Rock Gardens

Home for John Oates (of Hall and Oates), his wife, Aimee, and son Tanner is a five-acre storybook farm near Aspen, Colorado. It was Aimee who drew her husband into the outdoor life. The couple take a great deal of pride in tending to their rustic outdoor oasis, although they leave a lot of the landscaping to Mother Nature.

While Aimee tends to the gardens, John has his own work cut out for him. "I like mowing," he says. "It's kind of a zen thing. I've got a nice-size John Deere tractor with a mower deck, and I go out to cut the big field. It's great to be out there and I like driving the tractor."

John and Aimee wanted to make things easy so their garden includes natives like columbine and mint that grow there with a minimum of maintenance.

Thistle is the scourge of the Oates' landscape and John dedicates himself to eradicating it.

Besides turkey and chickens, the other residents on the Oakes' farm include llamas and alpacas. The alpacas are raised for their fleece. Caruso is the newest resident.

Offstage, Mark Hoppus (of Blink-182) is at home in gardens that overlook a private golf course. He says the red banana plants on opposite sides of the drive had equal beginnings but the one on the left was nipped by frost.

Mark and his wife had just finished landscaping their former home when they spotted this house, so they brought a lot of their plants with them. Full-grown palms were brought in and installed in the courtyard and driveway, thanks to a large crane.

Mark wanted flowers right away, so he went down to a nursery and brought home these 20 daylilies and agapanthus and planted them. That, he laughs, was the extent of his planting of the extensive gardens.

A water feature runs from the front courtyard, under the outdoor fireplace, continues to the entryway...

...and finally reemerges as a waterfall in the backyard.

The terraced veranda--a favorite hangout spot--features a variety of surfaces including slate, plaster and sandblasted concrete.

Darius Rucker, lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. So it was only natural that after years on the road, he wanted to return home to a place full of memories. He looked at only two houses before making his decision.

The gardens are full of petunias, hibiscus, impatiens, crape myrtles, sweetgrass and towering palms. Darius loves the gardens and the sound of birds, but he doesn't do the gardening (his wife does). Longtime friends Trent Tender and Mike Fairburn care for the grounds.

Grace Slick (lead singer for Jefferson Airplane and later, Jefferson Starship) loves this home for its blend of Tudor and Mediterranean styles. The home sits on two acres overlooking the southern California coast.

"I love to see all this green stuff doing what it does," says Grace. "I hate cutting it. I never cut any of the roses. I like to allow flowers to grow and then do what they're going to do."

The home was already landscaped when Grace bought it. Although she doesn't know all the names of the plants, she loves the exotic nature of them, including this very thorny specimen, a silk floss tree.

Grace is probably most remembered for the 1967 rock classic "White Rabbit", so it's not surprising that white rabbits play a role in her gardens.

The first thing that Micky Dolenz (the Monkees drummer) did after buying this southern California home--even before unpacking--was to plant a half-dozen fruit trees.

The swimming pool--with its authentic Spanish tiles and the calming sound of its waterfall--was one of the major selling points of the home.

Dolenz likes to do his own gardening, especially pruning. The knee pad, he jokes, is an essential tool. He longs for a vegetable garden but, because the property is steep, limits his vegetables to container gardens.

In the heart of a busy southern California city lies the tranquil garden of Chaka Khan.

Chaka Khan's deck is enhanced by potted herbs (including spicy oregano) and a glazed Mexican "sun."

The garden is full of private, playful spaces, including a double swing that's positioned over a little creek.