Hi Everyone,
I'm new to the site and happy have found these forums, especially this one. I'm hoping to get some basic advice before trying my hand at rock gardening. Apologies for the length.
I live on the front range of Colorado - what my house came with was a yard that was laid down with plastic and covered with gravel. This suits me just fine and is appropriate for our dry climate. It looked pretty nice when I acquired the property, but is starting to look a little ratty. The plastic has degraded so weeds are sprouting up between the gravel. There's a very gentle slope to the stone wall at the bottom, where a row of irises are planted.
I love the way rock gardens look, and due to erosion from the hillside behind me, I have an endless supply of rocks. Plus I'd like something easier to maintain as I'm not getting any younger,
What I'd like to know is this - can I build something right on top of the gravel/plastic? It would be quite a chore to remove the gravel/plastic, so I'm hoping I won't have to. I have thin paver pieces I'm thinking could be placed down before filling in the soil. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to scrape away a good amount of the gravel, if that would be better than nothing.
That's all I'll bore you with right now. If photos would help, I'll post a few. Thanks in advance for any advice you may have for me.
Gigi
p.s. I should add that in the middle of the space is the remains of what must have been a massive tree, so there's a ring where the trunk is (underground). I planted steppables around it the first year I was here, and they've spread and flourished quite nicely over and among the rocks that surround this circle. This is where I'm thinking of extending into a rock garden. By the way, the yard is small, so this won't be a massive undertaking.
