Here's the one bed on my hillside in part sun - about 40 by 60. The bed in the back of it is an 80 by 30 mixed perennial bed. http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/rock1.jpg

This one is a shaded dry bed under a maple in the front. There's also Spring blooming bulbs that love to be dry. http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/rock5.jpg

My main "mound" with Allium schuberti in bloom. http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/rock7.jpg and Idaho fescue http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/rock8.jpg

This is the third bed in full sun where succulents and tulips and other sun lovers live. Lavender also grows here as do dwarf plants that want to be hot. http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/fronts08.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/safariofthemind/fronts09.jpg shows a Spuria Iris (which loves to be high and dry)and detail of the south side of the bed above.

RJ

You've put a LOT of work into your gardens! I especially like the bed along the driveway. Great job! Thanks so much for sharing your pictures.

I turned a dry, ugly slope into a hummingbird/butterfly garden, using rocks to form low terraces. The base of the hill planting area is made from keystone garden stone, filled in with a lot of planting mix.

The sprinklers don't reach up the hill very well, so i ran a sprinkler hose through the rock garden, and it seems to be doing well.

I have a web album showing pictures of the entire garden transformation, including the "before and after" hill rock garden.

It wasn't that hard to do, but then i love nothing more than spending hours hauling rocks, digging, and getting dirty.

I couldn't open your pictures, would really like to see them. Can you set up another link?

I forgot to ask about the stone area where you put your table & chairs. What kind of stones are those? They're so thin and flat - did you buy those?

i did buy the stone for the patios -- its some kind of "blue stone" but i don't remember the exact name. It came in pallets of slabs that are around 1 1/2 inch thick -- thicker than flagstone. I found a stone mason who laid the stones in a bed of sand, with space in between to plant ground cover.

You're right about the photos, i got mixed up.

Have you decided on any particular design yet? I spent a lot of time looking at web sites and images before doing my yard -- if you search under "stone walls" and "landscape stone" you will find several web sites that post a gallery of project photos. Or, go to Google images and type in "stone patios" etc... and you will also get some good ideas.

For free, I can pick up plenty of football-sized, roundish rocks at construction sites, and I thought I had a lot of them until I started using them. Apparently I only have a few! LOL! I need to step-up my 'rock recovery' efforts and scale-back my fantasies about how soon things will happen.

Thanks again for sharing your pictures, everyone. It's very helpful and inspiring!

looked at your photos and all i can say is...WOW!

Did you import those gorgeous rock slabs in your rock garden?

Its absolutely heavenly -- a wonderful site for the wedding tomorrow --hope its fabulous!

BoTann - what ocbird said!

Thank you both so much for sharing these great pictures!

Nice pics, keep'em coming. BTW, I have some update for May. Will be posting pics every month.

RJ

Honestly BoTann, your garden looks like its straight from a Kinkaid painting! Gorgeous!

Photos:
Stone wall and walkway
Gardens and pathways
Bluestone wall

If you have shade then maybe someone else can chime in as I'm relative new to woodland wildflowers and my beds are raised beds only. I'd probably try mosses, small ferns, chrysogonum, phlox, heuchera, scilla, hiacinthoides, iris cristata, and so on.

RJ

Wendy

Making things out of stone has been one of the most thoroughly satisfying aspects of gardenmaking I have done, in 20 years of making gardens. Even though I broke 1 finger doing it.

I've seen your garden when you first posted, but looking again...

Wow.

That's amazing.

I'd kill to have that look, but in zone 4, in dry mountains, on just half an acre... can't do it. *g* But I have an urge for blue conifers and more Japanese maple all of a sudden!

Ciao

Just browsing on a Sunday and wasn't going to say anything...but I just have to!!!
All your pictures are just breath taking.
OCbird...I could just picture myself with a good book and a shirley temple, LOL, sitting on your fountain patio!!!
And BoTann - your sedum in the hibachi sent lights off in my
head!!! That Croc is really a dilly...

I spent most of two hours in your gardens today and really enjoyed being swept off my feet!!!

Jackie Collins couldn't print my daydreams this aft...

Thanks!!!

Thanks for any advice!

ciao

Inukshuks are cool in gardens too.

Here you can see the pond edge and part of a flower bed edge:
http://24.78.74.8/artbysheryl/gardening/garden14.htm

At the bottom of this page are more pics of edging and bogs edged with rocks: http://24.78.74.8/artbysheryl/gardening/garden13.htm

I used them to shore up small slopes too. There's a pic on this page and also part of a path:
http://24.78.74.8/artbysheryl/gardening/garden19.htm

I made the paths by using digging the entire rock into the soil with the flatest side up and levelling it with the others around it. Fitting them together is kinda like doing a jigsaw puzzle, but more fun. Then planted creeping thyme between them.

You can do so much with big rocks. I want to make a ruined stone wall corner and cover it with vines.

I may move mine, but for now, I've put some in a bed next to my driveway. Honestly, they're so big and heavy, that's about as far as they got after I rolled them out of my van. (I had the movers put them in the van for me when my Mom moved. Hahaha!) It's a much more interesting spot now, though.

I've used softball-sized rocks to edge an area around my deck. The medium (bigger than softballs, but not so big that I can't pick them up) rocks are in several piles throughout a large bed in my back yard. They were most welcome this winter, as they were about the only things to look at. They also proved to be excellent points of reference this spring, when I just had to walk around and scout for foliage spouts, but wasn't sure where I should or should not step. I had only put a couple of them on bulbs. Ooops - hahaha!

Sheryl, I was unable to connect to your links. Will try again soon, your description intrigues me.

Jugglerguy, not on topic, but I love your picture of the "stoplight tomatoes!" Funny!

I'd never thought of using other-than-flagstone-type rocks for a path. Great ideas, Jugglerguy & Sheryl!

Here are a few of mine.

~Thia

You guys just wait...

Mike

Botann, it looks like you have done a very good job with the rocks. Please share photos when you have the plants in.

Xuan

Is that lawson cypress growing on its' side of its' own volition, or is that an experiment of yours? Same question for the camperdown elm?

Your property looks like a park. Excellent!!

Thanks for the compliments purpleinopp.
Mike