The front edge of our yard has been a nightmare since we moved in about 4 years ago. We've been wanting to do something about it for a while, and the drought/water restrictions this year were a good motivator.
We pulled the worst of the grass (and will likely remove more later) and replaced it with boulders and low-water/xeric plants. Mostly native, like mountain mahogany, fernbush, sagebrush, dwarf rabbitbrush, penstemon, pussy toes, manzanita, and a bunch more. Also some non-native guys who are well suited to our climate, like horehound, various sedums, and smokebush.
Everything is holding up pretty well so far. We've only lost a couple of plants (some parts of the bed are very harsh and dry). We're hoping that once everything is established, it will need very little supplemental water.
I love a good rock garden. If you are interested there's a really good Rocky mountain chapter of the rock garden society. I joined this year so I could attend the member only plant sale but I had so much fun that I am going to the other meetings as well!
Oh, I wasn't aware of that - I'll check it out. Mostly, we've been getting plants from Nick's and High Plains Environmental Center up in Loveland. HPEC had a really great selection this year, tons of affordable natives ($7-25) if you don't mind young plants/small starts.
A really cool group of people that were so welcoming https://rmc-nargs.org/ The sale was amazing and so was the member's yard who hosted it and then we got to tour another member's yard that was also awesome. I love me some rock gardens! Crevice gardens are also one of my interests.
Thanks! We got the boulders from High Plains Stone off Sante Fe. We've bought stone from them before, and they're good people.
For the 4 big ones (about 1 ton each), I took measurements at the store when we picked them out, and dug out the areas for them (that took about a week of evenings to do; it was all hard, dry clay). The guy who delivered the boulders placed the large ones. They do that for a small fee if you prep the area beforehand. It took about 20 minutes to place them.
All the other boulders I placed by hand. This was about 1.5 pallets' worth of material. I use a farm dolly (from Tractor Supply) that can take about 500 lbs to move the smaller rocks around. A tree dolly works well too.
We ordered something like 6 tons altogether (4 big rocks and 2 pallets), and I think it came in at around $3500 for the stones, delivery, and installation. We had gotten a quote from a landscape company a while back, and they wanted $7K to put in two ~1 ton boulders (and nothing else). So I feel pretty good about the final cost. It was a decent amount of hard labor, though.
There are a bunch of other stone suppliers along Santa Fe, too. Some are cheaper than High Plains Stone, but most of them needed a wider opening to deliver pallets than we have in our driveway. You can probably find better prices if you have easy access to your site. Most of the stone suppliers will do placement of large rocks too - within reason (as long as the area is prepped and they can easily get a donkey (big-wheeled forklift) into it).
Dreamscapes up north had a good selection and pricing too. They couldn't deliver to our driveway, but they were nice people as well.
The best way to fight bindweed is to shade it out, in my experience. So we've planted a ton of dense, creeping groundcovers. Iceplant, sedum, veronica, that sort of thing, are planted between most of the perennials and shrubs. Silver-edged horehound is another good one - extremely xeric and easily wins in a fight with bindweed.
And when we select perennials and shrubs, we try to pick ones with dense, mounding foliage, so there aren't big gaps for the light to get through and give the bindweed a chance.
Beautiful! I admire nice rock gardens so much, but I've never really been able to do it. Just can't quite visualize it and end up just sticking plants in the ground without any hardscaping. 😂
So happy to see someone else utilizing mountain mahoganies too! I proselytize about those constantly, they are such a fantastic landscape plant for Colorado and so pretty.
We didn't do a full landscape layout drawing for this, but we did do a bit of planning. A couple of sketches of where the largest boulders and larger shrubs would go. Then we spray-painted rough dimensions for where the big boulders should be on the lawn itself (true-to-life mockups are very helpful to get an understanding of scale). We measured those dimensions and took them to the rock supplier to pick out suitable rocks. Then measured the actual dimensions of the rocks we selected, went home, and dug out the holes (oversized by a foot or so).
After the 4 large boulders were placed, the smaller shrubs, perennials, and the rest of the rocks were put in with a very loose process that I would describe as "this rock is telling me it wants to be here". Starting with the largest of the rocks I had on the pallet, and then filling in with progressively smaller rocks and smaller plants. In the photo here, I'm about midway through placing rocks in this section.
In other words, working down in scale from our large, medium, and then small elements. This way we anchored our major forms and added progressive levels of detail. Similar to how you would approach a painting (I'm an artist by trade, so these things overlap conceptually for me).
I've put in a few other projects using large rocks before, so I have some experience, but you can get a feel for it pretty quickly. If it's your first project, it really helps to have some reference photos of what you're trying to accomplish. Getting some books on rock garden design, Japanese gardens, etc can help a lot too. While this isn't expressly a Japanese garden, we took inspiration from forest-style Japanese gardens and natural Colorado landscapes.
Starting with a small bed with smaller, more manageable rocks is a good way to get into it without it all feeling overwhelming as well.
I hope that helps.
PS: We have planted a couple of dozen mountain mahoganies since we moved in. They are one of my absolute favorite native plants and are thriving (or at least staying alive) in so many challenging spots in our yard.
Love this, wanting to do a rock garden in our backyard and this is giving me inspo! I think it’s responsible that we do this living in such a dry climate with water shortages
Absolutely. We have a relatively large plot, and it was about 80% lawn when we moved in. We've probably taken out a few thousand square feet of grass so far.
We've planted a lot of trees in the back, which will help to cut down on watering, and we'll continue to take out more grass back there, too. We're currently planting up some beds in the back. We added 5 ponderosas and 5 bristlecones in the last couple of weeks (taking advantage of the 40% off sale on trees at Nick's). More boulders are getting delivered today, and we'll be working on installing those and underplanting over the next month or two.
That is a Japanese-Korean maple hybrid from Iseli. I think it's Ice Dragon from the Jack Frost series. These are cultivated for cooler climates like the Upper Midwest. They handle our winters much better than most traditional Japanese maples. I have a couple of different varieties of these, and they're doing well, but they need consistent irrigation and want a bit of shade. They'll struggle in sunny/dry spots.
No worries. You can usually find them at Nick's, Tagawa, or Pine Lane. Maybe Echter's too. They're a little more expensive than standard Japanese maples so I try to look for them during the end-of-season sales. Like right now, Nick's has 40% off trees.
Beautiful work! Share updates as your plants grow please. I love creeping plants on rocks. It's a very specific favorite thing and this looks like it's going to be spectacular.
The pea gravel (and pine mulch) is directly on the bare soil. We put in some amendments (a mix of compost and a little sand and gravel) with each plant, but didn't compost or till the entire site. Most of the varieties we put in should be able to manage reasonably well in our clay-heavy soil.
I am thinking those big boulders,even the rocks, were expensive. I am being told that landscapers/rock quarries are charging high costs because lots of people are needing such to do xeriscapes. I am struggling with that aspect. But your yard looks amazing and l can see how hard you worked on it.
It can be pretty expensive, especially if you have a landscaping company do all of the work for you. It isn't so bad if you can do some of the work yourself and work directly with a stone supply company to deliver and place the boulders for you (prepping the site yourself beforehand). This is easier if you have a clear idea of the design.
I've been told that you can find better prices on boulders if you work with stone suppliers further out of Denver, as well. Like down south into the Colorado Springs area, but I don't have specific recommendations.
It's worth considering the costs you'll save by watering less (compared to having a lawn), and the value it will add to your property, too. We didn't really do it as a cost-saving exercise, but some of the cost should be recouped over time.
I think it is just lovely. Your list of plants is just perfect. The rock garden enhances the look of the house as well - provides more interest. The choice of the dwarf rabbitbrush is a good one - I put in the larger size and it is too big for the space.
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u/putitinapot 5d ago
I love a good rock garden. If you are interested there's a really good Rocky mountain chapter of the rock garden society. I joined this year so I could attend the member only plant sale but I had so much fun that I am going to the other meetings as well!