The image above is NOT our rock garden.

I will replace it with an actual picture when we’ve achieved the look we envision. 

 

Today my sister Jackie and I begin creating the river rock garden she has been envisioning for years. It’s going to be quite the undertaking, but I know it will be well worth the sweat equity and money to finally have it finished.

 

We have jointly owned this property for 15 years. Back then, we were (duh!) younger and Jackie felt that having large gardens in front and smaller ones elsewhere was just what she needed to de-stress from an all-consuming career that was becoming more untenable and miserable as the years passed. (Her district manager, frankly, was an as—-le. My term, not hers: I’m the wordsmith in the family, and I call ’em as I see ’em.)

 

JACKIE’S FAR-FROM-SECRET GARDEN BECAME A SHOWCASE

 

So, for a number of years, Jackie invested hours and lots of money caring for our gardens — swapping out plants, laying down cedar chips, pruning tree limbs, etc.  Our neighbors complimented her endlessly on the magnificence of our front yard. Cars frequently slowed down or came to a stop (when it was safe to do so) while their occupants took pictures. Her gardens were magnificent!

 

So, for at least a decade, she was happy to do the work. I sometimes helped, but just sporadically, because my outdoor reponsibility was caring for our livestock (daily feeding and watering, trimming their hooves, seasonal grooming, erecting and repairing their fences, etc.), including eight goats and six laying hens at one time; we’re down to three goats and up to 12 hens now who will be laying eggs starting in September.  We both chose the outdoor “chores” we fully enjoyed and that refreshed our spirits.

 

Jackie retired about five years ago and took up pickleball, a pastime she pursues in the way professional athletes pursue their livelihoods. She plays three to five days per week, hours at a time. She has become healthier, happier, and more joyous than I’ve ever known her to be, even as a child.  It has been a joy to watch the transformation from desperately unhappy VP of a bank to a uniquely happy retiree who gets to travel, play pickleball, hang with her friends and family, and live life to her complete satisfaction for the first time ever. And it’s about time!

 

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW

 

Our rock garden will replace the time-consuming, back-breaking work of eternal weeding, feeding, pruning, replacing, etc. that must take place to keep up a showcase garden. Jackie wants to invest her outdoor energy playing pickleball and mowing the lawn on our riding lawnmower. (I’d love to talk her into losing our monoculture lawn and allowing native plants to take over, but I fear that’s a bridge too far. She loves the “golf course look.” And there’s enough “wild look” in the goat pasture and beyond to give the resident wildlife what it needs to keep on keeping on, so I’m gonna go with the flow and not rock the boat.)

 

Jackie has decided on a salt and pepper “riverine” look for the middle of the rock garden, surrounded by larger rocks and to include some small boulders to make it look like a real glacial melt-type environment. She has drawn a picture of what she envisions, and it looks terrific. She laid it all out for me and her son Phil because we will share her task of schlepping the rocks from wherever they get dumped to their final resting places in her garden. Jackie will be responsible for their precise placement.

 

Yes, I will take some photos when the project is finished, but it won’t be the final look because she plans to bring in some  native plants (planted in pots so they don’t spread) to place in various locations to complete the look of a real riverside and riverbed.

 

It sounds fabulous. I hope we can pull it off. We’re gonna do our darndest!

 

UPDATE (Three hours later)

 

Here are the first (incomplete) images of the “river” that will run through the rock garden. (The large pots in these images are just temporary until the project is complete; they’re helping hold down the dark weedblock materials that underlie the garden area.) Larger, darker rocks will skirt the “river” and several large boulders will be added to help the space look rather like a glacial melt field. Appropriate-looking foliage will be added to complete the look.  I’ll keep you in the loop as the project continues.

 

 

UPDATE JUNE 24 2023

Here are today’s images showing the project 99% complete. We just need to trim some underlying material and get somedrinftwood and other natural effects to complete the look.

Looking good! We’re very pleased.

Alas, these picture don’t do it justice.

It looks sooo much better in 3D (real life)!!!