As construction began on our farm to build our house, something kept turning up…. Rocks! Small rocks, medium rocks, and giant rocks that even my six five, former football player husband can’t pick up. As soon as I saw all those rocks I knew that I wanted to make a rock garden. My mother had one at our house when I was growing up, and it was one of my favorite spots in our backyard. In fact when I was about nine, she gave me a corner of the rock garden as my very own garden. I could plant whatever I wanted and arrange the rocks just how I liked them. I think about that little garden often because its the one that made me fall in love with gardening. So this summer, I started a rock garden at our farm. It’s just the beginnings of it, and ultimately, I hope it will take over one whole corner of the property just like my mother’s rock garden did. Here’s what I did to make it happen. It’s actually very easy if you have the rocks.
Steps
- Collect rocks of various shapes and sizes. The more unique the rocks the more interesting your garden will be.
- Before placing the rocks, till the area you want to plant.
- Add a layer of peat moss.
- Add a layer of top soil over the peat moss.
- Place the largest rocks in the area.
- Select plants. I was putting my rock garden in a semi-shady part of our property, so some of the plants I chose were foxglove, bleeding heart, chameleon plant, hardy geranium, and delphinium. Also the plants I chose are deer resistant since we are way out in the country.
- Add the remaining rocks. Move them around until you are happy with the arrangement.
- Add garden ornaments if desired. In my case, the theme of my rock garden is reading woodland creatures. I have found stone animals at my local craft stores and garden centers. Every time I see a stone statue like that, I snap it up!
- Enjoy you finished project.
This Week’s Featured Book!
Reeling from the loss of her fiancé and flower shop, Fiona Knox is surprised to find that her newfound inheritance—her late grandfather’s magical estate—comes with a murder mystery too
Florist Fiona Knox’s life isn’t smelling so sweet these days. Her fiancé left her for their cake decorator. Then, her flower shop wilted after a chain florist opened next door. So when her godfather, Ian MacCallister, leaves her a cottage in Scotland, Fiona jumps on the next plane to Edinburgh. Ian, after all, is the one who taught her to love flowers. But when Ian’s elderly caretaker Hamish MacGregor shows her to the cottage upon her arrival, she finds the once resplendent grounds of Duncreigan in a dreadful shambles—with a dead body in the garden.
Minutes into her arrival, Fiona is already being questioned by the handsome Chief Inspector Neil Craig and getting her passport seized. But it’s Craig’s fixation on Uncle Ian’s loyal caretaker, Hamish, as a prime suspect, that really makes her worried. As Fiona strolls the town, she quickly realizes there are a whole bouquet of suspects much more likely to have killed Alastair Croft, the dead lawyer who seems to have had more enemies than friends.
Now it’s up to Fiona to clear Hamish’s name before it’s too late in Flowers and Foul Play, USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s spellbinding first Magic Garden mystery.
Happy reading! ❤ Amanda
Amanda Flower-Sweet Cozy reads 