Front Yard Rock Gardens

[Lori S.]

Did you ever have problems with neighbours children, dogs, cats or destructions and theft caused by passerby?

We don't have a rock garden out front but do have perennial plantings on both sides of a corner lot, in the boulevard, and along the side fence.  Yes, there is always some amount of "vandalism" every year, ranging from the results of mindless behavior to intentional small-scale destruction... there is a sliding scale to the amount of irritation it causes!  
Among the mindless behavior, I include flower pickers and dog owners who are strangely incapable of controlling their pets, despite the leash, and allow their pets to defecate on, or walk through the plantings.  (Then, suddenly realizing that Fido has been running rampant on the 40' long extensible leash, they give the leash, which has tangled itself amongst the plantings, a good yank to haul him back... thus breaking off big sections of rose bushes and shrubs.  We had a newly-planted rose bush broken off down to the ground in this way!)    
Among flower pickers, I don't care if some little kid picks a flower or two... but there has been the odd evil child who walks along the entire 120' fenced side, picking a daffodil every couple of feet and then throwing it down.  Or the other hellspawn who whacked all the tulips off with a stick one year!  Or the teenage babysitter who encouraged her charges to pick asiatic lilies out of my border last summer... I heard this through the fence, and when I hustled out there I was amazed to see them with whole asiatic lily stems yanked out of the ground... if the bulbs had still been attached to the ends of the stems, I'd have asked for them back, LOL!    (Anyway, don't get me going on this!!  ) If I see kids picking flowers, I politely ask them not to.  Same for adults, though I'm amazed that I would have to ask adults not to pick my plants... one would think that adults would respect someone else's property.  ("Picking flowers" often results in pulling the plant out by the roots, hence what may seem like a hard-a**ed approach to this.)
Intentional vandalism seems to have been limited to "bad" teenagers who seek to impress their friends by ripping up some plants, oddly enough.   A couple of incidents of this last year by the same group...  Stuart caught them and ripped a strip off their hides, after which they slunk away looking suitably embarrassed.  No incidents since then.   (Oh... a few years ago, we actually had a couple of tender roses, in a bed right up near the house far from the public sidewalk, almost destroyed... all the blooming branches broken and ripped off!)
So, from all that, it probably sounds like we live in a ghetto but actually it's a very low crime suburban neighborhood.  Our yard, being fairly  close to a shopping center and on a corner and with a school bus stop down the street, gets more foot traffic than many streets, so that certainly adds to it.  
Anyway, despite the occasional irritations I described, it's still worth it to have plantings, rather than lawn, out there.
 

[fleurbleue]

Very nice rock garden Luc  I am delighted to look at belgian front gardens every time we go to your country and I'll have this great pleasure on next Thursday 

[cohan]

Did you ever have problems with neighbours children, dogs, cats or destructions and theft caused by passerby?

We don't have a rock garden out front but do have perennial plantings on both sides of a corner lot, in the boulevard, and along the side fence.  Yes, there is always some amount of "vandalism" every year, ranging from the results of mindless behavior to intentional small-scale destruction... there is a sliding scale to the amount of irritation it causes!  

now my problems are more in the vein of : the neighbour's cattle wandering through (they did some minor damage in the veg garden and knocked over a pot or two), but i have had to deal with city issues, and some sensitive ones were raised there..lol
 i never had a full scale garden like lori, living mostly in apartments but there were the pots of tomatoes i nurtured outside an edmonton apt--some neighbouring kids thought it would be fun to pick them and throw against buildings...
in toronto, at one place, i had one flower bed in front, which was really on the sidewalk; it was bothered less than i would have expected  (of course it was immediately below a window and beside the door) but there were some flowers picked, a couple of small plants actually stolen and the dog owners who think all the world is a dog bathroom (you could not pay me to sit on grass anywhere in the city of toronto, even if there is no poop there right now, you can be sure every square inch has been pooped on)-besides the poop itself, just the idea that your dog should be able to trample around in someone's plants is beyond me...

[Rodger Whitlock]

One way of discouraging pickers, dogs, thieves, and vandals is to steal a page from the UBC Botanic Garden. They have an "Economic Garden" there and the edibles in were (as you would expect) irresistible to visitors until they put up signs "THIS AREA HAS BEEN SPRAYED".

The signs were absolutely truthful: those areas had been sprayed with water.

In Lori's case, I can just see the local earth mother having the proverbial cow and making sure that her hellspawn walk down the opposite side of the street when they pass the evil chemical user's house.

Since yesterday was International Pirate Talk day, I'll end by saying hardy, har, harrrrrrrrrrrr, me lads!

[Lori S.]

Signs??  My preference is land mines... of course, having to hose off the sidewalk afterwards is the drawback.   Oh well, can't be helped....   
(I've also considered having the little darlings' heads up on pikes... should be fair enough warning.   )

[cohan]

Signs??  My preference is land mines... of course, having to hose off the sidewalk afterwards is the drawback.   Oh well, can't be helped....   
(I've also considered having the little darlings' heads up on pikes... should be fair enough warning.   )

lol..i can relate to the sentiment--though (not counting teenagers) my retribution goes always to parents and owners....

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for the very kind comments everyone !!   

Reading all the previous remarks regarding vandalism, etc... I must be very lucky (touching wood here).  So far, I've never had any bad  experiences in that sence Gerd/

I live in a very quiet suburban neighbourhood with no through passing traffic. Only cyclists and people walking by on a Sunday afternoon stroll occasionally stop to have a look at this odd construction, wondering how somebody can get it into his head to dump a couple of tons of rock in front of his house...    Exceptionally, if they see me around, somebody will stop and ask what that funny thing is I'm growing, pointing at the 15 year old Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis that can be seen from the street... 

Not many small children living nearby either and definitely no roaming cattle or deer... 

My plantings do not invite for flower picking Lori..    I guess it's a lot harder to pick flowers from Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis  than to pick a Lily or a Rose... 

[Ragged Robin]

Luc, your rock garden is a real inspiration, beautifully designed and planted and I'd love to know what the light green mossy hummock is in the centre?

No vandalism in the mountains here - unheard of amongst the locals - but down in Martigny, I'm afraid to say, young men from abroad starting the trend.  I was about to approach a young group of 7 and was warned heavily not to - it took me a while to come to terms with not challenging them for mindless behaviour on a beautiful walk by the river but I took the advice.  I blame upbringing too and no sense of other peoples space and value.

[tonyg]

Curiously I find myself having things in common with Luc and Lori, despite their differing experiences.  We are quiet(ish) suburban but just off the corner where the shop is frequented by the kids from the (very) local high school.  A mixed and often noisy bunch their greatest offence is litter.  However the litterpicking I do means I also spot weeds more quickly and they occasionally pay me for the job by dropping paper money with their litter.  Oh yes, I have twice found a £10 note while litter picking! 
The garden itself is not as neat and tidy as Lucs', I adopt a 'natural gardening' strategy due to lack of time.  I still get appreciative glances and comments from passers by but vandals like to spoil something that looks unspoilt and my gardens wild look might fool them   (I hope!)

[shelagh]

Giles judging by your latest avatar you are taking this laid back attitude a bit too far

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for the compliments Robin and Tony.
The little green hummock is the 15 year old Arenaria tetraquetra var. granatensis I mentioned in the text...
As to the neat- and tidyness of the garden... a lot of credit for that goes to the fellow gardener I've been married to for 34 years now...  ... we've made that a joint venture 

[Paddy Tobin]

Luc,

Great garden, obviously has much attention lavished on it, great attention to detail. Fabulous!

Re intruders/vandals etc. I have a large, loud-barking dog who keeps by-passers, well, passing by very quickly. He does not tolerate people stopping near our garden and makes it obvious to them that he really doesn't want them even on the road outside the garden. Despite then we had some plants taken from the roadside a few months ago, whole plants simply lifted and taken away by a man who walked our road regularly. Mary drove along just after he had lifted the plants - they were only some primula japonica - but she made no comment. However, he realised he had been seen and hasn't been on the road since. Good riddance.

Paddy

[ranunculus]

They never take the weeds, do they Paddy?  (Not that I'm insinuating that you might have one or two sir)!    

We used to get sheep leaping our fence (especially in hard winters), but the kids would shout; "Mint sauce" and they scarpered quite quickly!

(The sheep, not the kids ... they KEEP coming back - with their flocks)!

[Kristl Walek]

One way of discouraging pickers, dogs, thieves, and vandals is to steal a page from the UBC Botanic Garden. They have an "Economic Garden" there and the edibles in were (as you would expect) irresistible to visitors until they put up signs "THIS AREA HAS BEEN SPRAYED".

The very best street-level-vandalism-deterrent I have ever seen (so wish I could find the pictures), were of Tony Avent's wonderful "Plant Delights" nursery in North Carolina, where the entire area bordering the road is an impenetrable hedge of waist-high or taller prickly cacti interspersed with huge clumps of ornamental grasses. This obviously keeps out man and beast as well as the bulk of temptation!!!!

[Kristl Walek]

My tiny bungalow in my new home in Nova Scotia sits back somewhat on the main street in Annapolis Royal.

The former owner, who lived here for 50 years, was not a gardener. The front yard is composed of a large Acer pseudoplatanus, a Tilia and Quercus robur (which are widely naturalized in this province). In front of the house was the usual tiny bed of common weeds. Squished up against the foundaition were masses of hosta, and innapropriate woody plants (lilacs, junipers, hydrangea)---which have all been removed.

My property is on one of the major deer runs in town; working their way through the sheltered woody area in back, to the river across the street and back again. It is my first experience gardening with deer. There is not a day that groups of them are not passing through the property.

10 days ago I went into panic mode about all the plants that had accompanied me and were still sitting in a holding area in pots. The first mild frost had hit here on September 9th (even earlier than I had ever experienced it in Ontario).

And thus, a "panic garden" was quickly created; although I have tried to keep in mind my eventual fantasy of rock and crevice gardens in the entire area close to the house.

A "woodland garden" abutts the street in a large curve, inside of which I have made a tiny start on the rock garden, which can keep me busy for many years to come, especially since, unlike in Ontario, I have to drag each rock home piece by piece.

My moving boxes also managed to get properly recycled. 

AND, dear generous friends (you know who you are) thank you for your emergency shipping of Corydalis bulbs across the ocean to help me re-establish these small woodland gems, all of which I lost last winter in Ontario. They are now all safely planted in the garden.