And a couple shots from the other side, taken from my sidewalk:

This one showing part of my pile of very large awesome granite rocks that I haven't found a home for...

Kd

Thanks :) I've got lots of semps and a mixed-sedum tile (2 square foot to break up and spread all over) plus the other larger sedums I bought. I can't wait to get to the planting part! Eeeeeee!

I've been informed that my daughter's boyfriend "doesn't mind moving rocks" LOL so that should speed things up considerably ;)

Kd

That's gonna look really cool when done:). It's crazy to think your yard was covered in snow not too long ago:).

So fun!! One of the things I love most about succulents, it really let's me indulge my childhood rock collecting self:-) it;s going to be so cool, semps are so great to sculpt with. Enjoy.

You loved rocks to as a kid? So did I:). I had a little collection. My cousin collected pennies, but I collected rocks. Some prettier than others, but they were all special to me:). Everywhere I would go I would collect a rock. I still have the small rock I picked up from my visit to George Washington's home Mt. Vernon. It's nothing special, it's like gravel, but I thought at the age of 9 maybe George Washington walked on it:).

Rocks are special to me as well :-P I have so many, but I always find more. I collect them from all over, too. I am incorrigible... even as I was piling the river rock up I was pulling pretty ones out of the gravel and setting them aside *eyeroll* You can see how much river rock I already have (all saved from the foundation excavation of my house) and yet I still lug big ones home from walks down by the river. The big granite boulders I have - a friend called and said "we did a demo, there's some really big rocks - you want em?' Uhhhhh yes, please LOL! Some I won't even be able to move myself.

I am trying not to think about what I am burying in the spiral ... they're all dirty so I can't see if they're "interesting" or not. Best that way ;)

kd

KD, I sympathize, it's both a joy and a pain, I love driftwood too and lichen and moss. We come home from every trip with at least one rock and a lichen stick or two. Nice thing is when I get ready to build something in the yard I can almost always find enough materials laying around. Enjoy your project and show us when it's done.

Lol, Lisa ... yep, me too. I have lots of sticks too. And seed pods, feathers, etc. I kept a lot of cool driftwood from the beach in Vancouver but an ex burned it in the fire pit :O I could've killed him.

Add me to your list of rock enthusiasts. I have boxes of tiny sparkling mineral and rock samples I've collected from holidays all over the globe, some larger ones too found here in the U.K., big quartz crystal ones in the garden, and in plant pots etc. A pebble from AyresRock area, a mini volcanic 'bomb' from Iceland etc. fascinating stuff.

Gill

Forgot to say....the spiral idea will look great, please show us the next steps :-)

Gill

Ha! Me too on the rocks! I collect them too.

Long story -- we were doing an extended hike in the Grand Canyon, where every ounce mattered since we had to carry two days of water at a few points. We're all the way down at the bottom of the canyon and I discovered I had a rock from the Swiss Alps that was hidden in a buttoned pocket of my hiking pants. (All clean and laundered...) I was afraid that if I left it down there, geologists would find it and create all new theories on the formation of the earth, so I carried the silly rock around for 2 weeks, up and out of the canyon. :)

Gee, now I feel way more normal. I collect rocks too! From all over, and all types. I once bought a large suitcase and filled it with red lava rock from Idaho to take back to NC on the plane. It was very heavy. I am currently using many of my best rocks around the small fish pond I am digging in our backyard. Bunkfee, your project looks great and I look forward to more pics. Will the semps go inside the spiral where just gravel is now?

Barb

You people are my tribe, Hah! Barb I have hauled home extra heavy suitcases too.

Yes, I'm going to build up and fill it in with rubble rock, placing all the best rocks as the "walls" that will be showing. I think I might do a half-buried pot at the top, having semps "spilling" all the way down the spiral. I will fill in with the sedums at the edges and crannies so they all creep through the rocks and trickle down.

Man I'm sore this morning. I'm trying to get motivated and mobile so I can get a few hours work in before the sun comes around the house. It's been 30 degrees for two weeks straight, this is a crazy long hot streak for us.

Hello, my name is Bill and I am a rockaholic. I love your spiral idea. I don't know what came first; the rock or the plant.

Hi, Bill. Oh my *fans self* look at those organized rocks.

I have more in the basement and garage in bags and buckets. Now I want to play hooky from work and organize them.

I'm having drainage issues at the front (where the soil ends in the photo below). It seems I didn't grade properly; it's plateau-ed across the wide front. Everything pooled and washed out there when I hosed it down. I'll add more photos later showing the layers I added under the soil.

That's gonna look so nice in a couple years:). I mean it looks good now so just imagine when it fills in:). What inspired you to do this:)?

OMG Aloebot, seek help now!!!

Leslie, yes, sometimes I watch the documentaries about geologists/archaeologist finding crazy sh** and imagine how I could hoax them all with pieces of my collection.

I'm so stoked to get it planted, it's going to look amazing in a couple years once everything spreads out.

I've been wanting to do something with my river rocks and hardy succulents for a long time ... I've been looking at my unfinished dry steam bed (on hold til I can afford to sink pilings for a pergola) and the "other" crap rock pile for toooo long. I didn't want to move huge piles all over again until I had a plan.

The crap pile had weeds and quack grass and construction debris and ants so I didn't wanna just plant on that. People keep saying they'll come get some but it's like, one bucket at a time. Sigh.

I said to my daughter "we should just make a big ass pile and cover it with dirt and plant it". She suggested the spiral pattern :) She and her boyfriend helped move the crap pile over as filler, but I have double what I needed for this bed so I think I see another in my future ;)

kd

Oh, and it's on the west facing slope, which gets scoured by cold winter winds from the north and melty melts from the chinooks all winter. Should I cover or otherwise prepare this bed for winter?

I would say keep them covered when it gets cold. I know they're hardy, but you are Santa's neighbor and it gets freezing like the 9th circle of hell freezing:). Burrr gives me chills just thinking about it. I'm such a whining baby when it's like 50F;).

LOL, yup. Imagine having to get up and go to work at 7:30 am when it's -30C. Uuuuugh, why do I live where the air hurts my face? There's nothing quite like going out to shovel and coming back in with snotsicles LOL!

The semps I had in the ground-ground did fine, but they're definitely more sheltered over there - and I also pile the snow on top of that bed so it generally stays frozen. I'll just sew a big burlap cover and stake it down, I guess.

Lisa, lol, I know right? There is nothing like walking around in the desert hunting for rocks to forget about everyday problems. It is a soul cleaner.

Kd, this is what I thought of when I read snotcicles:).

Lloyd and Harry in Aspen California:).

Lol that's precisely what I meant :D

Kara, also my daughter wanted me to mention that 50F converts to "Woohoo!! Tshirt weather!" for us lol

Hahaha I'm a rock collector too! It's all fun and games til your cursing yourself carrying around boxes of rocks on a move. Now I end up parting with most my rocks when I move cause it gets out of control.

Kd- do your winters gradually turn into spring or is it just all of a sudden? Great here I go again getting OT;).

I think of Northerners like you to make me snap outta my wussiness for the cold. I think it's 50F you big wuss people up north would be laying out on a towel getting a tan in this weather, sipping on a Pina Colada;). When it's really cold and has snowed a lot you probably have to give yourself at least 30 mins to heat up the car and get any snow that's blocking you from leaving. It sucks getting in a cold car.

Yup, and lest you forget to plug your car in ... then it may not start at all. It was about 50F this morning when I left for work. A beautiful morning! ;) It's been in the high 20s/low 30s (mid-high 80s for you) for two weeks and we're all dying. Plus there's tons of forest fires so it's also smoggy .

BILL - rock hunting is 100% good for the soul. I love it. I'm fully inspired by your collection, I really need to get mine all together and organize 'em. I have a "purple" bed going in the front yard, and am going to do a grey/green bed, and a red/orange/lava stone bed, and a black/sparkly bed....sigh. :)

RYAN - I've moved many of my rocks, but only a couple times. I've acquired a significant amount since buying this property and I swear I'm never moving again. I always keep a bucket or canvas bags in my vehicle, you never know when you're going to find something. I am just reminded of a bag of green granite I found last year... dang. Where did I stash that? Hmmm...

Well I didn't get it planted in a very expedient fashion... only a couple of weeks ago, in fact, did it happen :/

Oh well, it's planted now. If I can just keep the squirrels or magpies from uprooting everything may have time to settle in and get rooted before the snow sticks around!

Not the greatest pic, the morning light was casting more shadow than I thought. I'll try to remember to get better ones this week.

I ran out of semps so I had to cap the spiral (at top right, you can see the end). Next year I'll expand it another 1/2 turn or so and it'll blend into the front bed's rock edge, with the succulents spilling out into the gravel.

The sedum tile did not go anywhere near as far as I'd hoped - but everything should spread next year :)

kd

Good job, kd. Can't wait to see it all filled in and lush.

Tyler

That's gonna look so pretty:). What are you going to cover it with when it snows?

Why woud it need to covered? Sempervivums are incredibly cold hardy..........

Because they're not fully established, and as I mentioned above this bed is in an exposed west-facing area subject to harsh scouring North winds and plenty of Chinook melt-freeze cycles :)

Probably ... burlap?, Kara and I'll just try to always shovel snow onto that bed, hopefully keep it frozen..

I think this year should be the only year you would need to protect a little. Just to be safe. It wouldnt't hurt you worked so hard:).

Next year by now they will be nice and established. Then the year after that you should start to see the fruits of your labor:).

That's what I was thinking, Kara. Better safe than sorry!

That is so awesome, it's going to be amazing next year. Great job!!

Update June 25, 2018 ... 11 months later :) I didn’t cover it to overwinter. I lost 3 Semps to diggers/chompers. I suspect jackrabbits as there is quite a bit of rabbit poop in there. I just split off a couple larger clumps and filled in the holes. I lost some of the sedums as well but what survived is filling in very nicely!!!

you can see on the left where I quit filling last year - I’ll get more plants this year and continue around the bottom, fanning out wide to spill into the existing bed.

I laid a big E. PVN stump with lots of air roots in there as an experiment and it’s grown a wee pup :)

One semp about to bloom:

Many different sedums :) only the tricolour hasn’t taken off very well. I can only find wee sprigs here and there. Whatever that big clump at top left is, it has done very well!

This section has filled in wonderfully

The majority of the semps are this red and green (got a 8-pack on sale). I had 4 or 5 other single clumps of other varieties and lost a couple, they were uprooted and died or were munched. I have a large happy colony of a deep maroon variety in another bed that I’m going to break up and plunk in the open spaces in this bed

The red and green ones are stunning!! And the bed is filling in nicely :-)

My local nursery just had a cacti and succulent "event" this past weekend and featured a huge array of both tender and hardy succulents and cacti....including a great selection of semps. I have a number of dish gardens of these (and with hardy stonecrops) so I had to buy a few more :-) Bought a bunch of tender succs as well......I'm just a sucker for succulents!! If it stops raining today, I will pot up a new dish garden. Or two!!

I’ve managed to not make any purchases (yet, ahem) this year. it helps that my favourite local nursery closed down... no more popping in on my way home to “have a look”. I am so sad :( family business, operated there for 100 years. I even missed the blowout closing sale!

Once I figure out (from the tags I saved) which semp varieties survived, I will allow myself to replace the ones I lost. And maybe some more stonecrop.

I threw some wee propagated echeverias in there as well, but I’ll have to bring those inside for the winter.

I want to do this someday! Thanks for the inspiration. Have I mentioned that's a nice kittycat?

Pagan, that’s Dave. He’s kind of a “big deal” around here :-P At least in his own opinion hahah

Everything is filling up nicely:). Semps look really good in cooler climates, and your spiral is going to look beautiful. I didn’t know PVN could handle your temps. It’s a bummer when you loose things, but when it comes to landscaping it’s all about survival of the fittest;).

In my neck of the woods if I don’t protect semps they will sizzle. These have been in the same spot since winter, and were hangin in there. But last week we finally hit temps in the low 100’sF/38C and it just was too much for these guys:(.

It’s been in the (mostly high) 20’s (mid-80s for you), and hasn’t gotten down lower than 10-ish (50-ish) even with the rain/hail storms. The PVN and other echies I popped in won’t survive winter, they’ll definitely have to be dug up and brought inside in September when we get frost.

My cat feels the same way and because of that, we named him appropriately. He lives up to it, too.

Are those delosperma you have spreading? I can't keep these things alive outdoors. They came up two springs in a row and then just up and died this spring.

No delosperma yet :)

It’s all semps and sedum varieties; rupestre (angelina?), spurium (green, light green, green and white, tricolour, dragons blood) uhhhh hmmmm... the one that looks like jelly bean plant only miniature (sedum acre?), and at least a couple more kinds. I’ll have to take closeup pics and get some IDs.