Weekend Project: Recovering the Rock Garden

Rock gardens always take a lot of work.

No idea why, but this year the weeds and crabgrass totally overran the rock garden out back.

You couldn't see anything except weeds.

BTW, the rock garden isn't sun-fogged - the light stuff is blooming crabgrass.



So I spent a chunk of time for the last two weekends recovering the rock garden.

First step was to start clearing. Some weeds went deep into the soil. They had strangled a lot of the plants.



I managed to save some plants where the weeds weren't all that thick. Like the plants off to the right. Have no idea what they are - they appeared three years ago and for all I know they might be a weed. But they look cool, like they belong there.



Some plants were just tangled up in weeds. So I tried digging them up, separating the roots, and then replanting. Worked for some plants, like these ornamental chives - which took years to grow. They look a little wilted, but I think they'll come back OK.



Finally - I got it cleared out, and planted some new shoots:  lamium, blue bells, miniature asters, a few kinds of sedum - low growing plants and some alpine stuff that make a rock garden look really great.







It will be a few years before the foliage spreads. But the rock garden is a rock garden again. Ready to meet the summer.