The trickle of water in a sunken garden...
The entrance to this garden is through a gap in the hedge and down a set of stone stairs (out of sight around the right hand corner of the photo) and the water feature is faintly visible through the iron grill.
Welcome to Sheena's garden... How fun was this?! I integrated a tiny basalt waterfall and catch-pool into the bend of the old rock walls. Carved crushed-granite pathways from a cedar-root-bound lawn and laid a meandering dry streambed to nowhere (very Barcelona, very Gaudi ). She calls the resulting grotto mine (i.e., "your garden needs you") and I guess you only have to look at the two before pictures (below) to see why. Good grief. Other than having help with the water feature, I installed the rest with a pick-ax and a bit of frenetic bizness start-up energy during the spring of '02.
Everything was delivered for the hardscaping on this project: pondliner, path edging, landscape fabric, soil and stone--the river-rock and basalt was craned over the hedge on pallets. That was cool.
So even though this was when I had the truck, it could have been bicycle-gardened. In the years since, we have continued to design around the rest of the property.
The challenge in this garden is the enormous Western Red cedar looming just outside the lefthand frame. The tough red scrabbling (and acidic/toxic) roots persistently grow up through the soil, choking out more fragile plant life. I had to raise beds because the existing soil (formerly lawn) was completely root-bound, and choose plants whose rootballs could compete. Over time, some enormous and lovely clumps of salvaged white Japanese iris have gradually succombed, while hostas, hellebores, grasses, ferns, astilbe, perennial geraniums and lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) have persevered. The greater variety of plants on the tiered rock walls are far enough away to fare better, but even so, must contend with the roots from the cedar hedge. They're surrounded!
So the pictures above were taken yesterday, and the ones below shortly after installation.
The entrance to this garden is through a gap in the hedge and down a set of stone stairs (out of sight around the right hand corner of the photo) and the water feature is faintly visible through the iron grill.
Welcome to Sheena's garden... How fun was this?! I integrated a tiny basalt waterfall and catch-pool into the bend of the old rock walls. Carved crushed-granite pathways from a cedar-root-bound lawn and laid a meandering dry streambed to nowhere (very Barcelona, very Gaudi ). She calls the resulting grotto mine (i.e., "your garden needs you") and I guess you only have to look at the two before pictures (below) to see why. Good grief. Other than having help with the water feature, I installed the rest with a pick-ax and a bit of frenetic bizness start-up energy during the spring of '02.
Everything was delivered for the hardscaping on this project: pondliner, path edging, landscape fabric, soil and stone--the river-rock and basalt was craned over the hedge on pallets. That was cool.
So even though this was when I had the truck, it could have been bicycle-gardened. In the years since, we have continued to design around the rest of the property.
The challenge in this garden is the enormous Western Red cedar looming just outside the lefthand frame. The tough red scrabbling (and acidic/toxic) roots persistently grow up through the soil, choking out more fragile plant life. I had to raise beds because the existing soil (formerly lawn) was completely root-bound, and choose plants whose rootballs could compete. Over time, some enormous and lovely clumps of salvaged white Japanese iris have gradually succombed, while hostas, hellebores, grasses, ferns, astilbe, perennial geraniums and lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) have persevered. The greater variety of plants on the tiered rock walls are far enough away to fare better, but even so, must contend with the roots from the cedar hedge. They're surrounded!So the pictures above were taken yesterday, and the ones below shortly after installation.
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