down a large oak tree last fall. I left the broken bowl on the ground as some of the plants stayed intact.
I replaced the bowl with another recycled one but it is too shallow for annual plants. It has cracks in it and does not hold water so it cannot be used as a birdbath. I am thinking of making this a little cactus garden but not this year as it is too late in the season.
I had lots of hosta in this garden last year and they did really well. They popped up this spring as healthy plants. Summer however, is another story. With the large oak tree gone, more sunlight hits the garden. Therefore, I had to move the hosta as they were burning up from the sunshine and extreme heat we had this summer. The Elvis Lives Hosta lasted longer then any but as you can see, he has also started to burn. He must be moved out of this garden as well. This will make the 3rd time I have moved poor Elvis. He keeps trying to die on me. Click HERE to see how Elvis began in my garden.
In April, you could see a lot of the Lava Rock in the Garden.
Same view now, reveals little lava rock.
In April, the hosta were still in the Rock Garden.
Once the Hosta were removed, Volunteers of Coleus and Perwinkle that seeded them self from last year, popped up. I added Serena Angelonia and Spider plant seedlings to fill in the holes. The low growing plant to the right is a mystery plant to me. I will talk more about this plant on Thursday... Long view towards the back woods and patio in Spring.
Same view in Summer. Notice the darkness of the woods as they are thicker now then Spring. Also the added canopy to keep the heat and sun off the patio. Self seeding plants now blooming. I do miss the shade from that huge missing oak tree, sigh.
I was happy to see the Ivy survived our cold winter with a Ice and Snow blanket in January. Two Lily's in this garden survived their first winter with me as well.
The Ivy did not perish to the sun this summer as I thought it would do. I added a Tropical Canna from that big sale at McCorkles Nursery back in June. Click HERE and HERE if you missed those fun post's. I was careful to keep this area watered during our drought to keep the new plants happy. In the background, you can see the Wishing Well Garden. Look at that happy Banana Tree! I want to connect these two garden some day with a little wooden bridge. Only time will tell on that idea... I had the garden hose and sprinkler set up about every 3 days in this area. The Canna is happy as she gave me a shoot!

A beautiful Bloom of a Shoot indeed! There are a lot of whimsical items in this garden but they are currently hidden by the tall plants. They show during the winter months when most of the plants are dormant, thus keeping this garden full of interest year round.

With more sun in this area, I am learning what works and what does not work in this garden. I shall pull this or that and add this or that as time goes by. I enjoy my little ROCK GARDEN; SPRING & SUMMER, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Rock Garden

By SkeeterHere is how a Rock Garden is created in my Georgia Gardens. We have drainage issue in our backyard. We have worked on solving them a little each year. We dug a trench along the back of the house and added Lava Rock soon after moving into the house. The Lava rock was fine for many years but over time, the porous holes of the rock began to grow moss. I did not like the mossy look beside our house, plus the moss could be an issue if our house is on the market For Sale.
This spring, we took out the lava rock and replaced the shallow ditch with River Rocks. This rock will allow for easier cleaning of caught debris thus less moss growing. That is my hope anyway. In time we will see if I am right. While taking out the lava rock one bucket at a time, the Saint helped me sift debris off the rock. I also took it one step further and took a wire brush to each piece of rock to remove the moss. Yep, crazy and time consuming I know but worth the effort in the end to reuse the rock elsewhere. This area of our yard has also been an issue for us with drainage or should I say lack of. We tried to grow grass with no luck as this area is too shaded by the canopy of trees. Over time we settled for making this a natural looking spot by putting pine straw in the area. We lost two trees to a freak ice storm and those trunks became support to Boston Ferns each year. The past few years, I have been slowly making this area a shade garden. Part One and Part Two of those can be seen by clicking the highlights to refresh your memory or play catch up...
One of the trunks rotted and could no longer support a Fern this spring. I chipped away at the stump and it crumbled away. The Saint removed the last of the ugly wood and made a clean cut for Mr. Frog to now call home. In this older picture, you can see Ivy growing out a hole of the stump.
This Ivy was taking root on the ground and I was able to save it from the hole in the stump and plant the main roots into the ground.
Here is yet one more Freebie from our neighbor which gave us many Lilies. A useless birdbath with a hole in the pot. He was going to toss it but I had a better idea for this birdbath.
This once, deep welled water supplier to the birds is now home to plants!
In this planter is Dahlia (I think) but not sure. Keeping her company is Blue Spruce Sedum and Begonia.
Isn't she a beauty?
The Lava Rock was added along with other larger rocks I have found here and there for free. By the fire pit, I have extended the pathway by adding more pea gravel type rocks. This Garden will some day connect to the Wishing Well Garden via a walking pea gravel path.
I divided Hosta and am keeping them in their pots while in the ground to deter the Vole from eating them. I also spray Liquid Fence in the area to deter the Deer from munching.
The last two remaining free Lilies were planted in this area also.
Here is one of those Lilies along with Creeping Jenny (the Saints request) and the Saints prized Elvis Hosta. Yes, the Saint picks out plants sometimes.
I now look into my backyard with a smile on my face due to my new Rock Garden!
I had so much fun creating this Garden this spring. Cleaning each dirty lava rock was back breaking but I knew it would be worth it in the end.
There is a lot of moss in this area during the wet season and I know in time the Lava will become a mossy mess That's okay as I am going for a natural look with this garden.
As you can see, I am forever adding new things to this garden. The bench, pots, etc.
Here is a bit of a Birdseye view of the Rock Garden.
I was disappointed that the Pea gravel has changed since last years refreshing of the gravel in the area. This years gravel has more white colors to it then natural browns. Once I find the browner color rocks, I will add a thin layer to blend in the colors better then you see here.
Here is one of the new pots I mentioned adding. This was a bargain find while in Tennessee visiting Tiger Gardens. I dropped by the Humane Society's Yard Sale and just had to have this Chamber Pot! I found two enamel Chamber pots and was thrilled. This one is full of Twisted Arrows Rush and Wolong Ghost Wintercreeper while the other one has Geranium. The Saint says I am really turning our Gardens into a Redneck yard. I think more a place of whimsy instead. What do you think, Redneck or Whimsy?
This is an idea I got from a store. I bought a clay pot for $1.50 and added this plastic frog I had in the garden shed. In the store they wanted $10.00 for pretty much this same creation. On the cheap and Bing, a cute addition to the Rock Garden.
My friend, Pedro now rest under the new Birdbath planter as the Coleous, Hosta, Spider and other plants grow around him.
Things planted last year are really working well in this Rock Garden.

In this picture, you can see how the shady Rock Garden will be attached to the sunny Wishing Well Garden. My mind holds a Foot Bridge and Dry Creek Bed in it for this attachment. Only time will tell what will bring these two gardens together. This pic was snapped before the banana tree was put into the ground. ha... I really am happy with my new ROCK GARDEN, in the Garden...

Bonus: Here is a surprise for me. Remember the planter in front of the white picket fence in the Semi-Formal Garden? I showed you in spring how the Voles ate all of the tulips bulbs. As I was digging around looking for bulbs, I cut into this Amaryllis bulb. It has only bloomed one time in 3 years since I put her in the ground. I took the bulb and put her in a pot this spring and look at her now!

I do not think this Amaryllis is the Hardy one that Tina talked about yesterday. But she is happy to be back in a pot again. I think I will keep her there...

These new gardens were created in a matter of a few weeks with lots of hard work. I had more envisions that never took place as I had to leave my Georgia Garden to be with my family in Tennessee for the clean up of the floods. We have knocked a lot of stuff off our Long "To Do" list but it is now time for me to once again go back to Tennessee. Spring is my favorite time to create with no humidity and cooler temps but my spring gardening was cut short this year. Family calls and they are most important. We have a family wedding to attend and then I will remain in TN until my next appointments in Georgia. No computer, thus no blogging for me. Please continue to keep my family and other flood victims in your prayers...
Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,In the Garden