Low Maintenance, High Impact

West Asheville rock garden is a neighborhood attraction

By: Carolyn Kemmett

It all started with messy squirrels. When Sylvia and Tony Gomez moved into an adorable bungalow on a West Asheville street dotted with similarly charming ones, Sylvia was surprised and a bit dismayed that the neighborhood varmints went to town disrupting the mulch in her yard and regularly leaving her property in disarray.

“I didn’t want to be dealing with that, the more I thought about it, so we went in a different direction,” she explains. With the help of her design-minded son, Alexander, she set about remaking the front and back yards — which consist of one roadside section and two levels in the back — in a way that’s low-maintenance, environmentally friendly, and uniquely gorgeous. “We went with a rock garden,” says Gomez, noting that the ever-evolving project gives her and Alexander the chance to continuously flex their creative muscles. 

The result is a Zen-like yet visually complex landscape that features everything from pebbles, smaller rocks, and colored-glass stones to hunks of boulder for high drama. Within this thoughtfully laid out hardscaped lot, low-maintenance mosses, shrubs, and trees are planted strategically, so there’s a variety of plant heights, leaves, and colors to take in.

Here, Gomez discusses the garden’s dreamy appeal, its evolution, and the lot’s status as a neighborhood landmark.

CH+G: Once you decided to go the rock route, how did this project evolve?

Sylvia Gomez: My husband and I are retired, and we moved to Asheville two years ago from Miami. My brother-in-law bought this house years ago and did a beautiful job of renovating it. We enjoy it, and the yard has become a much-enjoyed extension of our living area, as well as a rewarding, serendipitous project.

There isn’t a grand plan — we just make it up as we go, with a kind of trial-and-error approach. Alexander has worked hard, not only to make what we imagine real, but he maintains it, which is no small feat. 

The colors and textures in the garden are myriad, and the more you look at the it, the more you discover. How do you achieve that?

Variety, really. In the front, we included Irish moss, which spreads and changes constantly, hollies with their interesting leaf shapes, a small pine, and Alexander added visual interest by shaping some of the shrubs into rounds of different heights, taking a topiary approach. 

We’ve placed the small blue-glass stones in places so they resemble little rivers. I have lots of roses, which I love, in the back, too, and cherry blossoms and dogwood, and a calming water feature with a fountain whose flow runs down into a small pond out back. 

In addition to the plants, the objects and accessories you’ve chosen to accent contribute to the garden’s oasis-like feel.

Yes, I’ve collected Buddha statuary, different interesting types of solar lighting features, pretty pots, and varied types of stepping stones that form paths — some of which my father made — into the garden design, as well as borders made with pavers. The variety of rocks makes the garden more interesting, too, from small ones to large flats ones, tall ones that seem to grow out from the ground themselves, and even a rock bench.

Your son had his work cut out for him!

He certainly did! He did all this by hand, moving each and every rock, and what’s happened is that each part of our yard has zones now within it that he tends to. He meticulously maintains everything so the yard looks fantastic all the time.

So the garden isn’t completely “easy care,” as some might imagine a no-mow yard to be …

It isn’t zero-maintenance, of course. As I mentioned, Alexander maintains the garden wonderfully. But when you put it side by side with a traditional lawn, there’s no comparison. We don’t need to mow or rake. The yard requires very little water because of the rocks and the fact that we purposely choose drought-tolerant plants. It’s also climate- and wallet-friendly. 

Since parts of the hardscaping is visible from the curb, you must get lots of feedback from admirers.

We sure do — whether people are walking or driving by, they will stop and point. Another cool thing is that since there’s so much to look at, they want to touch the plants and really take time to experience the garden. It has become a true conversation piece, and it brings people together. I love that.