Flowers, stacked rocks mark unusual lawn in Washington

WASHINGTON — In two connected houses across the street from Saint James Catholic Church, Sadie Gevock and Linda Quigley maintain yards with very different features for very similar reasons.

The first features an array of flowers, inherently temporary in nature, but given enough care to thrive for as long as possible each year.

The second features rocks, a notoriously durable decoration made momentary by their display in carefully arranged — and sometimes precarious-looking — stacks.

While they may seem like very different approaches to exterior decor, both women said they were an aesthetically pleasing and ideal way to relieve stress.

“It’s lots of work, but it’s a type of work that you get so much pleasure out of,” Gevock said. “I used to get home from work, and the first place I’d go would be the flower bed, just because of stress. It’s very relaxing.”

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On the south side of the duplex, facing the street, Quigley maintains a display of carefully stacked rocks in the front lawn. She said the practice was “a Zen thing.”

“You move them around, slowly but surely, and then sooner or later, it will get to a point where the gravity will take it, and you can stack it on top of another one, then you grab another one,” she said. “It’s kind of calming, just to be able to do something like that. It just makes you feel good.”

Both methods also require a mix of learned experience and natural instinct.

Gevock used to take care of the flowers around Saint James, but since retirement has focused on her own household. She said the green thumb ran in her family, crediting much of her botanic success to her Welsh ancestry, although the years of experience have likely helped as well.

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“It’s an instinct, you just know when some flower’s not in the right place,” she said. “I think, more or less, it’s a hereditary thing from your family. My mom had flowers, my sisters do and my kids do … But some people can raise flowers, and some people cannot. You’ve got to have that green thumb.”

Quigley said she wasn’t sure if rock stacking required any natural-born talent, but said it did require a good sense of what works and what doesn’t, similar to the flowers across the duplex.

The technique involves determining which shapes and textures can best support one another, and how each rock will affect the one, two, or three stones on top of it. Done correctly, the stack is stable, and holds up under the elements, although a wayward squirrel or deer may sometimes knock a few over.

“It’s just what works, you move them around and find a little niche,” Quigley said. “They find the spot where they balance … it’s more intuitive than practice. They just kind of stay. It’s fun.”

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