Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: Kristl Walek on September 19, 2009, 05:42:12 PM
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I've searched and searched---assuming that what I was looking for would be found somewhere in this forum, or the archives...
Would like to see some visual examples of front-yard rock gardens (on smallish properties).
Can someone help (provide some links) or post your own pictures.
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Try Harry Jans's website.
It has got some photographs of his garden (including his front garden) on it.
He has link to it from his forum 'profile'.
I doubt you will find anything finer.
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In the UK a yard is something you can sweep with a yard brush, and there would have no plants of any sort. We have gardens front and back! ::)
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And it is about three feet deep!
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We used to roller skate and play hopscotch in my Granny's back yard in Huddersfield. 8)
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Hi Kristl !
Here are some views of my "front" rock garden - pictures taken from different angles :
Hope this gives you an idea.
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Luc,
Fantastic...that is exactly what I was after.
Thank you----
Kristl
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We used to roller skate and play hopscotch in my Granny's back yard in Huddersfield. 8)
very posh we just had the toilet and air raid shelter
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Very impressive garden, Luc ... many thanks for sharing.
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We used to roller skate and play hopscotch in my Granny's back yard in Huddersfield. 8)
very posh we just had the toilet and air raid shelter
Bog garden?
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For leeks? :D
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very nice, luc--beautifully maintained...
as for yard/vs garden--there is of course some overlap, but usually to use the word garden here, there must be some specific plantings--and more than trees and shrubs with grass, unless that is part of a larger intentional plan..
much of my 'yard' is far too wild and undeveloped for me to even think of using the word garden, and nor could you sweep it, unless maybe your 'brush' were attached to a tractor ;)
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Luc - what an excellent garden in front of your house! I'll take it as an inspiration to build something similar!
Did you ever have problems with neighbours children, dogs, cats or destructions and theft caused by passerby?
Gerd
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Luc, that is beautiful!!
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I'm very envious. Well done
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Did you ever have problems with neighbours children, dogs, cats or destructions and theft caused by passerby?
We don't have a rock garden out front but do have perennial plantings on both sides of a corner lot, in the boulevard, and along the side fence. Yes, there is always some amount of "vandalism" every year, ranging from the results of mindless behavior to intentional small-scale destruction... there is a sliding scale to the amount of irritation it causes!
Among the mindless behavior, I include flower pickers and dog owners who are strangely incapable of controlling their pets, despite the leash, and allow their pets to defecate on, or walk through the plantings. (Then, suddenly realizing that Fido has been running rampant on the 40' long extensible leash, they give the leash, which has tangled itself amongst the plantings, a good yank to haul him back... thus breaking off big sections of rose bushes and shrubs. We had a newly-planted rose bush broken off down to the ground in this way!)
Among flower pickers, I don't care if some little kid picks a flower or two... but there has been the odd evil child who walks along the entire 120' fenced side, picking a daffodil every couple of feet and then throwing it down. Or the other hellspawn who whacked all the tulips off with a stick one year! Or the teenage babysitter who encouraged her charges to pick asiatic lilies out of my border last summer... I heard this through the fence, and when I hustled out there I was amazed to see them with whole asiatic lily stems yanked out of the ground... if the bulbs had still been attached to the ends of the stems, I'd have asked for them back, LOL! (Anyway, don't get me going on this!! >:() If I see kids picking flowers, I politely ask them not to. Same for adults, though I'm amazed that I would have to ask adults not to pick my plants... one would think that adults would respect someone else's property. ("Picking flowers" often results in pulling the plant out by the roots, hence what may seem like a hard-a**ed approach to this.)
Intentional vandalism seems to have been limited to "bad" teenagers who seek to impress their friends by ripping up some plants, oddly enough. A couple of incidents of this last year by the same group... Stuart caught them and ripped a strip off their hides, after which they slunk away looking suitably embarrassed. No incidents since then. (Oh... a few years ago, we actually had a couple of tender roses, in a bed right up near the house far from the public sidewalk, almost destroyed... all the blooming branches broken and ripped off!)
So, from all that, it probably sounds like we live in a ghetto but actually it's a very low crime suburban neighborhood. Our yard, being fairly close to a shopping center and on a corner and with a school bus stop down the street, gets more foot traffic than many streets, so that certainly adds to it.
Anyway, despite the occasional irritations I described, it's still worth it to have plantings, rather than lawn, out there.
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Very nice rock garden Luc ;) I am delighted to look at belgian front gardens every time we go to your country and I'll have this great pleasure on next Thursday :D :D :D
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Did you ever have problems with neighbours children, dogs, cats or destructions and theft caused by passerby?
We don't have a rock garden out front but do have perennial plantings on both sides of a corner lot, in the boulevard, and along the side fence. Yes, there is always some amount of "vandalism" every year, ranging from the results of mindless behavior to intentional small-scale destruction... there is a sliding scale to the amount of irritation it causes!
now my problems are more in the vein of : the neighbour's cattle wandering through (they did some minor damage in the veg garden and knocked over a pot or two), but i have had to deal with city issues, and some sensitive ones were raised there..lol
i never had a full scale garden like lori, living mostly in apartments but there were the pots of tomatoes i nurtured outside an edmonton apt--some neighbouring kids thought it would be fun to pick them and throw against buildings...
in toronto, at one place, i had one flower bed in front, which was really on the sidewalk; it was bothered less than i would have expected (of course it was immediately below a window and beside the door) but there were some flowers picked, a couple of small plants actually stolen and the dog owners who think all the world is a dog bathroom (you could not pay me to sit on grass anywhere in the city of toronto, even if there is no poop there right now, you can be sure every square inch has been pooped on)-besides the poop itself, just the idea that your dog should be able to trample around in someone's plants is beyond me...
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One way of discouraging pickers, dogs, thieves, and vandals is to steal a page from the UBC Botanic Garden. They have an "Economic Garden" there and the edibles in were (as you would expect) irresistible to visitors until they put up signs "THIS AREA HAS BEEN SPRAYED".
The signs were absolutely truthful: those areas had been sprayed with water.
In Lori's case, I can just see the local earth mother having the proverbial cow and making sure that her hellspawn walk down the opposite side of the street when they pass the evil chemical user's house.
Since yesterday was International Pirate Talk day, I'll end by saying hardy, har, harrrrrrrrrrrr, me lads!
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Signs?? My preference is land mines... of course, having to hose off the sidewalk afterwards is the drawback. Oh well, can't be helped....
(I've also considered having the little darlings' heads up on pikes... should be fair enough warning. ;D)
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Signs?? My preference is land mines... of course, having to hose off the sidewalk afterwards is the drawback. Oh well, can't be helped....
(I've also considered having the little darlings' heads up on pikes... should be fair enough warning. ;D)
lol..i can relate to the sentiment--though (not counting teenagers) my retribution goes always to parents and owners....
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Thanks for the very kind comments everyone !! :D
Reading all the previous remarks regarding vandalism, etc... I must be very lucky (touching wood here). So far, I've never had any bad experiences in that sence Gerd/
I live in a very quiet suburban neighbourhood with no through passing traffic. Only cyclists and people walking by on a Sunday afternoon stroll occasionally stop to have a look at this odd construction, wondering how somebody can get it into his head to dump a couple of tons of rock in front of his house... ;D Exceptionally, if they see me around, somebody will stop and ask what that funny thing is I'm growing, pointing at the 15 year old Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis that can be seen from the street... ;)
Not many small children living nearby either and definitely no roaming cattle or deer... ;D
My plantings do not invite for flower picking Lori.. ;D I guess it's a lot harder to pick flowers from Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis than to pick a Lily or a Rose... :-\
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Luc, your rock garden is a real inspiration, beautifully designed and planted and I'd love to know what the light green mossy hummock is in the centre?
No vandalism in the mountains here - unheard of amongst the locals - but down in Martigny, I'm afraid to say, young men from abroad starting the trend. I was about to approach a young group of 7 and was warned heavily not to - it took me a while to come to terms with not challenging them for mindless behaviour on a beautiful walk by the river but I took the advice. I blame upbringing too and no sense of other peoples space and value.
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Curiously I find myself having things in common with Luc and Lori, despite their differing experiences. We are quiet(ish) suburban but just off the corner where the shop is frequented by the kids from the (very) local high school. A mixed and often noisy bunch their greatest offence is litter. However the litterpicking I do means I also spot weeds more quickly and they occasionally pay me for the job by dropping paper money with their litter. Oh yes, I have twice found a £10 note while litter picking!
The garden itself is not as neat and tidy as Lucs', I adopt a 'natural gardening' strategy due to lack of time. I still get appreciative glances and comments from passers by but vandals like to spoil something that looks unspoilt and my gardens wild look might fool them :D (I hope!)
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Giles judging by your latest avatar you are taking this laid back attitude a bit too far ;D
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Thanks for the compliments Robin and Tony.
The little green hummock is the 15 year old Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis I mentioned in the text...
As to the neat- and tidyness of the garden... a lot of credit for that goes to the fellow gardener I've been married to for 34 years now... ;D ... we've made that a joint venture ;)
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Luc,
Great garden, obviously has much attention lavished on it, great attention to detail. Fabulous!
Re intruders/vandals etc. I have a large, loud-barking dog who keeps by-passers, well, passing by very quickly. He does not tolerate people stopping near our garden and makes it obvious to them that he really doesn't want them even on the road outside the garden. Despite then we had some plants taken from the roadside a few months ago, whole plants simply lifted and taken away by a man who walked our road regularly. Mary drove along just after he had lifted the plants - they were only some primula japonica - but she made no comment. However, he realised he had been seen and hasn't been on the road since. Good riddance.
Paddy
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They never take the weeds, do they Paddy? (Not that I'm insinuating that you might have one or two sir)! :D :D
We used to get sheep leaping our fence (especially in hard winters), but the kids would shout; "Mint sauce" and they scarpered quite quickly!
(The sheep, not the kids ... they KEEP coming back - with their flocks)!
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One way of discouraging pickers, dogs, thieves, and vandals is to steal a page from the UBC Botanic Garden. They have an "Economic Garden" there and the edibles in were (as you would expect) irresistible to visitors until they put up signs "THIS AREA HAS BEEN SPRAYED".
The very best street-level-vandalism-deterrent I have ever seen (so wish I could find the pictures), were of Tony Avent's wonderful "Plant Delights" nursery in North Carolina, where the entire area bordering the road is an impenetrable hedge of waist-high or taller prickly cacti interspersed with huge clumps of ornamental grasses. This obviously keeps out man and beast as well as the bulk of temptation!!!!
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My tiny bungalow in my new home in Nova Scotia sits back somewhat on the main street in Annapolis Royal.
The former owner, who lived here for 50 years, was not a gardener. The front yard is composed of a large Acer pseudoplatanus, a Tilia and Quercus robur (which are widely naturalized in this province). In front of the house was the usual tiny bed of common weeds. Squished up against the foundaition were masses of hosta, and innapropriate woody plants (lilacs, junipers, hydrangea)---which have all been removed.
My property is on one of the major deer runs in town; working their way through the sheltered woody area in back, to the river across the street and back again. It is my first experience gardening with deer. There is not a day that groups of them are not passing through the property.
10 days ago I went into panic mode about all the plants that had accompanied me and were still sitting in a holding area in pots. The first mild frost had hit here on September 9th (even earlier than I had ever experienced it in Ontario).
And thus, a "panic garden" was quickly created; although I have tried to keep in mind my eventual fantasy of rock and crevice gardens in the entire area close to the house.
A "woodland garden" abutts the street in a large curve, inside of which I have made a tiny start on the rock garden, which can keep me busy for many years to come, especially since, unlike in Ontario, I have to drag each rock home piece by piece.
My moving boxes also managed to get properly recycled.
AND, dear generous friends (you know who you are) thank you for your emergency shipping of Corydalis bulbs across the ocean to help me re-establish these small woodland gems, all of which I lost last winter in Ontario. They are now all safely planted in the garden.
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Nice to see you are putting down roots Kristl ;D
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My tiny bungalow in my new home in Nova Scotia sits back somewhat on the main street in Annapolis Royal.
The former owner, who lived here for 50 years, was not a gardener. The front yard is composed of a large Acer pseudoplatanus, a Tilia and Quercus robur (which are widely naturalized in this province). In front of the house was the usual tiny bed of common weeds. Squished up against the foundaition were masses of hosta, and innapropriate woody plants (lilacs, junipers, hydrangea)---which have all been removed.
My property is on one of the major deer runs in town; working their way through the sheltered woody area in back, to the river across the street and back again. It is my first experience gardening with deer. There is not a day that groups of them are not passing through the property.
10 days ago I went into panic mode about all the plants that had accompanied me and were still sitting in a holding area in pots. The first mild frost had hit here on September 9th (even earlier than I had ever experienced it in Ontario).
And thus, a "panic garden" was quickly created; although I have tried to keep in mind my eventual fantasy of rock and crevice gardens in the entire area close to the house.
A "woodland garden" abutts the street in a large curve, inside of which I have made a tiny start on the rock garden, which can keep me busy for many years to come, especially since, unlike in Ontario, I have to drag each rock home piece by piece.
My moving boxes also managed to get properly recycled.
AND, dear generous friends (you know who you are) thank you for your emergency shipping of Corydalis bulbs across the ocean to help me re-establish these small woodland gems, all of which I lost last winter in Ontario. They are now all safely planted in the garden.
looking good!
what are you doing with the cardboard? is this a weed barrier layer? permanent/temporary? i was thinking of a cardboard barrier, covered with mulch, as a buffer zone around all my beds, against the too vigorous grasses and clover.....
lots of deer here--some well worn paths on parts of the acreage, though you dont often see them; so far no signs of them showing any interest in gardens/plantings, not even my fledgling veg garden, apart from pruning shrubs over winter; i expect it may change when/if i have things sprouting in the yard before they are in the wild, that is the most vulnerable time..
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No, Cohan, not a weed barrier....only one of many ways to build a bed and kill the grass, without the cumbersome job of removing turf (totally unnecessary). In Ontario, where I had so many maples, my preferred method would be to make great huge piles of maple leaves in the fall, wherever, I wanted a new bed, allow them to settle somewhat and then throw the soil directly on top and plant. Voila.
Some folks use layers of newspaper (didn't have any)....and it was too early for leaves, so I used what I had on hand (the moving boxes). These will have broken down by spring or soon thereafter. I used the cardboard only in the areas where I am building the rock gardens---as the rocks and soil will be high there, so no issue with having to dig into cardboard to plant. Cardboard is also under where the paths will be (which will get covered with stone or bark mulch, haven't decided yet, as the two areas of alpine/woodland are contiguous).
The area where I built the woodland garden I did not use cardboard, as I knew I had to plant many deep-rooted plants (Gentiana lutea etc) and did not want to deal with difficulty of making holes in the cardboard. This area was covered by spoiled hay, which is easy to come by and cheap, and then covered with soil. Same principle.
Last picture is of my new plunge bed, which I cannot live without.
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Very best of luck with all your plans, Kristi, you certainly seem to be making good progress with your garden landscaping....next time I extend my rock garden I will take into account your methods of weed and grass supression - it took me ages to clear our Alpine slope and roll rocks down into holes or they would go on rolling in the snow melt :o
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good approach..i've heard of similar approaches for killing turf, just not the step of putting soil on top..
i'm just working with soils/materials that occur right here for now, until i may get some gravel or rocks sometime..
i've tried some areas with covering to kill growth underneath (turf would be an oversimplification, as i have no areas that are all grass)--had some spots alongside my veg garden that i piled grass/leaves etc several inches thick; one area doesnt seem to have grown through, others have, must need to be thicker yet; had some spots covered with tarps, that was only partially effective--some of the things grow right through the tarp!; havent tried cardboard yet, though i have intended to..havent been organised enough to cover areas far enough ahead, so when i want the bed ready, i have to dig anyway..i think i still will have to dig, no matter what, as i'd like to get some of the tree roots out, though i know they will come back..
i think the covering might be most useful for areas where i'd like to plant natives and don't need to cultivate much, just give them barer soil for less competition to get established; i'd still be planting them in the native soil, though, not putting other soil on top...
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Kristl, glad to see you recycling!
We did the same when we moved into our house, people walking by watching us laying cardboard and covering with soil just walked by shaking their heads.
Yours looks much neater at the edges than ours though, I did shove layers of newspapers under the bits with gaps.
Earthworms LOVE cardboard.
No dig gardens rock!! :)
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Luc,
Beautiful garden!!
Kristl,
So much promise. I do have to admit though that when I saw your "recycling" picture my first thought was.... how unusual to be using slate as an outdoor paving/driveway in that type of pattern..... then I realised it was cardboard!! :o ::) Your way was much better than mine..... the slate would never have stayed in place! ;D
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You've taken off to a flying start Kristl ! :o
Looks all very promising - can't wait to see it planted up ! :D
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Makes my new little bits look very - little! And I can't get going as the weather is just awful. A couple of weeks now without a decent day. Raining heavily again today, making every shovelful of soil twice as heavy. :'(
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good approach..i've heard of similar approaches for killing turf, just not the step of putting soil on top..
i'm just working with soils/materials that occur right here for now, until i may get some gravel or rocks sometime..
i've tried some areas with covering to kill growth underneath (turf would be an oversimplification, as i have no areas that are all grass)--had some spots alongside my veg garden that i piled grass/leaves etc several inches thick; one area doesnt seem to have grown through, others have, must need to be thicker yet; had some spots covered with tarps, that was only partially effective--some of the things grow right through the tarp!; havent tried cardboard yet, though i have intended to..havent been organised enough to cover areas far enough ahead, so when i want the bed ready, i have to dig anyway..i think i still will have to dig, no matter what, as i'd like to get some of the tree roots out, though i know they will come back..
i think the covering might be most useful for areas where i'd like to plant natives and don't need to cultivate much, just give them barer soil for less competition to get established; i'd still be planting them in the native soil, though, not putting other soil on top...
Cohan,
There are a couple of principles at work ---- if I had simply left the basic covering layer (be it straw, cardboard, newspaper, grass clippings, leaves) whatever; things *would have* continued to grow through (UNLESS that basic cover was solid enough or thick enough NOT to allow light through to the weed level (be it turf or other weeds). Put enough soil or other clean substance on top of the "barrier level" and you will NOT have anything coming through (or the weed seeds germinating in the straw, for instance).
And, most of the plants (at least in the woodland area) will be growing in the native soil---because their roots will go down way past the addition of the soil on top.
For the rock garden, this is obviously not the case, as I require much more height---and will, undoubtably be bringing in even more soil over the next few years, as I continue to build that, section by section.
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thanks for further information, kristl... i will have to do some experimenting...
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Makes my new little bits look very - little! And I can't get going as the weather is just awful. A couple of weeks now without a decent day. Raining heavily again today, making every shovelful of soil twice as heavy. :'(
Lesley,
As I said to Bill in another topic..... quit stealing all our rain. You're getting too much, and we're not getting enough. Send it all back please! ;D
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Just to confound me, today is lovely and I'd like to be out there shovelling away. But I've arranged to go south today and will be away from home for about 7 hours probably. It's to pick up a plant order though, so not too many regrets. :D