Rock lovers that enjoy gardening find great satisfaction in combining beautiful stones and their favorite flowers into essential parts of their landscape. Rocks create wonderful gardens. Their size, weight, and stability make them highly suited for use as a border, and even as a containment barrier in a raised-bed garden, as we’re going to discuss in this guide.
Step one is to choose a location for your rock garden. Stroll around your yard imagining possibilities. Popular options include a hill slope that is difficult to mow, a ring or rectangle formed around a favorite shade tree, a focal point easily enjoyed from a large window or the deck, or a corner of the yard, perhaps where fencing comes together. Leaf through some of your favorite gardening books for location ideas, as well as inspiration for design.
How to Build a Rock Garden
Step two is to finalize that design through trial and error, by laying it out in the chosen spot, using newspaper. Explore different shapes, and expand or shrink the design until you are happy with it. Add several layers of paper, which will act to smother the vegetation beneath, while allowing for drainage in the garden.
The third step is to form the outside border with stones large enough to create a bed at least 6-8 inches deep. Bunch stones tightly next to adjoining ones, so they will better hold the soil. When the containment border is complete, fill your garden with quality top soil. Water the soil thoroughly to compact it, and then fill in settled spots. If you plan to add an elevated section within the garden, perhaps with a smaller course of rocks, now is the time to do that, filling it with soil, also. Circles within circles, rectangles within rectangles, or mixed shape combinations can be very attractive.
The fourth step is to begin planting your flowers. Here we have to take a step back and talk about plant selection. Let’s begin with color. Different types of rock feature different color characteristics. Field stone is varied, yet quite different than assorted shades of sandstone or ledge stone. It is important to choose flowers that will complement the colors found in the rocks. The best thing to do is to have a few rocks with you when you select your flowers. You’ll easily see that some colors are a good fit and others are not. The principle is the same as matching carpeting with furniture fabrics or curtains indoors. The other plant selection issue involves choosing the right height plants for where you plan to place them. Shorter plants will go in front, taller, bushier plants should go in middle or back. The point is that as you view the garden, all rows of plants should be visible. Sketch on paper your planting configuration before you start planting. Finally, plan for there to be color through each season. Know when each bulb or plant blooms, and locate them so that all sections of your rock garden will have several plants in full blossom at all times.
The last step is to plant the flowers in your rock garden. The essential thing is to begin in back and plant toward the front, so that you won’t damage what you have already planted by accidently stepping on it, for example. Keep a few of the nicer stones set aside to place here and there in the garden as attractive accents. These basic steps to building a rock garden will produce a unique, natural space employing some of the choicest bounty the earth has to offer.
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