My Dad, summer of 1954.
My Dad and Mom created a rock garden the summer I was five years old.They turned a small sloping lawn into a beautiful garden. I remember going for family drives, looking for rocks. We all loved that! I just recently found this old photo of my dad in front of the rock garden, and it reminded me of that happy time.
I’d already been thinking of creating a small rock garden in what I call our “triangle garden,” the space between our angled driveway and our vegetable garden. Finding the photo of my Dad in front of his rock garden made it seem absolutely right for me to go ahead and build my own.
However, we discovered quickly that rocks are not very accessible around here. When I was little, we lived right next to the mountains, so it was only a quick drive up the canyon to find loads of big and very interesting geological specimens! For some reason, there aren’t many rocks along the roads around here and our really interesting rocks were collected from farther away. Fortunately, our daughter is in the process of building a big garden at her new home in Washington State. She’s spent the summer digging rocks out of the area they want to garden. We think perhaps all the rocks that should be here in Oregon are in her back yard! All those rocks you see lined up so neatly in the photo on the left came out of that dug up space in the photo on the right. She’s developed strong digging muscles! And each time she visited us this summer, she brought a load of rocks for our rock garden.
So, I am not quite finished collecting rocks and planting, but my little rock garden is close to being done. I’ve planted a variety of perennials, some pansies for winter color, and a whole bunch of bulbs for spring color. There is still room for some colorful annuals that I’ll plant next Spring. I’m just loving this autumn gardening project.
A Fondness For Reading 
It looks great and will look even more beautiful once your flowers come in next spring. I love that you have all different types of gardens on your property. Maybe I’ll get to see them in person one of these days.
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Thanks, Les! Yes, it would be so nice to have you see them in person! We’ll plan for that!
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I love the generational aspect of your rock garden. You have incorporated so many shared loves and memories in that small triangle of beauty!
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Thank you, Marlo. I call it my “sentimental gardening.” I love planting things that were my grandmothers’ favorites, or that my mom or dad loved, or that I loved as a child. It brings them all closer to me.😊
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Oh, this is nice, Robin! We have a lot of rocks in our yard. Central Texas sits on a bunch of white limestone and there are rocks everywhere right below the surface. Maybe I could just ‘mail’ you some rocks – we have bunch extra. Ha! Great picture of your Dad!
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Thank you, Kay. I’m having fun with this little project I’d love to have a Rock from you in the garden! Is it too weird to send one? Doesn’t have to be a big one…a small one would be just fine. Of course you would need to insure it in case it gets lost or broken in transit. Haha.
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