Leah it is beautiful..absolutely beautiful..when we had our old house we had a long trek to the garden no matter where we put it..as right behind the old house was a hard compacted gravel driveway circle turn around a lilac..and then there was a foundation with an old workshop/woodshed on it..
when we had the fire the house went where the gravel driveway had been and the contractor moved the lilac across the
pond area..and he also bulldozed up the foundation of the building and hauled it away..that is where our drainfield is now..the
apple tree that is there was nearly leaning against the shed we had behind the building and now it is right out back beyond our drainfield..we are about 70' closer to the rear than we were before.
so now the old garden area where they USED to put stuff is more easily accessible...that is where i'm putting the berry bushes and nut trees, it only had a few herbs and asparagus and rhubarb and horseradish..as it was just too far away to mess with before.
I have a book on gravel gardening..rocky gardening..the book is called 'The American Weekend Garden' by Patricia Thorpe..Random House ISBN 0-394-5025-6
"When I found there was six inches of csoil coverinig those rock ledges, I said, 'Drop the delphinium.'".......when you find that a pick is the only gardeing implement you can get into your ground, it's time to regroup your
gardening aspirations.
"......developing an area like this for planting has a kind of archaeological fascination to it - you want to reveal sections of this natural formation, then plan your lantings around them. ......keep any good soil that can be salvaged from the original covering layers. This can be improved with sand and leaf mold or compost and put back into pockets or cerevices you decide to plant. .....what you have instead is just soil filled with small to medium sized rocks interspersed with an occasional boulder. To prepare soil like this for any kind of planting, most of the rocks must come out. You can use them the way all the farmers in your area have used them for the last two centuries - walls paths pavings. ....a
raised bed can be made from your rocks. This is a freestanding wall that encloses soil; both theoutsidde of the wall and the soil within are planted with rock plants....any change in level in your garden is a good excuse for a retaiining wall, which an then be planted. Small terraces can be built - this brings little plants closer to eye level.....".....then discusses scree gardening.......turn to fascenating plants of our desert regions, perfectly at home in sand and rock. Consider the glorious bulbs of S Africa ...
If, after getting hooked on this
project, your backyad looks like a highway under construciton and your neighbors as well as your spouse think you are certifiable, just wait until next spring......these plants will add a whole new season of bloom to your garden.....
"Oklahoma and New Mexcico share with the western extremes of Texas enormous ranges of temperature from great heat to terrible cold. Any of the flat, open parts of these states can be subject to very high winds and accompanying dust storms. AS the Midwest, windbreaks can provide both protection and relief from the flat natural topography. ...she goes on to suggest
native sages, bluebonnet, lupines, penstemons, prickly poppy, yucca, and other plants of spanish influences..
had some other
books on gravel gardens but really can't remember now which ones they were..it will come to me