Cheyenne Botanic: A Marathon Unfinished

Day 6 at the Cheyenne Botanic.

We ran out of allotted time this week to build the garden, so I'll be back in October to finishing up rock-work.  I've resisted my usual strategies to "finish a job on time" as I often do in landscaping, as this is different- and I'm not willing to compromise the flow of this particular installation.  I think all we really need is a day, which we don't have- and that's fine- an excuse for another trip to beautiful Cheyenne!

Speaking of Wyoming: in several places in the garden, we gaps here and there between large stones, especially those that provide a silhouette, trying to make the mound look more broken up in an irresistible reference to Split Rock, Wyoming.

There are specks of Pyrite here and there in the big stones, but today we found a great fat chunk of fool's gold.

A friend, Sara, drove all the way up from Loveland two days to help out.  We began to top-dress in gravel and chips.  The whole things gets a blanket of 1/2"gravel, and flecked into it here and there we will use 3/4 and 1" screened gravels to truly make it look natural.

This garden is meant to push and pull against the open soil of the bed it's in- so there are open areas.  valley-like and prairie-like interactions between purely tight stone and open, plantable soil. Also, so the whole thing does not reveal itself to the viewer at first glance.  The largest incorporated open bed is visible on the lower left, where we've staged the fine gravel for now.   Softball-sized chunks around that open gravel bed, will, again, make it look more natural and less like a very poorly placed tiny parking lot.

Stay tuned for plant considerations and the riveting stoney conclusion...