Dover -- The Samuel and Beverly Ryburn Wildflower Garden

A nearly 40-foot wide, 10 to 18 foot high rock ledge on an abandoned 12-acre farm was developed into a wildflower garden during the 1980s after the owners discovered how to make use of this natural feature, aided by their study of Japanese garden design. An initial attempt to smooth over the rock's contours with hundreds of wheelbarrows of soil dug and brought uphill from their woods was unattractive, and the soil was removed. By basing their design on a Japanese rock garden format they used the natural depressions in the rock for pocket gardens. Four larger depressions were deepened and concreted to make pools that were connected to a submerged recycling water pump. Dwarf varieties of cypress, spruce, weeping larch, Japanese cut leaf maple, and rhododendron were planted in other pockets deep enough for small trees and shrubs. Creeping juniper, partridgeberry, pipsissewa, wintergreen, and native small shrubs grew to form mats and screens. Native wildflowers took root wherever there was soil or cracks in the rock. Twenty species and varieties of ferns adapted to shady spots. The rock garden was a feature of the larger, more conventional gardens and terraces on the property. The Japanese design theme was repeated in an arched wooden bridge, wood-slab benches, a stone lantern, and a bronze Japanese crane. Other hardscape elements were retrieved from the woods and repurposed: flat stones from an old wall were used as stepping stones and lichen-covered boulders were placed to counterbalance the heft of the wildflower rock garden.