Cheyenne: Fineries of Rock

Day 3 at Cheyenne Botanic:

How does one place stones in a crevice garden?

Simply throw them into place:

Just kidding. (Picture courtesy of Shane Smith, Director at Cheyenne Botanic.)

Here's a serious, if dry, expose of my method, at least.
I don't have a strict design, or even a vision for placing rocks.

I have a set of limitations and aims.  There are practical and aesthetic ones.

I chose practical ones to make the long term life of the garden feasible and construction possible. I chose aesthetic ones so that every crevice garden has its own soul and it expressed the spirit of the place it's in, which inevitably means it will perform its aesthetic functions like "stop passersby in their tracks to double-take at the garden" or "blend into existing garden." Sometime's it's "Evoke the feeling of the desert/the alpine/the steppe in this small space." Or "Provide drama and seriousness"... "make a playful statement"... or "get the neighbors' attention by making them uncomfortable with a bold alternative to lawn, making them inquire, and then educate them about better things to do with their yard." The last was indeed the aim of some really cool recent clients this summer of whom I must write:

Private Crevice garden in the Anthem Development, Broomfield.

So what am I thinking about while rocks are set?

Do you really want to know? Ok.

Practical:

-stability of present and future rocks/soil from gravity/frost/gardener traffic.

-varied exposures

-erosion subdued

-gardener's future access to weed/plant

-accommodate irrigation: spray of heads

-don't bury irrigation under anything that the average person can't easily lift in the event of repair.

-don't block building-illuminating lights.

-leave open soil pockets for big woodies.
-Just enough easy, hidden, places to step for maintenance but few enough not to encourage the inevitable mountian-climbing kids off their leashes.

Aesthetic:

-overall shape/proportion to building/paths/future plants

-a domestic/designed inspiration: Ota Vlasák.

-a natural mountain range as inspiration, The Snowies nearby.

-decent rock faces shown, ugly ones buried.
-unity among stones in pattern, a reflection/fractal of a single stone.
-variety in stones as form
-avoid equality
-compass orientation
-secondary face orientation
-tertiary face orientation
-negative space created between stones
-negative space around footprint of entire rockery, interaction with non-crevice beds.
-forms  retreating/advancing in viewer/experiencer's space
-movement by pattern or line to move eye throughout garden
-fill or at least acknowledge entire space, the crevice bed and accessible public space
-overall form as seen from all vantage-points
-distribution and composition of negative space in bed where forbs will grow
-a hierarchy of the impact of the view from different vantages.
-the hardest part: maintaining just the right balance of harmony and variety.

Or just chuck them.

Jacob Mares, Horticulturist and equip whiz and myself, photo courtesy of Shane Smith, Director.