Audrey Rauch says she doesn't garden by the rules because she can't remember them.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Audrey and Clarence Rauch of McCandless, above, are set to show off their eclectic garden, below, at tomorrow's Horticultural Society's Open Gardens Day tour.
Click photos for larger image. The Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania Open Gardens Day WHAT: Self-guided tour of 22 gardens in region. WHEN: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow. TICKETS: $30 for Horticultural Society members; $40 for nonmembers. Available for $40 at local shops or from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at society office, 6010 Penn Circle South, East Liberty. INFORMATION: 412-361-8677. Related article Other upcoming house, garden tours

Don't believe a word of it. The garden she created with the help of her husband, Clarence, is a wonderful crazy quilt of plants that is full of imagination and joy. And you'll be able to see it because it's one of 22 gardens that will be open tomorrow for the Horticulture Society of Western Pennsylvania Open Gardens Day.

What makes the Rauches' 75-by-150-foot McCandless lot even more amazing is that it was only started about 12 years ago, when the couple attended a North American Rock Garden Society show. Audrey was about finished raising her six children, and she needed something to occupy her time. At the show, she discovered alpine plants and cement. That's right, cement.

The troughs Audrey saw at the show were constructed with a mixture of Portland cement, sifted peat moss and sand or perlite. Inside them were alpine plants, which are accustomed to growing in the cold, dry conditions and poor soil found at high altitudes.

When she saw them, Audrey found her calling. She began constructing troughs at a fast rate, and, now in her 70s, she's still turning them out. Although Clarence, her husband of 48 years, helps, Audrey is the trough queen. Right now, Audrey's garden has about 125 on display, she thinks.

"We don't count them," she says cheerfully as we walk by a bunch at the side of her home.

Troughs usually hold alpines, but they can be planted with anything. Audrey's troughs run the gamut. Some contain dwarf conifers, others house miniature hostas. A neighbor grows annuals in a large one that Audrey and Clarence made for her.

Because most troughs are heavy, they are not very mobile and usually remain where they are placed. Most stay out all year, but some are covered or placed in an alpine house to keep them dry. Wet conditions are fatal to most alpine plants.

Although she loves alpines, Audrey doesn't limit herself to rock garden plants. Her plot contains tropicals, elderberries, vegetables, annuals -- you name it. Anything that interests her is there.

The front of her garden is packed with perennial beds, the driveway with potted material. Going to the back, the visitor passes dozens of planted troughs and finds more in the alpine house. More plantings surround the small pond with fish. There is a diverse collection here, as interesting as Audrey.

	Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Audrey Rauch made the more than 100 cement troughs on display throughout the garden. Click photo for larger image.

"If you are not a gardener, you don't understand," she says as she leads a tour through her colorful creation. "By the time I get done here, there won't be a blade of grass left."

There isn't much grass there now, especially if you factor in the garden ornaments -- many made by Audrey -- two covered porches, a storage shed full of trough-making equipment, the alpine house and a tent-covered concrete pad where Audrey constructs her creations in warm weather.

The pad was poured last summer by Audrey and Clarence, of course. Audrey did the concrete mixing by hand. She says the pad had to be poured because she was sick of making troughs in the mud. If Audrey decides she's going to do something, she does it.

"I'm a determined person," she says. Her husband shakes his head and agrees.

Audrey comes up with lots of ideas. One project she has in mind this summer is to construct a small Zen garden, with a sand bed beside her little pond. She's also been casting hosta and other large leaves in cement. She points out a few examples in the garden.

"I love my leaves," she says.

Audrey's interests are wide, and she and Clarence are members of many plant societies besides the Rock Garden Society. When she got hooked on gourds a few years ago, she joined the American Gourd Society. (Yes, there is such a thing.)

But her main passion is cement. She doesn't even give it up in the winter, when she continues her work in a small enclosed porch where her husband notes that she has ruined the carpet.

It isn't a mean-spirited comment, just a statement of fact. You can tell the couple is perfectly matched. Clarence attends Rock Garden Society and other meetings with her and assists at her trough-making classes. Among other things, he's built the alpine house, screened in the porches and makes wooden garden ornaments. Currently, the two of them are dabbling at making small fountains, several of which are burbling in the garden.

Like most passionate gardeners, Audrey always has a few plants sitting around in pots, waiting to be placed. Some she can't even identify, but they are thriving nonetheless. And like all true gardens, this one is a work still in progress.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette This lily is just a small part of Audrey and Clarence Rauch's colorful garden in McCandless. Click photo for larger image.

"You have to imagine in my garden," says Audrey.

Actually, you don't. She's done it for you by bringing together interesting plant material, whimsical garden ornaments and beautifully made troughs, then liberally seasoning the mix with tons of creativity and exuberance. It's a creation not to be missed.

Oh, and when you visit, look for the hat hanging on the front gate. It belonged to Audrey's mother, who passed away several years ago, after living to a ripe old age. Audrey credits her mother with giving her a love of gardening.

"I incorporate my mother in my garden any way I can," she says.

But in the end, the garden is Audrey's creation. With help from Clarence, of course.