…ornamental gardening is the gateway to rock gardening… 
I’ve decided to become a rock gardener
As an on again, off again, card carrying, uncaring member of the North American Rock Garden Society, also known as NARGS, I’ve learned if someone has to ask what NARGS stands for, this is a sign they have not been enlightened. When a member is asked what NARGS stands for, there is no reason to say what it means. I find, there is usually no interest in telling either. Oh, one might answer, but he’ll quickly walk away to find another of his own kind.
This is a serious group of gardeners. Not evangelical like many other types of gardeners, but intense and committed to the tininess of tiny, grouped in a bunch of rocks with hopes their stratification looks natural.
Then it happened. It just happened, as my friend Bobby J. Ward wrote in the comment section of my facebook page, where I announced I was becoming a rock gardener, “Glad you finally heard the calling!” Yes, I heard my calling. Now, this may sound a bit smug, but it wasn’t meant too. It is well known, rock gardeners are snobs. Bobby is in good company too; Elizabeth Lawrence wrote in her book, A Rock Garden in the South, “All rock gardeners are snobs….Some snobbery is to be expected, for all are agreed that the cultivation of rock plants is the highest form of the art of gardening.”
My calling officially came when Tim Alderton, fellow NARGS member, Research Technician at the JC Raulston Arboretum, and friend, spoke to my girlfriend garden club, The Bloomsbury Garden Club. His talk was entitled, Colorado Cousins about his journey with the NARGS annual meeting this past summer in Colorado.
Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, he dumbed down his talk to my friends, but that was OK, for it was over most of our heads.
Other friends wrote me to say they were not surprised I was becoming a rock gardener. Really, is it any wonder? Elizabeth Lawrence further writes, “All gardeners become rock gardeners if they garden long enough.” This is not to say I will no longer garden for wildlife, for I will. But, for now, I shall carve out one area and give rock gardening a go.
Officially, I have a rock garden, or thought I did. This space actually has three names, rock/herb/host garden. I used rocks in the bed calling it a rock garden with some herbs to qualify it as an herb garden and many of those herbs were host plants for butterflies so I called it the host garden. I obviously had commitment issues. Now those herbs and host plants reside in other parts of the garden. Clearly, I didn’t know the true spirit of a rock garden or I would have never considered the presence of mere rocks as a garden.
I still have a lot to learn; but what I am learning is that I have had my calling. A before and after period in gardening-life pursuits. 
These photos are not of my garden in Raleigh. They are of my inspiration garden, taken during the NARGS Piedmont chapter field trip and picnic this past spring.
I have my work cut out for me as I contour the land and create a substrate suitable for the kinds of plants I want to grow.
I already have some great local rock to use, but I’m not sure I have enough of it. My rock came from a client on a property he no longer owns.
I have another lead from a friend who might have similar rock, but I not sure he is willing to part with his rock. You see, he is a moss gardener and moss gardeners are much akin to rock gardeners. But, the friend, I’ll call him David (Spain), knows of my new found enlightenment and may feel sympathetic enough to help me out. After all, those enlightened become part of an important group of like minded gardeners.
I’ll post about my new rock garden as I progress; if I start to sound a wee bit snobby, know that I’m succeeding. 
Helen Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.
I look forward to watching you as your forge ahead. I’m interested in rock gardens because they’re intriguingly beautiful, and I love a challenge. I, too, have an area with rocks collected over time that I call a rock garden, only because it has rocks. Not because it has rock garden plantings.
that’s awesome! now you’ve got me excited.
I would have a difficult time becoming a rock gardener here in Charleston……Well, for one I would have a time finding rocks here……
Thanks Jim…my friend David Spain wrote on my fb page he will help me with the rock. This is the first big and important step. H.
Meghan, I can’t wait to share it with you. H.
Welcome aboard the rock garden bandwagon. Every rock garden is so distinct and special: your’s no less than mine! I have been rock gardening over half a century, and have yet to scratch the surface!
Compost, all I can say, where there is a will, there is a way. If enlightened, nothing will stop you. H.
Panayoti, I wonder if your ears were burning Saturday afternoon as Tim Alderton, Scott Calhoun and I visited the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill and what did we talk about – rock garden plants. And whose name kept coming up as the go-to man – YOURS. Thank you for stopping by. H.
I adore rock gardens and I think they are among the most natural of all styles. Can’t wait to see how yours evolves. One think I’m sure of – it’s going to be spectacular.
Hi Helen,
Love this post. I have been considering a small rock garden in a sloped, hot, sunny spot at my townhouse. As it slopes toward a sidewalk, it will be perfect for close viewing of tiny beauties.
I can’t wait to read about your progress.
By the way, bonsai people would be about the same as rock and moss gardeners.
Love this – and I love rock gardening. I have little patches around the garden dedicated to some really interesting plants that grow around the rocks and between pavers: sedum, ajuga, moss, etc. Over time I will have more and more garden and less and less lawn.
Moss moss moss, love it and yes moss and rocks play well together! Less lawn and more eco friendly stuff!
Carolyngail, thank you. I will take your confidence in my and run with it! H.
Hey Lynn, Yepper Bonsai gardeners are bonkers too. Your slope sounds perfect! H.
Hey Stevie, it sounds like you have a great start. Do you have photos to share. As I do my journey, I would like to like other’s doing the same. H.
Hey David, moss does play well with rocks. You are truly the most amazing moss gardener and you have started me on that road. I love the moss I have and in fact, I wish the area where my rock garden is going, was shade so it could have been a moss garden. H.