About five tons of sandstone lies there, two yards of sandy loam, and two finished sections looking like book-ends with a hollow middle. For planting purposes, I need more open soil in the middle, but perhaps above all, my back is getting tired of hauling-in 700-pound and more stones. It doesn't fit with my original sketches, which called for nearly solid stone the whole length of this skinny rockery, but perhaps challenges have forced me to think outside the rocks- to embrace and develop that kind of space that is between no-rock and solid-rock. I have favoured the latter for a while, but now I am forced to engage that aesthetic and composition that I've been avoiding. True, it is the kind of partly-stoned space that most rock gardens have (and only that), for one reason or another.
Maybe it's like turning one's nose up at a cliche, but being forced to admit that there are merits and reason the cliche is so alive...
So here's to a moderate spreading of the butter of cliche on the bread of life. Because I really need some room for mesembs.
Personal note: A good day in the canyons this winter convinced be to moved back to the Western Slope of Colorado; where I find myself under the rule of relentless blessings- a sunny Victorian Downtown flat above a 18x40 veg garden, and working for my favourite and the only native specialty in the valley- Chelsea Nursery.