Author photo, © Barbara Radisavljevic

There Are Rock Gardens, and Then There Are Real Rock Gardens

Here’s a real one

One spring day while walking through Larry Moore Park in Paso Robles along the Salinas River Trail, I found a rock garden. A real rock garden.

A real rock garden, author photo, © Barbara Radisavljevic

The seeds were, no doubt, planted during the autumn winds. They sprouted after the winter rains, in early spring. They found a home in many of the rocks you see in the intro photo. Some also sprouted in the space between the giant rocks.

Over the years the wind blows soil and seed into the rock crevices. A few leaves and dead grasses also fall in. The rains water it all. Soon gardens of grasses, mosses, and lichens form on the rock and in its cracks and crevices.

I took these pictures of the same group of rocks near the Salinas River, two years apart.

The first real rock gardens I discovered in December 2012

Garden on top of huge rock, author photo, © Barbara Radisavljevic