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Making Our Community Rock Garden

As a project of Greene County Master Gardeners, we took on a project to build a rock garden at our local Community Center. The center is located just outside Bellbrook and is used for meetings, parties, classes, festivals and more.

We wanted to add a rock garden to the grounds. Also under construction is a butterfly garden being planted at the opposite end of the large rear patio. I think they will  complement each other very well.

A few of the ladies and gentlemen are interested in hypertufa, so our chair person ordered a couple of hypertufa troughs from Cox Arboretum since her husband is affiliated with them and volunteers there often. In his own home gardens, he grows the sempervivums, and sedums, dwarf iris, dwarf pinks, etc. So we all contributed to the supply of plants for this garden.

1 1/2 tons of stone
1 1/2 tons of stone

A large amount of rock was brought in and we got started. I was not there during the installation of the weed barrier and soil mixture. We ordered lean soil with a mix of sharp sand and its texture feels like it is the perfect soil mixture for our plants.

Evaluating the layout
Evaluating the layout

It was all accomplished over a period of about 10 days, and we all are pleased with the results. (One of our large troughs was broken and a new one is on order.)

Large stones placement
Large stones placement
Planting
Planting
Rock Garden
Rock Garden

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4 Comments

  1. Do you know what type of weed barrier was used?

    1. If I remember correctly, we used a landscape fabric. I was not in favor of it, but that was the decision made. I just don’t like weed barrier.

  2. I have gardened alot for the last 50 years with a few health problems over the years, I have pulled myself up by the boot straps, some times I have to let it go for a while. i sprout seeds in the basement in a small room under grow lights that keep it 80%. I don,t have to use any other heat. I use a small fan for circulation. i like to plant things against our old gray fence. It makes the plants show up real well. i want as many plants that will bloom the whole summer. the year i had nonhodgkins lymphoma, I had my green house full of 17 hundred geraniums. I had alot of other flowers petunias ect. my friends and relatives camenand helprp and down the driveway as we have a real wide driveway. I am now starting to use bycycles to decorate with and more vines I especially love and hydrangeas. I hope I can learn what I need to learn and when to do what to to them . I crazy about dahlias. we started with a bad looking house. It looks ok now

    1. Karen, it sounds like you have been through a lot but still keep gardening. It must be hard to keep going sometimes, but I know you are probably a true gardener who finds peace and solace with your hands in the dirt. Wishing you well this year. OMG 1700 geraniums! And I can hardly keep up when I pot up a few dozen for our spring fundraisers!

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