Monday, January 18, 2016

Dreaming of Spring: Planning Rock Garden Purchases

This happened last year too, I got cabin fever after Christmas and I started obsessing over what I would get and where I would put it. Three main projects I have in mind for Spring 2016 are to raise the bed in my wet side yard so the plants don't sit in water like this last year, plant in the dry riverbed to make a rock garden, and to mass plant lilly turf around my boxwood in the front (a look that appears to be very popular in Atlanta).

plant catalog

Here is my rocky back bed - it's a full sun south facing dry riverbed. I like the riverbed look but sometimes it looks like just a huge rock pile, so I want to sprinkle in some plants to make it more alpine rock garden and not JUST a riverbed. It would also give me a chance to sprinkle in something exotic like a yucca or agave that is cold hardy.

rock gardenrock garden

Here are the plants my friend Mike recommended for a south facing clay soil rock garden:
I had to look some of these up to see what they look like. I'm definitely going to get some phlox (I need more anyway to cover the rest of the arborvitae planter). I love the look of the Antennaria if I can find it online or locally. I found a really cool Pasque flower in the High Country Gardens catalog that I'll probably get. Hardy geraniums look similar to phlox so I could use them in the same way and hopefully they bloom at slightly different times. My feature, directly in front of the 3 big rocks, is going to be dwarf hot pokers and maybe some hens and chicks to give it a little desert look.

pasque flowerdwarf hot poker

cold hardy succulents
I would love an Agave plant for my rock garden, but it would probably hate the humid rainy summers in Indiana, although the Agave parryi Flagstaff does say it can take 30-40" annual rainfall with care (Indiana is arond 38").

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