Winter Lichen Garden Vignette

By Felicia Fredd
Images Courtesy of Felicia Fredd

While it’s still winter, I’d like to share a few garden photos that illustrate great ‘winter interest’ in a minimalist natural garden. In this case, it’s all about magical lichen covered boulders that happen to perfectly compliment a small aspen grove in a shady entry area - the sight of which gave me a good jolt of inspiration. I think one could actually make a career as a garden rock specialist, as a kind of Japanese master of form, placement, texture, light effects, color, etc. Of course you’d probably end up killed by a giant boulder, but it could be an otherwise beautiful life.

The unprofessional photos below (mine) were taken in the garden of Krista Elrick, a professional photographer and environmental activist who lives on the northwest edge of Santa Fe, NM. Her project began 20+ years ago with some large expanses of what I call scorched earth. She started with placement of very large boulders (via crane) to begin developing a sense of here vs. there - of garden space, or garden islands. It was a great instinct, and we have since been finding more and more transformative uses for even common grades of “crushed rock” to cool and protect soil, retain moisture, slow sheet flow of intense stormwater events, and shelter plants - many of which are native volunteers. We aren’t done, and there will be more documentation of the project in my Xtreme Design SW BLOG files.