Rooky rock garden- Auburn university

Wagon Landscaping was invited for a week of lectures and workshops at Auburn University, Alabama, centered on the theme of the feral landscape. In a very short time, and thanks to the energy and commitment of the landscape architecture students, the first “feral” landscape took shape on the university campus.

A nearby stockpile of demolition materials became the primary resource for the project. Reused directly on site, these materials were transformed into a rock garden planted exclusively with native plant species from the surrounding region. The project explores the capacity of living systems to colonize poor, reconstructed soils, and questions the relationships between artificial ground, recycling, and spontaneous ecological dynamics.

Conceived as both a learning space and a living landscape, the garden becomes a hands-on gardening site for the students, who are responsible for its care, observation, and long-term evolution. Here, construction is not an end in itself but a beginning: the garden truly starts when the worksite ends.

Special thanks to David Hill (Hillwork) and Rob Holmes for the invitation.