Building a Rock Garden

This post will be part instructional and part me gushing over how much I have come to love rocks. We found yet another amazing treasure on The Farm: a collection of over 5,000 individually cataloged and wrapped rocks. Each one more unique and beautiful than the one before. It has been a labor of love unwrapping every rock, reading the notes contained inside the packaging, and placing them into the rock garden. 

The rocks are from all over the world, every shape, every size. Many have notes that list the year found, location found, and rock type.

The collector made trades with other collectors. I found a letter about one of his many trades.

After finding these rocks, I couldn't bare to leave them wrapped up in a dark, abandoned building. Someone (the brother of the person who previously owned our home) spent his life on this collection. I wanted to showcase it. Most of the rocks are too beautiful for landscaping, they should all be put into glass boxes on display, but that's unfortunately not realistic for us to do! Using them to spruce up the exterior of the house was the next best thing I could think of.

The first step I took in creating my rock garden (after finding and being inspired by the rocks) was to clear out the space I wanted to start with. That included taking out a small retaining wall, digging out several unwanted plants, and spraying weed killer to map out the area.

I didn't lay out a weed barrier. I am not a believer in weed barriers. I'm a believer in weed killer. When weeds peek through, I spray them until they die. I'll let you make your own decision on whether you put down a barrier first or not. 

Once the area was clear, I started laying in the rocks. Big rocks to the front, filling in with the smaller rocks.

I stopped part way up the slight hill because I knew I wanted to plant a bush among the rocks. I chose a Hydrangea bush and planted that in the middle of the rock garden. Now is a good time to purchase bushes and trees because it is the end of the season. I was able to purchase the bush for a little over $20.

For additional visual appeal in the area, I also added two small solar lights and a chair with a bucket of flowers on it. I was able to find the chair and the bucket in our "rusty gold" stash that came with the house. The plants were under $10 combined.

After I had all of these elements in place, I filled in the rest of the rocks! It took me several days and nights to complete this project due to the unwrapping process, but I absolutely loved how it turned out - and hope you do, too!