building a desert rock garden

Hello,

We have a turn around circle in our driveway and I want to turn it into a desert rock garden. Linda located a pile of stones on a field and it looks to be ideal for this project. We have some interesting ideas as to how this garden should appear and I plan to add cacti, yuccas and sempervivums to the mix.

Obviously, its the shape and appearance I am concerned with. I don't want to end up with "just a pile of rocks"! Anybody out there know of a visual source of depth regarding desert rock gardening?

Thanks for your interest, in advance.

Geneso

Geneso - we're more of alpine rock gardeners here. I don't have
any suggestions but wanted to know I'd read your question.

Tam

Unless you find what you're looking for (sorry I can't help much either), I would take cues from natural formations.

I haven't been to Seattle since I was a lad, so I am speaking from a purely academic standpoint, but I would think growing cactus would be difficult there, with all that rain and grey sky in the winter.

I think the most important part of keeping any rock garden from looking like a heap of rocks and soil was just left there is asymmetry. For example, I have a small approximately semicircular rock garden against the garage wall, and I divided it into 2 uneven "halves" with a curved, dry streambed (which hides flat rocks that are buried for me to get to the top on without slipping on gravel). One part is very full and rounded, and the other comes down steeply to a flat area.

If you can choose one off-center high point (art, a huge rock, or maybe the most striking and large plant), that will help, too. Try to avoid spacing your rocks evenly, which is harder than it sounds.

The natural angle of a heap of dirt, I was told, is about 60 degrees, so I would avoid that angle in most places. I was also told to be sure to have a few of the rocks contact the outer edge to make it look "connected". In my case, this meant putting some up to the edge of a sidewalk or the edge of a path.

Hope this helps.

geneso I feel your frustration, but more so, I know for sure since I live in a desert and have no rain all summer long. Finding those kinds of plants with shallow roots that take drought and heat and wind too. grrrr

Geneso, we have lived in Yuma, AZ; Brier, WA (near Seattle) and now back to Northern AZ in the high mountains. We have cacti, yuccas and sempervivums growing here, but why I ask, do you want to grow cacti in Seattle? We used low growing yews/junipers and etc with Clematis (yes, Clematis can be grown on the ground) to make a beautiful landscape with hardly any upkeep and producing lovely color and contrast, in Brier. Rocks, pebbles and ground covers can give a total alpine or mountain stream affect. Plant bulbs and etc alongside for spring color.

If there is too much moisture (from snow in our case) the cactus can get too wet and rot. We were very surprised to find wild cacti growing up here at 7,000' on our 1 acre lot! If you look around, I'm sure you can find cacti that will grow in your area.


This message was edited Mar 30, 2009 12:20 PM

Geneso,

I realize that you are looking for some visual representations.... sadly, I can tell you from experience there are not many available either in books or on the internet. Luckily I live in a state that has natural examples for me to see within a short drive from my suburban surroundings. That said when I was looking for information about how to create gardens that were similar to what you describe I do remember finding some information on the web. If you do a google search on Sand Bed Gardens there is a gardener in Pennsylvania that has some gardens that incorporate dryland plants as well as cacti and other succulents. This page is of the garden of Mike and Jan Slater. They also explain that this type of garden is described in the book "Rocky Mountain Alpines". There is also a section in the book "Rock Garden Design and Construction" that has some photos of another garden in Connecticut that has cold hardy cacti and succulents. I believe the information about these two specific gardens may help you. You may also want to do a search for rock gardens on some of the photo hosting sites like webshots and the like, if you haven't already that is. Hope that this helps some.

I'll look at them, thanks.

The Boyce Thompson Arboretum has some excellent examples of desert rock gardening... both cultivated and in the natural areas all around it. (We've spent many days wandering around there!) Maybe you can get some ideas from the cactus garden area photos. The University of California Botanical Garden also has fabulous rock gardens, but unfortunately, the site doesn't seem to have photos (although maybe photos are shown on other sites).
http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/tour.html