June 16, 2026
A couple weeks ago, on the drive home from Domenique’s garden, I stopped in Castle Rock to see Ryan and Allison Harter. Ryan is known online as thexericgarden, where he shares his love of crevice gardens, waterwise gardening, and floral abundance. It’s always great to see what’s going on in their garden. They’d just hosted a rock gardening tour group that day, but somehow they still had energy to stroll around and talk plants with me.
In the front garden, I was drawn straight to a pair of spiny, blue-green agaves. Ahh, like seeing friends from Texas again.
The garden was brightly colored with dianthus, catmint, salvia, iris, columbine, and coral bells.
Hens-and-chicks weave through the cracks, part of what Ryan calls his Ring of Fire outlining a small circular lawn.
They’re so cute.
Dianthus smells sweet and looks charming among the rocks.
Two crevice containers with striking purple-and-gray stones and tiny sedums sit on top of a boulder, drawing the eye toward the front door.
Ryan said he isn’t fully satisfied with them, but I like them!
Another crevice planter adds drama with black stones and orange sedum.
Coral bells edge the front walk, while a dry stream is ready to handle overflow from the downspout.
A trio of purples
This purple pairing caught my eye — sedum and creeping thyme, I think.
Penstemon catching the light
A baby ‘Snow Leopard’ cholla with red stones in a red pot — there’s a lot of interesting texture here.
Backyard garden
In the backyard garden, stone steps traced with hot-pink ice plant were still colorful, even though the flowers were closing for the day.
Violas had self-seeded charmingly in the cracks.
Yellow yarrow
Long view toward the house
Because the garden is on a slope, you get a layered view of plants when you look uphill.
Red yucca, another old friend from Texas
Flowering blue oat grass arches and sparkles like a spray of water from a fountain.
More layers
The middle tier of the hillside garden is a fire-pit patio with veronica creeping across the flagstones.
It’s becoming a living veronica patio.
Catmint and yellow buckwheat
One more
Fleabane
And more buckwheat
Lilac
Catmint
Blue oat grass
Looking up the stone steps
Check out this otherworldly purple rock.
Violas and ice plant, all closed up for evening
Last light in the garden
Dianthus
Its thready blue-green foliage is pretty too.
Those rhythmic splashes of pink lead you along the path.
Another oat grass fountain
And another
Anyone who thinks a rock garden is bleak and minimalist has only to look at Ryan and Allison’s garden to see it can be lush and colorful.
My thanks to them for another lovely visit!
Want more? I wrote a big 2-part blog post about this garden last summer. Feast your eyes here and here.
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