When I laid my second course of stones for my rock garden, I made the circle small enough that plenty of room for planting was left over around the perimeter of the first layer. A little bit more planting space is available on top of the second layer itself.
So where do you begin planting? And with which plants? I find it useful for such a project to plant in 3s -- 3 of the same plant, that is. The white blooms of the candytuft will be one of my rock garden's most striking features early on, so I decided to plant the 3 candytufts first, using a garden trowel to dig my holes.
The result (see photo above) is a triangle that anchors the composition. As you can see, I've already begun planting some of the other plants. In Step 8 I proceed to install the rest of my plants, radiating out from each point in the triangle....
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