Mature Rock Garden along Cedar Creek

Gated communities like to attract attention with creative landscaping around their entrances, and when Cedar Creek Mountain opened ten years ago five miles north of Lake Lure, it was no exception. Cedar Creek cascades over the Blue Ridge Escarpment on a six mile course from its highest spring run below 2,800′ Round Mountain in eastern Buncombe County, into Rutherford County, where it becomes a peaceful stream eventually joining the Broad River.

The “Mountain” in the name is actually 2,600′ Roan Horsetop Mountain, just south of 3,100′ Wolf Pen Mountain. The developers chose to construct an elaborate rock garden featuring a waterfall, a line of Southern Magnolia, ornamental Cypress and Spruce, many varieties of Juniper, and beds of flowering perennials for color. Only five homes have ever been built there, but the rock garden has been maintained, and a bridge over the creek was recently improved with natural log safety railings.

Young’s Mountain, also 2,600 feet, sits at the eastern end of Cedar Creek Road…

**A moderate rain was falling along the creek…**

**Magnolia, Fancy Arbor Vitae, Cypress, Juniper, and Cone Flowers**

**Waterfall area… Japanese Ground Juniper on the rocks**

A well maintained rock garden can add so much to the natural beauty found throughout these mountains. Though many of the plants are not native to North Carolina, they are non-invasive. A steady rain only intensifies the variations of green these plants offer the eye.