Thanks bullthistle...I do need to put out more mulch. Haven't had a chance yet, but it is on the list of things to do. LOL Good advice...I should have an extra handtool out there to gesture towards as the drivers slow down to peer over their sunglasses and frown slightly. :)

I agree with bullthistle...

"what looks to the neighbors like...mud, dirt, rock and weeds...as it's taking shape."

Mulch will make it look finished even though it is not. It will definitely keep down your weeds and then when you find a plant to put in there you just have to move the mulch aside and plant away.

What about daylilies and irises in your bed? Both come in miniatures. I have a lot of 12 - 16" daylilies that I have planted along the edge of the paths. Irises, the MDB's, are only 6"-8" high and come in all sorts of colors also.

Do you have any problems with deer or rabbits in your area?

If you are looking for plants, at a more reasonable price, what about getting some plugs from the local nurseries? I know here, in Manitoba, Canada, the nurseries are just starting to sell their plugs. There is thyme and lamium available in plugs that are sold as annuals here, but yet in your zone they would be perennials.

Brenda

There's no rule that says you have to stick to "alpines" when establishing a rock garden, so why don't you fill in the gaps with annuals this first year? Granted, some are out of scale with your rock plants and might inhibit their growth by taking over, but portulaca, for instance, is a great plant that looks right at home in a rock garden, blooms all summer, and reseeds (although I've never had it become weedy). Nasturtiums can be direct seeded into the garden and will spread over rocks to soften edges; they also bloom better if grown in leaner soils and not irrigated so much. Gomphrena globosa, in purples and reds, is sun and heat tolerant and will provide some visual interest without taking over space you want your perennials to occupy in future years. I'm sure there are lots of others, but this would be a great way to buy some time while your slower growing plants get established. Whatever you do, don't try to rush things by planting aggressive perennial groundcovers like Vinca major or Asiatic jasmine; trust me (the voice of experience), you'd live to regret it!

Just because an alpine garden is what many of us call a rock garden, doesn't mean yours has to be that way, containing high mountain plants, I mean. Especially in Georgia, unless you are up in the mountains yourself, true alpine plants are relatively hard to grow anyway, as the heat and humidity can spell death to those mountain plants that like cool and dry, windy air.

So keep on doing what you're doing. It sounds good to me.

Sorry I haven't been back to this in awhile. Busy week at work.

valleyrimgirl -- The daylilies are a good idea. The only kind of miniature ones I ever see here are what I call "landscaper's daylilies." I think they are the Stella d'Oro (sp?) variety. They are not my favorite, but maybe I can find some others through mailorder.

bubba62 -- Portulaca is one of my guilty summer pleasures! LOL It would completely wreck my color scheme out there in the rock garden, but I do love the stuff. Maybe just planted by the mailbox I could get away with it. Portulaca is right up there with making peach ice cream and sitting on the porch swing in my opinion...one of the joys of summer. I have to tell you, I did consider the Asiatic Jasmine awhile back, but I didn't do it.

leftwood -- Is Dwarf Mugo Pine considered an Alpine plant?

You could direct seed easy drought-tolerant annuals like zinnia, cosmos and calendula at the ends to fill in for this season. I think a dwarf mugo pine would look good.

Given the size/scale of your bed and the fact that cars are driving by, I think that tiny little alpines won't even be noticed. You may enjoy them, but at 25 mph, they won't exist. Not only that, but it will take thousands of them to fill in. I would go with larger perennials, groundcovers, smaller conifers, etc. and group them for effect and to enable passersby to notice them. Save the tiny alpines for your own close-up pleasure and place them where they can get the special care they need.

How about more rocks? Any cool pieces of wood? There's a gal in Santa Barbara who goes around covering rocks with mosaic tiles (they turned out great). Or, put in some little statue or a banner for visual interest. That sort of says 'I'm working on it' to me.

I'd do groups of plants together instead of spreading them out too.

Please don't buy cypress mulch! Yikes! I found a blog talking about it and it's not pretty. Here's a whole coalition on it: http://www.saveourcypress.org

Oh, portulaca! What a miraculours plant; many colors of flowers from just one plant. We have dwarf mugos; they look great in the semicircular rock garden between our driveway and the road. Your neighbors probably don't care that much about your yard-- it should be obvious that it's a work in progress.

One of my favorite kinds of evergreens are the various kinds of "weeping" evergreens. They add textural interest and can be quite a conversation piece--some of them look like drunk trees! There are also low growing junipers that provide fast spreading, low growing groundcover. One of my neighbors planted several on a culvert embankment and trimmed the edges straight and the top flat to resemble a blue carpet. I smile everytime I drive by it.

Sedums.
Any garden is a thing in evolution.
Sedums are easy, there are lots of different colors, sizes heights and shapes.
Did I say they are easy?
You can fill in with them. If you buy a potted sedum you can break it into many many pieces and each one will grow to fill in any area. As you discover new and more interesting plants you can weed out the sedums as you go. You might even find new sedums that you want to keep forever but in the meantime the alpine plant world is such an adventure that you can just keep on replacing sedums as your adventure progresses but you'll have a great garden already.

I will convert another piece of lawn into a bed of dwarf conifers with heathers and rockgarden plants. Rocks will get in there from other parts of my yard, might actually buy a very few.

Dwarf conifers (see the Conifer forum) look good in a rockgarden as a beautiful framework.

Heathers and heaths are colorful and come in different colors and in heights from 4 to 18 inches, are good in zone 7 to 5, probably also 8. I buy from rockspray.com. The soil needs peatmoss, you need to plant deep, and keep it watered the first year when dry.

I am just in the process to order seeds of rockgarden plants from NARGS, North American Rockgarden Society. This is a way to grow the expensive alpine plants over winter in your basement under lights, and they can populate your large rock garden the same year.

Bernd