The nice thing about a rock garden is that it can be as big or small, elaborate or simple as you'd like. There is a Rock Garden Forum here that you might want to take a look at as well as Googling images for rock garden - page after page of examples.

A rock garden might do well to ease some of the straight lines you now have. But even a simple rock garden can be quite a bit more sophisticated than casual so I wouldn't be worried about going too far in one direction. Mine is very small (maybe 5'x 5') in a corner of a back bed using just football sized rocks I scavenged from some nearby street repair, rocks that seem to surface every year from freezing and thawing, and some stone left over from an old retaining wall. Garden centers here do sell rocks/boulders of all sizes and probably do where you live as well, and maybe you could even find some for free on Craig's List in your area.

Mine's simple - I use the dark navy blue Siberian iris for height and foliage interest, some years I'll add clumps of acidanthera for late season bloom; the rest is a scattering of hens & chicks, sedums - low and mid heights, creeping phlox, portulaca, and dianthus. The only work is remembering to replace the portulaca if it fails to self seed and keeping the patches of creeping phlox from over spreading.

Thank you. I have a problem of planning the garden. To be specific, how do I define the space??? Do I make a flower bed? But wouldn't it be too confined?? I don't know how to go about planning the space.... Help, please!!

One thing that I think you can stop worrying about is how it goes with the rest of the landscape. It is less of a problem because you will have the benefit of the grass visually separating it from the rest.

Don't be afraid to add a lot of soil to create some topography first. Then use the rocks that you can handle to make rock formatins to push areas of that topography up while leaving other areas lower. I would not stack or pile smaller rocks, it tends to look messy, spotty, and unnatural.

Group rocks and plant in the gaps. This mimmicks nature as moisture persists under rocks giving more opportunity for plants to grow. Put rocks and plants in some dense groups, maybe only two or three groups, and have looser plantings lightly tie them together.

The good news is that you will have instannt unity from the rocks, so you can get away with lots of individual plants of varying color, form, and texture. This is what most often makes a rock garden exciting, but often missed as the observer focusses in on the rocks. Put the rocks in the ground rather than on the ground.
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I have to check out the rock garden forum, I did not know there was one!

To help you envision the space and define its parameters, a garden hose is sometimes helpful. Use the hose to create the outlines of your bed, step back, take a look at it from the deck, from the house and see what you think--is it too small/big, needs to curve more/less at a specific spot so that you can see it from where you want to view, etc.

Then you can mark your lawn around the edge of the hose with spray paint and begin to dig it out.

Chueh - looks like you've got the computer program to do some initial plotting. You'd have to decide where the best placement would be. Kind of just where you want to look at something - from the deck, or close to the deck on either side, across the sweep of the back lawn using the wildflower area as a backdrop, in the middle of the lawn as a stand alone feature? You could test out shapes; angled ovals, irregular shapes, kidneys, wide semi-circles, etc. with a garden hose or string.

Definitely some items of interest on the Alpines and Rock Gardens forum.

Thank you all very much for your input. They are all great!!! I have a question for Laag or anyone who can input more though:
for topography purpose, how do I stick rocks together? Do I need to glue them? Wouldn't the soil be washed away or run down under the rocks when it rains and ages, if I create some topography. Also, since it's flat surface, I have to pile the soil up to create topography with some rocks interwoven in between. Thus, the soil in the garden would not be as deep as that in nature. Wouldn't the soil be enough for the plants to establish roots well? Sorry, I have many little questions....... Thanks

I'm not sure what you mean about the soil being less than in nature. You would start with only soil to contour. Then you would place rocks into the soil. Make some of the rocks touch each other and infill behind them with some of the soil. You would plant in the soil in front, next to, or behind rocks, not on top of them.(see picture above)

I was thinking that since rocks are not flat, the soil would run through the gap between rocks. Thus, I imagined that the soil would get less and less day by day. Is it not?? Sorry, since I have not tried it, I don't know how it goes. Thus I am having a lot of questions....... Thank you guys.. :-)

I see what you're asking. Once you've gotten to the point where your proposed area is plotted out and you're ready to actually start putting the garden together - any soil you add to create topographical features (little hills, valleys, etc.) will settle and stay in place. How you place your rocks in or around the hills and valleys will also keep the soil from either blowing or washing away. Rocks should be partially buried - think of ice bergs floating in the ocean; there's a lot of the berg under water that you can't see. This also keeps your rocks from looking like they were just dropped into place. The final step would be putting plants between the rocks, behind or in front of the rocks, in pockets in the rocks - the plants will also keep the soil in place.

hi
Might add that if you don't have a source of rocks or stones. or you want very large or specific colors or textures . Check in other naterials such as fiberglass or
hypertufa. You can either make these oor buy them already made . Quite comparably priced to the real thing. The great advantage is weight . .About one sixth the weight of natural. Another advatage is it's quite easy to add planting holes or change the whole thing around if you don't like it. Check out the hypertufa forum for some ideas . gary

If you are using rocks to hold topograhy, the weight is the mechanism that holds back the force of what is being retained.

The price of rocks is more related to transportation costs than other materials. They are quite heavy, so typically the farther they go, the more they cost.

I see pallets of stone of the type suitable for this and of the size that a homeowner can handle retailing for just under $300. These pallets hold roughly a cubic yard of stone (3'x3'x3').

Thank you all very much for helping me. All great inputs

chueh--just wanted to tell you that you asked great questions. Your post exemplifies what this forum CAN do for people--if they are patient, ask appropriate questions, and are willing to LISTEN.

good luck with your project!

melanie

I suggest going to the library and checking out some books on this subject. The books will have specific directions on how to create a rock garden.

My best friend built several rock gardens all around her house. Start small, you can always add more, that's what she did. She did all the work herself too, because she didn't have a lot of money to spend on it. Shop around for a good rock supplier, maybe ask a local garden club or find a house with a rock garden you like and ask the owner where they got their rocks.

Most landscape supply places in the Atlanta, Georgia sell rocks and boulders now. At the one near me, one can buy them by the pound (15 cents per pound but you can pick the exact ones you want) or by the pallet (about $165 per ton).

Another idea (depending on where you live in Ga) would be to run an ad in whatever rural area lies closest to you. To the east, west and north of Atlanta you will find that farmers piled an awful lot of granite/quartz boulders along their fields which are now problematic for those living on the former farmland.

I know, out here in west georgia, it is said that "the only thing holding the soil together is the rocks"...you could have truckloads of native stone just for the asking.

Someone on another forum told me my beds were 'inside out' because the rocks are in the middle instead of around the edges. I also broke the rule about soil first and put loads of dirt over and around the stones once they were placed. Be that as it may, you're welcome to look over my linked albums. The first is spring, the second more recent. Right click on the photos to view in another window.
{{gwi:45009}}A Dry Spring
{{gwi:45010}}Datura Bed

My stones came from nearby fields with the help of a bulldozer and a front end loader.
You might look in the Yellow Pages under 'Rock' and 'Dirt.'

Plant roots and mulch hold soil in place.

Nell