The Folly Garden Landscape....
It Was already well over a year ago, Dear Readers, that I began the "improvements" to The Folly Garden Landscape in the corner where the Rhododendron bush sits, and I am not referring to the Shrubs themselves! Above you can see a picture of how this corner of the Garden looked for many years as I worked on other projects. A piece of green cloth had been draped over the bare ground on the embankment to resemble grass or moss, I suppose, but nothing else had been done to this corner at all. You might recall that this Garden was the wilder garden on the side of The Folly where the little brook runs past near to the house, and The Tree House grows up very close beside the house itself. The embankment around the house foundation is pretty steep and I had always intended that it be a bit of a "Rock Garden"... primarily because the foundation of the house had originally been protected from the brook by large boulders along the house side of the property. The idea was that it was wild and unmanicured and just a bit neglected. There is a narrow path along the embankment that leads to a small sitting spot that overlooks the picturesque brook... (which will get constructed eventually!)... and a Garden that in it's youth (a hundred years ago!) was vaguely Japanese in inspiration. The ancient hollow Willow Tree which houses The Tree House (still not finished!) and the Rhododendron Shrub in the corner by the porch are almost all that remain of the original plantings (some peonies will appear someday...) according to my imaginings of this space.
Here you can see the same corner with the green cloth removed and the bare embankments and nary a Rock in sight! "Rock Garden! Hmmph!" Mr. Gnome has been known to mutter reproachfully as I pass by! Yes, there is one "sample" boulder being tested there by the steps... but really, it lacked all appearance of Rockiness!
And once again.... there needed to be more rocks....
And we have to test how the bench will sit among all these new old rocks!