my walkway has just turned the corner

Love the stone work!

More great pictures ruby and one of the "artist" as well :) It's so nice to finally be able to see what John's been up to - that's a lot of work!!! Puts to shame the measly little rocks I carry around to find a place for in the gardens - I just wish I had a resource to find some BIG rocks :)

Yes Debbie, we were talking yesterday about Joe Home Owner could do this project himself, but the cost of the rock are a consideration when you don't live on top of Rock City. I would offer to share, but we are not finished with our projects yet. John begs rock from every source he can find too.
Last year I was complaining about him getting several neighbors rocks. He told me that much of the rock on our property is of shale quality and crumbles in your hands.

Most of this rock, especially the larger ones came from about a hundred thousand dollar excavation job three years ago. You might be living on top of a good supply too if you were to do some excavating. ha-ha

The most impressed that I have ever been by rocks was several years ago when we visited the river side of some family property in West Virginia. Imagine the smoothness of some of the rock from hundreds of years of constant wear of nature.

Ruby

Thanks, Ruby! :-)

I hadn't fully appreciated from the previous photos that the walkway walls are big stones on one side and mortared stonework on the other side... and then the soapstone will tie it all together... how wonderful! John has a great vision, there!

Ruby & John, You will have a wonderful front yard when you are all done and Ruby, I'm sure you have visions of lots of flowers blooming and tumbling over the walls.
That is a lot of work, something you can be proud of.
The monument is lovely. Could you plant something taller in the center and then come down in size and finish off with annuals like petunias that will spill over the side. You could pick a different color petunia each year. Just a suggestion.

Oh, I like the idea of something taller in the center... for winter interest, maybe either something evergreen, or install one of those metal obelisks for climbing plants?

Ruby, Maybe you should start a new thread for Ideas for planting your monument. Don't forget to add the picture to get us started. ; ^ )

Ruby, I just love your monument, That is truly as beautiful as the love you share. John's work is wonderful and I can't wait to see more of it as he progresses. I got a laugh at John's hunting and gathering of stones. We do a lot of that, too. Not that we don't have plenty in the yard, can't even dig a small hole without a digging iron. But we were dragging them home for weeks in preparation for the new wall that Ric is working on. The ones in the walkway were collected over a two year period just bringing them home and laying them out there waiting till we got around to that job.
Critter, I'll be looking forward to reading your article. I like the idea of some type of metal obelisks in the middle.
Hey Ruby does John know how to weld. LOL

Thank you all for the ideas. I will start a new thread tomorrow. Not going to be on here long today. In the middle of the monument is a cement statue of a little girl with a finger to her lips. Also in the bed is a Garden Plaque with a garden poem on it.

Chris, love the Petunia idea.

Ruby

Wow, it truly is a monument. Lucky lady!

I agree Pam.

Ruby

Ruby, Your project is so beautiful. It must thrill your heart to see such long awaited dreams coming to fruition. It's wonderful that John shares your passions and has such vision and talent. You are truly blessed to have found one another. Can't wait for more photos!!!

Hi there. The wall and stone work is beautiful. When I saw the picture, I thought that stone looks awfully familiar. It should. I live right nearby in Staunton.

For sure Joy, if you were to dig, you might come up with some of the same types of rocks. Good to meet you, I used to live in Stuarts Draft and shopped quite a bit in Staunton. I have been back in Crozet for four years now.

Amen to what you said about John and I, Stormy. He is one in ten thousand, for sure.

Ruby

Ruby!!! I had no idea you used to live so close to me! I've been thinking about your "monument" and I've got another project for John :) I think he needs to till up the area to enlarge the planting area so you can highlight that beautiful monument. Let me know when he gets it done - I think we could all find a few plants to share with you to make it even more special!

Wonderful idea Debra!!!!! We are ruuning out room for plants. I will show the plan to John and see what he says. Hey girl, we are probably about an hours drive from each other. One of these days we are going to have to meet in person.

Ruby

Well...I should have called you the other day when we were at the rest area on the other side of Afton Mountain with a flat tire :( You could have kept us company while we waited to have it fixed! LOL

Debra, you got my mind buzzing on Ruby's monument, I see a stone bench to the back right in the red circle, it looks like a butterfly bush back there, so plants to bring in the butterflys would be great and Ruby could go out there and sit with a cold drink and watch the butterflys go by. Might need a arbor over the bench with morning glories and moonvines, looks like there is a lot of sun in that area.
Sorry, John if I made more work for you. : ^ ( Love ya! Big Guy.

Debbie, you were about 5 miles from my house while at that rest stop. Where did you all visit over here if you don't mind me asking? If I could have walked a mountain path it would have been less than 5 miles.

Chris, I am going to start a thread for helping me to find plantings that will fill a space around the monument. If Debra will re-post the picture that she posted with the red line around the monument when I start it, things would be wonderful and every one can see what I will have to work with. I think that it was you who wanted me to start a thread for helping me decided what will go in the monument, so I will include that in the post also. I will need ideas for inside the monument and the area around it that John agreed would be a good place to do another bed.

Not sure when the bed will be done, but we put it our list of "to do's." We need to have the front walk finished first.

Ruby

Ruby - actually, I have a bunch of rocks and stones from the excavating work that was done to build our back wall. I used some of them to make a stone bench and others are ornamental and placed around the beds. I'll have to put a few pictures of my garden.

I sure like the bed that Debra suggested. It looks perfect.

As you all know I am new to this forum, so I want to say hello. I love gardening and do organic as much as possible. I also use as many natives as I can find along with other non-natives that are well adapted to this area. I moved here from Texas, but am a Pittsburgh, PA native by way of Florida. When we moved here, I got to start a brand new garden. The yard was mostly gone and the plantings, what few were here had to go. The only thing I was left with was a dogwood, violets and weeds. This is the third time I've landscaped a yard and as I've said to my husband, it's the last time.

Joy

Joy, Now never say never!!!

Ruby, I've been thinking about some winter color for inside of your monument. There are a number of small winter blooming evergreen Daphnes. Don't overlook my beloved Evergreen Cneorum which blooms in late March.

Also, I grew some of the cutest tiny little evergreen late winter flowering Hebes. They made it through 2 winters, but not the third. You are far enough south of me that there are probably quite a few that would be suitable.

I also like the combination of dark evergreen Iberis Candytuft's white blooms beside the silvery evergreen foliage and brilliant red flowers of Dianthus Allwoodii "Desmond"

These are all smaller plantings that would showcase your statue in the winter.

Maybe RCN could help you find the right Daphne & Hebe.

Welcome Joy. We will have to arrange to see each other rock work some time. I am about 45 minutes from you via I 64. Your comment about starting gardens and then moving, sounds like a girl friend of mine. She has done the same thing several times and grieves over what she leaves behind.

Wow Stormy, you spit out a list of greenery that I will certainly have to search on Plant Files. Thank you so much for taking the time to give some thought to this project. I will make a notebook of sorts and list the ideas that every one gives and of course give the person honor for doing so if I decide to use their suggestions in the bed. If we have the time to remove the plants in the monument this fall, I will certainly be looking for winter interest. Thanks honey.

Better find an empty notebook.

Ruby

Ruby, we were on our way to Charlottesville for a little shopping :) My daughter had never been there so decided to check out the historic downtown area. Expensive little shops there! About the only thing I bought for the day was a new tire :(

Welcome Joy - where have you been "hiding"? You'll love it here - a great group :)

stormyla, I don't think Ruby would have any better luck with the Hebe than we did :( It's such a beautiful plant and I had to try it, didn't even make it through the first winter! Although...that was about 5 years ago and with global warming maybe I should try it again? LOL Daphnes would be lovely, but I'm thinking too much sun there for them to do well. I'm afraid that bright sun would fry them!

Thanks Debbie. Oh yeah, the Downtown Mall is expensive. Did you see the street vendors and their wares? I guess that the mall survives only because during the week there are a lot of people who work downtown and visit the mall over lunch or during a break. Plus, tourists who get sucked in. Nice place to pick up a small souvenier of the trip.

Thanks for warning me about the two plants. That will save me time looking things up.

Have a good weekend all.

Ruby

Not to horn in on Ruby's planting, but I'm going to need some planting ideas for my front stone wall, too. Sounds like I may have to check out these two for my bed, it would be shadier.
" There are a number of small winter blooming evergreen Daphnes. Don't overlook my beloved Evergreen Cneorum which blooms in late March."

RCN, I'm sure you are right about the Hebe's cold hardiness., but my Daphnes in one bed are thriving in full sun. I looked them up again and all are recommended for sun.They are D.Cneorum "Ruby Glow", D. Burkwoodii "Carol Mackie", and D. Mezereum "Bowles White".

stormyla, you're right, the Daphnes will grow in full sun, I've just always thought it was too harsh for them. Most of ours only receive a half day of sun and they're happy :) On the other hand, our Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' grows in full shade. We just planted Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice' in the new garden - it's small, but I'm hopeful it will be a good spot for it. We've heard reports that it blooms forever!

Thanks, RCn, I'm going to look into the D. transatlantica.

Holly, I also have several different D. Odoras (February Daphne) and a couple of different D. Mezerums growing in shade. They are such great carefree plants. Many of them are repeat bloomers. My Cneorums put on a spectacular, fragrant bloom for two months in the spring. All this month, they've been putting out intermittant blooms, which the sun dries up in just a few days. In late October thru November, they will give another good showing. They need no pruning or deadheading. I have about 8 of them mixed in the shrub bed along my front walk to the door. Visitors just rave about the color and fragrance. They take the sun there very well. So far, the voles seem to leave them alone.

I've been looking up all the Daphnes you both have been mentioning. Things have stalled on the front wall but I have hopes of Ric getting back to it soon. I was reading that they don't like to be too dry or too wet and I'm afraid that my upper bed which is the shadier one may be a bit dry for them. But I do have another spot that might work well.

Holly, I don't have any growing in my really dry spots, but there are some doing just fine in some really damp areas. In general, they are fairly slow growing, but do get noticable growth spurts. Most varieities stay fairly small, neat and contained. I have about 25 of them, all evergreen.

At my other garden I had a full 12 months of bloom with them. My rock garden by the front door down to the driveway, had over 25 Daphnes in it and was always in bloom, even through the snow. Some sections of that garden were dry and they prospered there, at least Cneorum did. It tumbled down a rock wall there where a lot of other plants wouldn't survive the dryness.