Sep 04 2008
Royal Botanical Gardens: Rock Garden
This last summer, I was at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario, Canada. It was my first time to the gardens, surprising since I went to college in that area, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. None of it, however; was as nice as the Rock Gardens. This was a place that truly inspired my landscaping goals.
I have never been overly fond of rock gardens, I find that many people will fill up a flower bed with a garden stone, throw in one or two shrubs and plants and call it a rock garden. I often found them plain and uninviting, at least the few I had seen, but the rock gardens at the Royal Botanical Gardens brought new definition to the term rock garden and I will be rethinking my whole “dream garden” yet again.
So here are a few pictures of the garden that I thought might inspire you a.
Use existing trees as the focal point to your rock garden.
Don’t feel like everything has to be surrounded by rocks. Use low lying plants for flower beds and don’t shy away from having grassy places for contemplation.
Use natural stone slabs for pathways and decks to draw the rock garden out from the flower beds to the yard.
Don’t be afraid of color.
Natural looking ponds offer variety and depth to a rock garden and can give you more variety of plants to play with.
And I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the Royal Botanical Garden’s rock garden. If you get a chance to go there, I would strongly recommend it for a day trip.
Sirena Van Schaik
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