There are no other rock gardens in town, or woodland gardens, for that matter, either traditional or native. So I have no idea how the development of my landscape has been viewed except that I am surely known by the never-ending piles of rocks, soil and gravel that always seem to be somewhere in the front yard being put to some new use.
People passing on the sidewalk as I work have always commented "will look good when it's finished" which used to annoy me to no end---but then a front garden is usually seen as a simple, streamlined affair with foundation plantings; something to frame the architecture of the house. But my intention has always been to create a garden there that will make the ugly, entirely uninteresting house disappear over time.
And of course, I am a gardener and have no interest in a "finished" garden and intend to stretch out the work for as long as necessary. As it is the only sunny area on my property, there are also two more rock gardens to come, as well as a trough area. The partial fence that will be added this year will connect to the one in my side yard and provide more privacy on the non-sunny side away from the rock garden and create, I hope, a sense of a "courtyard" for the alpines.
The fence will come up along the red brick house you see in the last picture, then across towards the house, following the street/sidewalk towards the rock gardens, but will stop about 60% way of the way across (more like a partial screen), definining as well the adjacent "exotic" woodland garden that runs on the left side of the picture (the street side) and goes around the corner to the side fence. In the very corner of that woodland garden is a Magnolia sieboldii, which is hard to see in the picture. Across the path, at the corner of the house is an Oxydendron arboreum, and further along a Cornus kousa Satomi. There are also various Japanese maples in the woodland bed. Most of my Hellebores, Podophyllums, Glaucidium, Anemonopsis, etc are here as well.
