Playing With Rocks...

 

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!

 

So I began to try my hand at making a few more "boulders" to hold the little Brook away from the foundations. You have no idea how much "foam board" can be wasted in this process as you try to make a Rock-like surface of the correct size and shape! The material is 2 inches thick, so you only have a medium sized rock as far as depth goes... And if you have ever tried to build a stone wall you will know how much even a small rock weighs and how difficult it can be to make the surfaces agree with each other! 

 

And each time you add one... it seems to become like a "cornerstone"

 and can't be moved again but everything else must work around it...

 

 

One massive "boulder" at a time... 

building the streambank at the edge of the garden.

 

 

And adding a couple more "boulders" to the foundation embankment too... 

and here they have been painted with a coat of primer. 

 

 

And then the first coats of paint,

 trying out different shades of gray for the base coats. 

In this part of the world we have some very gray rocks...

 slates and granite mostly, so that is what I am trying to imitate.

 

 

I am not at all sure of the ultimate color balance of these rocks... 

so I am just being random for now. 

And I want them to make logical sense physically... 

to look appropriate in the end.

 

 

It is really difficult to tell in this picture

 that I have added some color texturing to some of the rocks.

 

The path to the garden bench needed to be solid enough

 for the little people to walk along it...

 so I brought Joanna over to test the footing. 

She said it needed a little more width!

 

And of course, it was a start....

 but it was nowhere near enough rocks! 

So I started to add more.....

 

I don't know about you, Dear Readers, 

but I always find myself picking up stray "pretty" rocks

 and bringing them home with me!

 I don't go looking for them, but they jump out at me...!

 So I wanted to include a few "Real" rocks in this project.

 They needed to be small so as to not add a lot of weight...

 

Can you see one of my REAL Rocks there......

 between the two pink foam ones on the path? 

 

Can you see it better now? 

I know, the lighting is not great.....

 but it is a Real rock inset into the foam base!

 

Here I am painting the foam rocks,

 so I have removed the Real Rock from it's spot

 so it won't get painted by accident!

 

Here I have begun the painting of the rocks... just the first coats... 

and you can see the gap for the Real Rock.

 

And here you can see the Real one temporarily in place.

 It will help me with the realism when I eventually

 get to the finish coats of paint on these rocks.

And once again.... there needed to be more rocks.... 

 

In particular, the front corner of the "garden wall"

 needed to be huge boulders, not just little bricks!

 The stream would carry away bricks in no time... 

it needed to be "steered aside" by huge immovable boulders!

 

 Here is a closer view.

 I carved them to fit over the existing wooden base wall.

 

And here they are getting the primer and first coats of paint.

And we have to test how the bench will sit among all these new old rocks!

 

And Joanna wanted to test the new path.... 

"much better" she says!

 

And because they are nowhere near done, Dear Readers,

 and this was all last year's work

 and I have probably "rocked" you to sleep by now... 

I will leave it here.

 But you can rest assured, 

I am still Playing with Rocks!