who has a rock garden?

Since our soil is washing away beside the foundation of our house I thought I might try doing a rock garden on that side of the house... building up the soil a LOT and then adding large rocks and strong plants in-between to hold the soil in place... at least where the soil is eroding away.

so...
is this a good idea or not?

and...
how about posting pics of your rock garden(s) so I can get some inspiration!!?

we'll be up at Lake Erie for a long time starting in August (we have a house sitter for the fur children) and of course the lake is a GREAT source of beautiful rocks...

Janie, on the north side of the house I did something similar (sorry I can't get any decent photos). I used brick edging about 18" away from the foundation, and put in things that are evergreen, as well as deciduous, and bulbs to hold the soil in place.

I have bergenia, astilbes, hardy cyclamen, daffodils, early crocus and sternbergias in the bed that is about 15' long. No rocks in that particular garden, though. I also allow impatiens to self-seed and make sure to have at least one to fill in when the bulbs are dormant.

I do have a rock garden (new) but it is still sparse.

I noticed a slope above your foundation and also what appears to be basement windows?? I had a rock garden in front of a mobil we had and what I found was that in planting different types of cacti and hearts and flowers it worked well. I took all kinds of large rock (from fist size to about 2 1/2 ft. size. I just threw them and let them sit where they landed. This gave me a rock garden that looked natural. I then added as much potting soil as possible(just poured it all over and used a handle of a hoe to push it down. The cacti grew beautifully and the hearts and flowers covered the rest showing the rock underneath. I then used lighting (tiny white Christmas lites) and at night it looked like a tiny city. The cacti worked well because I didn't have to worry about water running under the foundation, the cacti need little water and have fabulious blooms.It is surprising at the places cacti will grow.

LittleShima,

Thanks for the tip. I'm afraid cacti wouldn't survive a winter here in Ohio and I don't think I'm up to replanting them year after year... but I bet your garden is beautiful.

I love the idea of just throwing them to make it natural looking... that sounds really smart.

We're going to try and snag different rocks from the lake while we are there... and then the fun will begin.

Janie dahlin, actually, I blieve there are some cacti/agaves etc which might be hardy enough for your area.

Are you in a place where you get the lake effect stuff in
winter ?

really, Lavanda? We can be as low as 20 below zero on a nice wintery day... and we have had so much snow this past year that a lot of things just didn't come back.

The whole winter is a blur, but a bunch of things I put in the ID forum died over the winter... sad but true.

Even my phlox decided not to bloom this year - too bad as it was beautiful last year.

But - I'm open to the idea! Would keep critters out of the rock garden prolly, too. :)

another great solution, janiejoy!......grow Periwinkle(Vinca)(groundcover) is stoloniferous(runs along like a Strawberry plant), thus setting in a good strong root network and keeps the rocks and boulders in their place....good soil erosion prevention! Elaine

Janie, I have 3 cactus that are hardy for me. Here's a photo of one of them covered in snow early in the winter; it was later buried under a bank about 4' high for a month. Came through just fine. Yucca filimentosa (Adam's Needle) is also very hardy, but might not bloom well in much shade.

I love periwinkle... we had them in our yard as a kid.

a cactus in the snow -- sounds like the name of a strange movie! and what a neat concept.

I'm loving the ideas and suggestions! Keep 'em comin'

My rock garden is where I stick everything I don't know where else to put. I have cannas, lantana, tiger lilies, moss rose, bee balm, balloon flowers, Mex. petunia, yarrow, bluebonnets, and a couple of grasses. The annuals reseed readily and I have to keep the lantana from running wild. I sure there is more out there, but right now it escapes me. It's right by the GH and I'm having a new sink put in that will drain into the rock garden, in our hot dry summers I don't like to waste a drop. LOL

We have 3 rock gardens on the east side of the house, each with a different personality, but the same weeds. They were originally meant to be only two and in the shade of two large evergreens, but the trees blew down, so now they are in partial shade early from trees to the east, full sun in the middle of the day and full shade as the afternoon grows.

this is the newest:

this is the path by the first one - a rose garden, sort of (but then some would say all my gardens have roses!). This was taken early befor the weeds took over - hehehe:

http://www.yuccado.com/

Look here, I recently browsed but was only looking for my own zone. Betcha there are some for your area.

Love, Lavanda

Here's ours - 1st year. We babied the heaths and heathers in a holding bed for a year before we dragged rocks, clay and manure in. It's a mix of hardy geraniums, the heaths and heathers, some conifers and whatever else we grab from seed or sales.

Kathleen - yours are so beautiful - they look so "established"

lol, that's just the mature weeds!

Dea, your's looks great! Good job on the rocks - looks like a real rock growing field.