Renovation of the Front Little Rockery in April

 The front little rockery needed a lot of weeding and cleaning up.  This shows the West Coast Planter, the mountain avens, and the bergenia at the back, with a bit of the aubretia and the little gold rock wall  And then the little dianthus that crawls over rocks, the lithodara 'grace ward', the globalaria, the fern leafed peony on the left side, stepping stones along the right side, and the thyme at the bottom.  
The thyme was all removed as it was taking over.  I now have a bit of space where the thyme was, to add one more rock/alpine plant.

 Another view of the plants at the back , the hebe, and the little boxwood hedge.  This bergenia, the hebe, the iberis, the mountain avens and the globalaria are  finished blooming and dead headed.  The little gold rock wall has been straightened with more soil added to the bed to fill it up.  There are 2 lillies  and a couple of dutch iris just off to right of the gold rocks.  The montebretia  and the solomon's seal have been taken back a bit, and will not be allowed to encroach on the alpine plants.

 A close up of the Aubretia that is doing a little better this year.

 This shows a start on fixing the little gold rock wall.  I am attempting to control the creeping campanula I planted here when I thought I wanted to go with lower maintenance plants in the garden.  This is quite a lot of work to get it cleaned up, but if I get the weeds and rambunctious plants under control it should be a joy just to keep it up.

 The fern leafed peony is a lovely addition to this area.  Too bad the blooming time is very short.  Its amazing how well the plants do with a little care and attention. 


 This globalaria grows in the center garden by the stepping stones that go down to the thyme circle; that is, just across the stone path from the above area.

 This shows the Iberis cleaned up and in bloom.  I will have to be vigilant in keeping the campanula and violets out of this plant.  It is dead headed and fed more new soil and is looking much healthier than previously.  Behind and to the left in the photo we see the montebretia.  I spent quite a lot of time taking out the montebretia and blue bells in the area and right over to the hedge.  I now have cement pavers to keep what is left of the montebretia from spreading into the rockery.  I am going to let this newly renovated area sit over the winter without plants to be sure I have the bluebells and montebretia all taken out.  I see there are a few little montebretias coming up, and a bit of weeding to do.  I have the little plants next to the iberis treated to more soil and a thorough weeding. The little saxifragia is doing very well now. The hens and chickens are a red variety.  I added chicken grit to them for a top dressing, along with more soil.  They are beginning to grow bigger and look very nice against the chicken grit mulch.  

 The West Coast planter has been cleaned out and I have added  the special Primula Aruicola into the planter.  I must pay attention to keeping it moist enough.  This will be a help to all the plants, for sure.

This photo shows the area back to the hedge cleaned up.  The stone path on the right side of the photo has been widened out by a few inches.  This makes it easier to get through between the California lilac and the smoke bush and into the sun dial circle.  All of that area at the front has now been cleaned up.  I have added more soil the the thyme circle, and am cutting off bamboo shoots as I see them coming up.  Yesterday I spent 3 hours giving all of the front garden a thorough watering.  The thyme circle is in bloom.