Rockin’ the yard

MOSES LAKE — There’s more than one way to cover a yard.

“I'm not a grass person,” said Teresa Fields of Moses Lake. “I mean, I love grass for the dogs, but, yeah, low maintenance and water conservation is my number one thing. So neighbors have rocks, I take them and I use them. We live here in the Basin, and that's just rocks.”

Fields is in the process of turning the front lawn of the house she and her husband Ed own into a big rock garden. She’s already gotten rid of the grass and is staging stones in its place. Some of the rock involved is flat paving stones and gravel, but most of it is just medium-sized roundish rocks that other folks want to get rid of.

“I just went near a neighbor's house and they're like, please take them, I'll pay. I said no, I'll take it,” she said. “But little did he know I scored a birdbath in one of the rocks, which is about $2,500.”

Fields’ yard isn’t completely devoid of flora, but everything she’s putting in is drought-resistant and requires very little water.

“There's succulents here. There's tons of grasses, junipers. I love evergreens because I came from the west side. And so anything I can do to make it look green, is what I put in.”

“This is going to be an all-blue yard,” she added, gesturing at a small blue spruce. “So anything that has blue in the name is going to be planted here.”

For what watering Fields does, she doesn’t use sprinklers, just some drip hoses.

“You don't water every day,” she said. “You probably water once or twice a week versus every day with a lawn, right? So that's how much money you save.”

The house Fields is currently landscaping around is next door to the one she and Ed live in. She’s thinking of using it either for a rental or a mother-in-law house. Their own house also has rockery in the front, with gravel surrounding it for a turnaround driveway.

The rockery in Fields’ front yard is, well, eclectic may be the right word. There’s a boat propeller, several little sculptures, an anchor and a large “F” made of gambion and filled with Japanese glass fishing floats.

Gambion is an important part of Fields’ construction method. The coarse wire mesh is easy to shape into any arrangement she wants, and it keeps gravity from having its way with the rocks she fills it with.

The ideas are all hers, but Ed helps out running the little tractor they use to flatten the ground and move the heavier stones.

“He's my backbone, the one that runs the machines for me,” she said.

“I put this rock here, that rock there,” Ed answered. “That's my role.”

Fields does have some greenery in the backyard of her home. She has a fairly conventional lawn, but also has goji bushes and a fig tree.

One advantage to a rock garden is that it can be three-dimensional, Fields said, rather than a completely flat lawn. She pointed to a couple of mounds where she’s putting in trees.

“It's just going to give it some depth, like a small tree, right? Little trees will grow, they'll get huge, and then you'll have to move them eventually. But you can keep them maintained.”

Drainage is important, Fields said, especially when building near the side of the house. A pile of rocks right up against the house may look nice in the summer, but in the winter a snow pack can cover up vents and then melt all that water into them when the weather warms up again.

It’s also important to do your research before doing any serious digging, she added, to make sure there aren’t any utility lines at risk of damage.

A rock garden may not be everybody’s idea of a beautiful yard, but Fields sees it differently.

“It's an eyesore to (some people), but it’s beauty to me. Rocks are just as living as the plants. Everybody wants to get rid of it, but I think it showcases each plant. When you have grass, it kind of gets lost in the color. When you have rock. I think it amplifies the color of each. You know, you wouldn't have seen that against grass.”

Joel Martin can be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.