Do you have any tips for do-it-yourself rock gardens? Do-it-yourself rock gardens are where new ideas and concepts are created in the rock garden industry. "That's an excellent question," says Laddie Flock,...
"That's an excellent question," says Laddie Flock, owner of Natural Rock Formations, a company that has been in business for 17 years and has experience in all different styles and themes of rock gardens. Natural Rock Formations is one of the largest distributors of natural stone products on the Pacific coast and has been featured in many publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Landscape and Irrigation magazine. Their website can be found at www.natrok.com.
"'Do-it-yourselfers' come from a whole different arena. One advantage is the money saving qualities that you are not having to pay for somebody else to do the design. But also address the importance of working with somebody that has done this before from a collaboration standpoint. Once you start talking about your project with someone, whether or not it is a hired contractor or a designer, then there are more options to choose from the setup in the direction you are going in. But do it yourselfers are an important breed (for lack of a better term) because they are really the pioneers on a lot of new designs that are happening out there," says Flock
Flock says. "Some are on purpose and true designs through their own ideas and some are from mistakes. I have found that some design elements (that I have used often) were really mistakes. It is not a complete mistake, but more of an evolving process. Maybe we felt we had to use a particular product because of the economics rather than function, so all of a sudden we found there is a new texture that we normally wouldn't have used. This may be a collage or composite of using two to three stones together.
Flock likes dealing with people who want to do it for themselves as it is a learning experience for both the costumer and himself. He says, "Thus, do-it-yourselfers are incredible. I personally love working with do-it-yourselfers because they can do a lot of the leg work and sometimes they have their own laborers and so the cost of things like footings for wall or the CMU block works. There is a height, width, strength and a technique in order to get the structure correct and those can all be completed by the do-it-yourselfer. You will find that do-it-yourselfers really want to pick up a mason's trial (for example) in the use of a stone; or pick up a power saw with the diamond blade on it and put safety glasses and be able to cut wood for the patio; or pick up a hue of a stone or clean up a particular area; it is an incredible opportunity to work with these people. Teaching is incredible. So many professionals want to hide their talents for fear that they don't have that edge. But what they don't realize is that is how you learn. When you are teacher, you become a student. There is a wide variety of options in the garden field and it takes everyone to be able to produce ideas."
