How to set up a rocky garden. Rocky gardens in landscape design

Man in the creation of gardens always loses to Nature, because. can only imitate her in his work.

Fashion exists in landscape design. More recently, the presence Alpine slide in country garden was considered mandatory. It was not always taken into account whether the alpine slide suits the style of the garden. Great disappointment is experienced by those whose rock garden looks like a foreign element. Such a garden looks unbalanced, and therefore uncomfortable.

Design rules require that the eye has a place to rest. An alpine slide should become such an object.

Where did you come from Russian gardens rock garden fashion? Interest in alpine slides arose, most likely, as a new unusual way creating a kind flower beds using stone.

In the XV-XVI centuries. the rulers of European states sent various expeditions around the world in large numbers. Different goals were pursued in these sometimes difficult journeys. But, with almost every expedition, botanists or biologists went to study overseas flora and fauna. outlandish plants tried to deliver to Europe alive. Some of them were of interest as food, while others were used to decorate the gardens of nobles. Thanks to such expeditions, various collections of plants were created, including those growing in mountainous areas. Scientists tried to replicate conditions for mountain plants similar to the natural conditions of the habitats from which they were brought. For each group of plants, the composition was selected soil mixtures, their location in the garden, mountain landscapes were recreated in miniature. The combination of plants and stone looked very impressive. Such garden compositions are called "alpine hills" after the name of the most popular mountains in Europe.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. England, by virtue of its historical development, natural and political conditions created her own style in landscape design, which was later called landscape. These gardens differed from the court gardens of France, Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which were pretentious in their geometry, by the picturesque tree and shrub groups freely placed on glades and lawns, various types of reservoirs. Landscape designers were and are still highly valued, able to preserve the existing vegetation and fit young groups of plants in such a way that the "youth" does not look alien. In such gardens, representatives of the natural flora, reservoirs of natural forms, winding paths, compositions using natural stone are often found.

It should not be forgotten that rock gardens have been known in Japan and China for more than three millennia. Such gardens were worn more philosophical meaning. They were created to encourage people to admire and contemplate the beauty of objects created by nature itself. For Europeans, such gardens seemed exotic.

Modern alpine slides are the whole variety of rocky gardens. Creating an alpine slide is akin to creativity based on knowledge of the subject.

A site with a complex relief is a real find for a designer. Natural differences in heights allow you to create a unique appearance of this object. To do this, it is only necessary to emphasize natural beauty terrain and organize space for a comfortable life.

The variety of alpine slides can be as great as the number of their creators. Someone will want to have in their garden a corner of a meadow familiar from childhood, overgrown with herbs and flowers growing around boulder stones. Someone will reproduce fragments of alpine meadows, mountain streams, screes on rocks seen in travels. Someone liked a photo of a mountainous area in a magazine. Plant collectors are a different story...

The specialists of our design studio, when choosing a place for an alpine slide, always take into account the fact that the slide should harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape and be clearly visible. If these conditions are not met, it is better to refuse the rock garden.

All rock gardens can be conditionally divided into several types: rock garden or rockery on the plane, rocky hill, retaining wall, rock garden (rockery) - terrace.

There is a slight difference between rock garden and rockery. To create a rock garden most areas are allocated for planting, and a smaller part is occupied by stones. When creating a rockery, the opposite is true - most of the area is allocated for placing a stone, and a smaller part is occupied by plants.

A raised alpine slide gives volume to a flat garden.

On a flat area, it makes sense to create an alpine hill if its size is no less than 1.5 m x 2.5 m. Often, the rock garden area can be up to several hundred meters. The height of the alpine slide varies from 1 m to 3 m. When choosing the size of the rock garden, you need to correlate it with the size of the site.

The hill looks beautiful framed by a lawn away from bright flower beds. In the lawn, you can place large stones, beautiful in texture, surrounded by low plants. The decorativeness of the rock garden is increased by the presence of coniferous plants.

An interesting composition of several slides located in different parts of the garden. Such a composition should look natural, natural.

The beauty of the slide is emphasized by picturesque shrub-woody monochromatic decorative groups planted for the background. When choosing a landing site and an assortment of plants for the background, it must be taken into account that when trees grow, they can completely obscure the entire hill, and powerful roots can damage it and suppress alpine plants.

Alpine slides created on the slopes look even more interesting. Most often, on such slopes, terracing is carried out in order to create platforms with a width of 30 cm to 200 cm. All terraces should be combined in design. For ease of maintenance of such a slide, it is good to enter stylized steps made of stone. For plants, slides built on the eastern, southeastern, southwestern slopes are best suited. The southern slope is hot and dry in summer. Drought-resistant plants are suitable for this slope, the assortment of which is small.

Retaining walls can separate rock garden terraces from each other or emphasize elevation differences on the site. Before erecting a retaining wall, a foundation of about 40 cm must be made under it.

Interesting limestone tuff, travertine. Alpine plants can be planted in the cavities of these stones, as well as mini-rock gardens can be created.

The most important building element for creating alpine gardens is natural stone. It must be remembered that the stones must be uniform. I recommend choosing stones rocks, the surface of which was treated by wind and precipitation. For the construction of a rock garden, limestone, granite, slate, sandstone, tuff, etc. are used. It is advisable to select stones weighing 20 kg or more. The larger the slide, the more large stones you need. It is they who create the mountain flavor.

Suitable stones can be found at the bottom and along the banks of streams and rivers. Forest stones-boulders covered with mosses and lichens are very valuable.

After the type of alpine slide has been chosen, its area, location in the garden, the type of stone has been selected, the assortment of plants has been determined, it is necessary to draw up a diagram of the future slide.

The construction of the slide begins with the definition of its contours. After removing the sod by 15 cm, it is necessary to make a drainage base from any non-rotting materials. Small stones, crushed stone, broken and whole bricks, gravel, etc. can be used as drainage. I consider it an unacceptable mistake to lay stumps and other plant remains. Sooner or later, the plant remains will rot, there will be dips in the ground and collapses of the rock garden. After that, it is possible that the alteration of the slide will cost more than its original construction.

The relief of the hill is created using an earth-sand mixture. Stones are laid on a hill from the bottom up. First, large stones are placed on the drainage in such a way that the stones come out no more than half above the surface of the earth. Between the stones located nearby, the earth is covered.

How to check the safety of stone laying? After proper construction You can stand on any laid stone without worrying that it will swing under you.

The last layer of the slide consists of a nutritious earth mixture consisting of 2 parts of garden soil, 2 parts of leaf humus, 2 parts of peat, 1 part of coarse river sand. The thickness of this layer depends on what root system and soil moisture requirements for plants to be planted on the hill.

Some plant species may require less fertile soil. If there are a minority of such plants, in the “pockets” created for their growth, soil suitable for them is filled up.

Special "pockets" can also be created in retaining walls. The plants planted in such "pockets" greatly enliven the monotony of the masonry.

The alpine hill is decorated with reservoirs created at its foot, streams running down from stone heights, cascades, dry channels, grottoes are appropriate.

The construction of the hill is completed. But plants can be planted only after the hill settles. After construction, the hill must be watered with sprinkler nozzles. Usually the slide settles to ¼ of the original height. As the soil settles, the soil is added. If the hill is built in the spring, planting is best done in the fall.

It's time to plant the plants. Before that, all the weeds fall out. Plants are planted in spring, in April, or in autumn, in the first half of September. Container plants can be planted throughout the summer. Planting plants begin from the top of the hill. Large plants are planted first. They, as a rule, are the centers of compositions located around large stones. Required condition for planting - moist soil. After planting, the plants are watered for several days, alternating watering with light loosening of the soil.

When planting plants, the environmental conditions for their growth are taken into account - the requirements for light and soil moisture. Usually, drought-resistant species are planted on the upper tiers, which tolerate direct sunlight in summer and frost in winter. Moisture-loving plants are planted on the lower tiers. No need to get carried away with a large number of plant species.

The classic range of rock gardens includes undersized, creeping, ground cover perennials and shrubs, such as: sedum (sedum), grass carnation, thyme, edelweiss, soddy saxifrage, crowded bell, whorled coreopsis, catnip, tar, armeria, caucasian rezuha, cuff, cypress spurge, Carpathian bellflower, large-flowered blackhead, monetized sunflower, spiky liatris, multicolor spurge, cereals, young, white sedum, awl-shaped phlox, sapling, geranium, soapwort, bows, poppies, goldenrod, rocky beetroot, cinquefoil. Among the greenery of the plants of the rocky hill, plants with silvery foliage stand out in the sun, such as felted wormwood, Schmidt's "Nana" wormwood, and gray fescue. Ours look good in the alpine slides wild plants suitable for the habit.

Ground cover plants are very beautiful. Their calm thickets have a calming effect. The flowering of many of them is very bright. They are an excellent backdrop for bulbous plants.

You can prolong flowering on an alpine hill with the help of annual flowers. Perfect for this: escholcia, verbena, small-flowered viola, ageratum, purslane, annual phlox, alissum, iberis.

I can advise plants for the northern slopes, for shaded areas: Japanese astilbe, bergenia, brunner, catchment area, kupena, lungwort, hosta, liverwort.

Looks great in rock gardens. different kinds mountain pines, Cossack juniper, horizontal junipers, arborvitae various forms, barberries, Japanese chaenomeles, cinquefoil, undersized forms of spirea, dwarf creeping willow.

After the plants take root, the ground is covered with a layer of pebbles or decorative gravel.

Do not forget about the subsequent care of plants. In summer, in a drought, you need to additionally water the hill. In autumn, remove the foliage that has fallen on the rock garden. For the winter, cover plants that are sensitive to frost with heat-insulating material. In early spring remove the shelter from the plants, powder the soil around the plants with an earthen mixture. And, of course, immediately after flowering, cut off untidy inflorescences.

I talked about the classic alpine slides. In addition to the classics, avant-garde alpine slides are now being created. So many people, so many tastes.

Any denomination for the provision of landscape design and design services.

rocky garden(or rock garden) is an element of landscape design created to recreate the natural mountain landscape, its topography and vegetation. The rock garden is based on stones and specially selected plants.

rocky gardens should look very natural, harmoniously fit into the surrounding landscape and the overall landscape idea. Hilly, well-lit areas with natural complex terrain are best suited for creating such a garden.

Before choosing plants for your future rock garden, you should decide what you want to create it for: will it be a collection alpine plants or a garden that blooms throughout the season. Modern tendencies in landscaping and landscape art allow you to create both. If earlier only native alpine plants were used in rocky gardens, now almost any species is planted in them: annuals, perennial flowers, bulbous, ornamental shrubs and even medium-sized trees.

Most often, the rock garden forms in the form of terraces, on the steps of which they naturally look natural stones various sizes, gravel screes, plants and decorative elements landscape.

rocky garden- This is a type of rock garden, closest to the natural mountainous terrain. by the most spectacular solution will create a rocky garden on a slope, allocating a significant area for it.

Created screes, plateaus, gorges, crevices, dry stream beds and other design elements will give naturalness to your rocky garden. A very beautiful solution would be to place various reservoirs in a rocky garden - these can be mountain streams, waterfalls, backwaters, rapids.

It is important that the rocky garden is in harmony with the surrounding landscape. Therefore, when choosing plants, you can use not only high-altitude residents, but also natural plants meadows, fields, forests - this will give your rocky garden a sense of naturalness and will allow you to competently “fit” it into general concept garden.

rockery- this type of rocky garden should be located in areas with a pronounced relief. Rockery imitates a natural mountainous area, so all natural elements are appropriate here - hills, plateaus, scree, gorges, cliffs.

At the top of the rockery, place medium-sized plants - for example, awl-shaped phlox or aubrieta. On the slopes, various types of sedum, as well as ground cover plants, will look great. At the foot of the rockery, plant small-bulbous ones - crocuses, muscari, undersized tulips and daffodils - as well as primroses.

Also in the design of rockeries, you can use low-growing ornamental shrubs and trees, such as dwarf.

alpine lawn- it is best to place it in a place that is sufficiently lit, but protected from direct sunlight by planting pines or coniferous shrubs. The area under the alpine lawn must be well drained. The soil mixture should consist of loam, deciduous humus and crushed limestone. The most natural alpine lawn looks next to rocky areas.

Of the plants for landscaping the alpine lawn, Stroy Landscape recommends using edelweiss, saxifrage, creeping willows, ear primroses - that is, those that are representatives of alpine vegetation.

Mountain Creek- it is desirable to include this element of landscape design in the overall composition of the rocky garden. Stroy Landscape specialists in landscape design recommend using stones naturally turned by water - this way you will be able to achieve greater naturalness and naturalness of a mountain stream. The banks of the stream can be decorated with moisture-loving plants - irises, daylilies, veronica will look great here, ornamental cereals; for shady places, various mosses, ferns, hostas are suitable.

rocky walls- they can become a peculiar and unusually decorative element of a rocky garden, especially if you place ampelous, ground cover or climbing plants- sedums, wormwood, ampelous bells, saxifrage, seaside, beautiful and alpine armeria, iberis, creeping thyme and many others.

In addition to decorative, rocky walls also have a practical function: they are erected to strengthen rocky slopes and form terraces, divide the site into functional zones, and arrange raised flower beds. In addition, rocky walls can become an interesting element of the garden, imitating the ruins of old buildings and fences.

miniature rocky gardens- allow even those who have a small plot area to have their own rocky garden. Such a mini-garden can be placed even on a balcony or terrace. In order to create a miniature garden, you will need a large natural stone of any loose rock (tuff is most often used). You can also use various containers or flowerpots. If you use natural stone, then first of all, you should hollow out a recess in it, at the bottom of which a drainage layer of about 5 cm is placed. Next, the resulting recess is filled with a soil mixture, consisting of sod land, leaf humus and fine-grained sand (in a ratio of 2: 1: 1), as well as not a large number lime flour. After that, plants are planted. Landings are mulched with fine gravel.

The concept of " rock garden first appeared over 150 years ago. First alpine slides began to build for the cultivation of new, exotic for those times, plants. In them, they began to study them, learn to grow, cultivate, and carry out selection work. A certain fashion trend - creation of a rock garden.

The most wonderful idea for such a landscape structure is the use of perennial, slow-growing plants. In addition, a diverse number of species can be grown in a small area. Mini-rock gardens are created in any territory:

• in garden areas,
• residential areas,
• in parks,
• and even on loggias and balconies.

Developed over the years the main rule for creating an alpine slide- and determine the place of their cultivation. And, as the practice of recent decades has shown, the creation of a rock garden (or any other slide) implies unlimited opportunities for creativity, because its construction, created forms, techniques for constructing and adding stones, finding compositional solutions, the species content of the exposure is simply endless. That is why they are attractive.

Simple hill type "hill"

Sometimes, having built a hill with stones on our site, we already loudly declare that we have created a hill or even a rock garden. Often without knowing what, in fact, is the difference. And the difference, as they say, is significant. It has become so in the last couple of decades: everyone builds “hills” on the plots, although most often it is just a “hill with stones” - a primitive imitation of a miniature landscape.

On the hills, as a rule, there are no rare, exotic, collectible plant species in plantings, but with sufficient taste and author's imagination, they sometimes become real little garden masterpieces. And they are called amateur gardeners and alpine , or rocky hills , And rockery , And rock garden or rocky garden . For such structures, a wonderful precise definition — "people's hill" . After all, in practice it is most often just a hill poured from the ground, on which several stones are placed and various, most often unpretentious, plants are planted. In most cases, this structure resembles a flower bed with stones, and rarely such a "slide" becomes a decoration of the garden and a logical part of the landscape.

Hill-type slide fits easily into almost any garden and even a city square or park, combined with , . Its value is in successful combination plants by habitus (height) and colors.

Most often, varietal material is planted on them, well adapted to local soil and climatic conditions. If the designer managed to select and combine plants, fit them and stones into the space, create a positive impression of the composition, then his task is completed.

Often in our gardens, beds lined with stones or assorted boulders are called "rocky gardens" ... You can understand these gardeners when the main attention on the site is given to vegetable and berry crops, but I want to join the cultivation of ground cover, mountain-meadow species.

Advice:
The main task of the rock garden- it should look natural, like a natural landscape. It is divided into certain zones: if yellow colors prevail on one side, then on the other, non-flowering ground cover plants can be placed, and a green background will be obtained. And the stones should organically fit into the space, separating these zones. This ensures the convenience and ease of care for the rocky slide.

What is a real "rock garden"?

A rock garden is a landscape composition created from alpine plant species and small stones. High in the mountains, there are no large-sized plants. Usually all plants there are 10 to 15 cm tall. In man-made alpine slides, plants dominate the compositions, but the stones should be medium-sized so as not to interfere with the perception of plants.

The first "rock gardens" arose in the middle of the 19th century in England. These were the initial attempts to grow medicinal plants brought from the Alps (hence the name - rock garden - a collection of alpine plants). But in the 20th century, the utilitarian role of the rock garden faded into the background, but the function of the rock garden as a decorative element of the garden has become more important up to our time.

It is difficult to create a real rock garden, because it is not easy to make a composition from discreet miniature plants, to successfully combine them with small stones. It requires experience and the ability to choose the right conditions for growing a certain range of plants.

Examples of "rock garden" can always be seen in nature. Climbing high into the mountains, pay attention to how plants grow on stones, near stones, in crevices, on screes. It is also important to try to create something similar in your garden as accurately and correctly as possible. And here it is important not to overdo it with either stones or plants.

What is a "rocky garden"? This is a collection of perennial herbaceous (mainly) plants and stones on flat surface, or a composition of stones and plants inscribed in the landscape. As a rule, the stones in such a garden are large, clearly stand out. We have this type of modern flower garden most often in our gardens.

Another, special, type of landscape compositions is "rockery". Its difference is that here both stones and plants play equal roles. Although, nevertheless, the stones in these compositions should occupy a dominant position. And plants are selected xerophytic (those species of them that can do with a minimum of moisture and nutrients).

Mountain objects in landscape design

In our ornamental gardens, a certain flower garden with stone. As a rule, a stone on a “slide” goes well with paved paths, a pond (if any). But the three main components - plants, stones and paths - must be harmoniously combined, and the decorative elements in the composition must create a great overall holistic impression. By placing such a composition, you can always easily fit it in a shady place, and in wetlands or arid places, choosing the right assortment of plant species.

To date, many books and brochures have been published, articles in magazines about what kind of rock gardens you can create in your garden. Rocky gardens or slides are often performed in landscape style, as an imitation of mountain natural formations, in the design of which only high-mountain views are used.

Advice:A slide on your site can be arranged in different ways.

• One of the options - classic alpine slide(if you build a hill or create an alpine lawn).
• Another idea - rocky hill. Place it near the building (house), fitting it into the landscape of the local area (we will create an architectural rockery) or even using the wall of the house or the side supports of the stairs.
• If you have a large area, you can create landscape rockery or arrange terraced slope.

Most often, slides are created as a kind of landscape structure, guided by their ideas about the highlands and their own artistic tastes. Or slides are created thematic, collectible, for growing whimsical plants, taking into account the most acceptable conditions for such plants.

It is not always necessary to "fill the hill". You can create a "log" or "ravine" by reinforcing the walls with stones and planting certain types of plants. If you have enough variety of stones at your disposal, you have experience working with them, give full freedom to the flight of design ideas.

You can build rocks or arrange a cliff, or build multi-level terraces, dry masonry retaining walls. Use natural landscape elements such as a rocky gorge or mountainside, or create your own. Place stones and various plants corresponding to this structure near the object. As a result, complex landscape compositions are obtained, but visually they give a feeling of natural cenoses.

It is important to achieve the naturalness of man-made "slides" or "rock gardens".

• In an area with elevation changes, if you have an artistic taste, you can try to create your own landscape rocky garden, which will look, for example, like a “mountain valley” or “alpine lawn”.
• On the you can create a stone terrace (wall) of dry masonry, and plant drought-resistant (xerophant) plant species in the cracks.

It is important to remember that any rockery or rocky slide looks good in unity with ponds. Interesting idea- decorate your site with a "swamp". In this case, the assortment of plants in the garden will be more diverse due to decorative aquatic species.

When creating your own slide or "rock garden" it is important not to overdo it with stones so that the slide does not turn into a simple heap or a pile of stones, with plants stuck in disorder. Do not get carried away with excessive decoration in the form of "dwarfs", "gypsum fly agarics", etc., which greatly exacerbates the general bad taste of such a structure as a whole.

Photo examples and ideas of various slides in the garden

Rockery - an artificially created flower garden using a large number of stones and boulders. Stones are the main decoration of the rocky garden. Flowers here are of secondary importance, are on the sidelines and are designed to emphasize the beauty of the stone in every possible way.

Like an alpine slide, rockery is a very common element of landscape design and is not much different from a rock garden in terms of organization and filling with plants. Although some differences still exist. For example, the design of an alpine hill repeats the mountain and foothill landscape and flora as closely as possible, and may look like a rock, a rock outcrop or an alpine meadow with a minimum of stones and boulders.

Rockery initially implies the presence a large number of boulders and blocks interesting colors, textures and shapes. famous japanese gardens stones - typical rockeries.

However, both rockeries and alpine hills are united by the fact that the created landscape composition must necessarily look natural, natural and harmonious. And of course, to be combined with other flower arrangements of the garden and small architectural forms of the site.

Where to place rockery?

The most natural looking rockery, organized on the slope of the site. Hilly relief allows you to implement almost any, the most decorative types of rockeries. For example, a mountain scree, a cascade of waterfalls, a “dry stream”.

To achieve such an effect is quite difficult. This requires observation and good spatial vision. Unlike rock gardens, rockeries can be created not only on slopes, but also on flat terrain.

If after construction works there is an unsightly hole left or there is a ravine in the landscape of the site, these places can be arranged in the form gorge or mountain valley ending with a lake or swamp.

This technique has several advantages: fixing the slopes with stones, gabions and plants, in addition to decorative effect, will help prevent soil erosion and strengthen the slope.

With the help of rockeries, you can hide the mistakes made in the spatial organization of the territory and improve a long-vacant piece of land in a deep shade, where neither trees, nor shrubs, nor a lawn will grow.

In small areas, many create mini rockery. It is arranged in special containers.

6 steps to the perfect rockery

Having decided on the place where the future rocky garden will be located, we mark the territory and get to work:

1. It is necessary to remove the sod from the entire area of ​​the intended site and upper layer soil to a depth of about 20 cm

2. We lay geotextiles on the bottom, a drainage layer of crushed stone, gravel or broken brick, construction debris

3. Level with coarse-grained sand in a layer of 5-10 cm and carefully compact. Thus, a rigid base is obtained, which passes moisture well and does not subsequently allow the stones to sag.

4. We pour a layer of soil into which we then lay stones

5. We prepare a planting mixture of garden soil, sand, brown (transitional) peat and fine gravel or gravel in a ratio of 3:2:1:1. Such a planting mixture, both moisture-absorbing and water-permeable. It is not worth filling the substrate with mineral and organic fertilizers, otherwise the overgrown plants will hide stones under the foliage

6. "pockets" between the stones are filled with prepared substrate
planting pre-selected plants

Stones and boulders

Since rockery is a landscape composition of stones and plants, where main focus placed on stones, it makes sense to give preference to rocks of soft, natural tones: shades of gray, yellowish or beige. Against this background, any plants look more impressive.

When building a rockery, you should not combine stones different breeds very different in texture and color. The stone must have a natural appearance:

• sharp corners limestone are subject to weathering and quickly smooth out, the surface is overgrown with moss and lichens
• sandstone very susceptible to erosion, but at the same time it has a brighter and more varied color scheme
• granite much harder, ages slowly, so old stones should be used
• slate- It has various shades gray, brown, green and reddish colors, quite decorative due to its layered structure
• travertine (tuff)- a type of limestone with a porous structure, often containing plant remains. It is more durable and planted succulents look beautiful in its pores.

Care must be taken when working with rounded boulders and large pebbles. Their combination with flat and angular stones often looks artificial.

Select stones for rockeries in accordance with the style of your site and combined with other finishing materials used.

When laying stones, it should be remembered that they should be oriented in one direction so that the widest, flat edges lie horizontally, or at a slight angle. Then the entire rocky structure will be more stable and resemble a natural outcrop of rock.

When laying slabs or stones between them, be sure to leave enough space for the placement of plants and the growth of their root system. As with the arrangement of an alpine slide, plants in containers are pre-arranged, combining them with each other in size, color, shape and other overall features.

At the same time, remember that plants grow and this must also be taken into account and given them space.

rockery plants

One important limitation is plant height. In order not to violate the integrity of the perception of a flat rocky garden (even a large-scale one), it, as a rule, should not exceed 40-50 cm.

The indispensable "classic" representatives of rockeries are edelweiss and undersized gentians. Most of the inhabitants of the rocky garden are ground cover perennials:

• Phlox subulate
• beetroot rocky
• What about the price
• skolka
• sunflower
• soapwort
• Iberis evergreen
• arabis
• gerbil
• thrift
• obrieta
• dryad,
• undersized carnations
• creeping thyme
• saxifrage
• rejuvenated roofing
• stonecrops
• cat paw
• etionema
• compact cinquefoils forming rugs and pillows among stones.

Creeping plants climb beautifully on stones and flow between them, fall from retaining walls. Plants look beautiful and natural in the cracks between the stones, as if they were brought there by the wind and they took root in such difficult conditions.

You can fill the gaps between the stones: undersized carnations, milkweed myrtle, saxifrage, echeveria.

Shade-loving plants, such as ramonda, sanguinaria and liverwort, are placed under the cover of stones or shrubs.

To ensure the earliest spring stage continuous flowering rockery plant miniature bulbous and bulbous plants: kandyk, springweed, scillas, chionodoxes, snowdrops, muscari, hyacinths, corydalis, crocuses, pushkinias, bird lilies, undersized tulips and daffodils, dwarf irises.

At the end of the season, rockeries are decorated with autumn crocuses, cyclamens and colchicums, as well as coniferous plants and ornamental deciduous shrubs.

Of the conifers, the most spectacular and organic in rockeries are the Canadian “conic” spruce, nest-shaped spruce, spherical thuja, yew berry, mountain pine, and scaly juniper.

From deciduous - dwarf spirea, horizontal cotoneaster, evergreen boxwood, dwarf euonymus, etc.

If you want to turn a rocky garden into something special, take care of organizing the lighting in it. You can highlight both the contours of the rockery, and its individual expressive elements: boulders of unusual shapes or spectacular plants.

Fixtures different colors and forms will transform rockeries. The decor in the form of luminous balls, pebbles and small stones looks especially unusual. Your rocky garden will be filled with new colors and even at night it will have volume and depth.

Rockery in the pre-trial area should be as natural as possible, so the type of rocky garden should be selected based on common features territory. For example, if there are many trees planted in the garden, optimal solution will be the creation of a rockery that imitates a forest ravine. In a landscape design with an abundance of sunny sandstone, a succulent rocky garden would be appropriate. And to imitate the steppe landscape, planting cereals around the stones is suitable.

Types of rockeries for a suburban area

Right choice The theme of the composition depends on the type of soil on the site. Fertile chernozems are not suitable for growing alpine plants, but are indispensable for cereal crops.

Mini composition in the yard

Option for large area

Design styles of stone gardens

According to the styles, rocky gardens are of three types:

1. Forest. Great for shady areas. Vegetation appropriate in this case: ferns, violets, as well as other inhabitants of the forests. Natural snags, as if nailed to the shore by a river, will also look good against the background of rockeries.
2. Deserted. For its organization, you will need non-porous rocks of stones: basalt, marble or granite. Floral design should be created from succulents and desert annuals.
3. Alpine. The most popular and rather capricious type of rockeries, for the creation of which porous rocks (limestone, shale, sandstone, tuff) are best suited. After all, they absorb water, keeping the much-needed coolness and moisture for the roots of plants. This type of rock garden should be planted on an open northern or eastern slope.

Rocky desert type garden with cacti

Forms of stone compositions

Conditionally, according to the form, rockeries can be divided into five types:

1. Mountain slope. Ideal for decorating a site with a slope, a slope.
2. Rock landscape imitating cliffs or outcrops rocks. Suitable for the design of the territory with large differences in elevation of the relief: cliffs, hills.
3. Stone scree. Just like in the first case, it is appropriate on a steep slope.
4. Mountain plateau or terraced slope. It can be organized on flat terrain with soft relief drops.
5. A valley at the foot of a mountain that can perfectly continue the theme of an alpine slide, giving it a finished look.

Rockery imitating a mountain slope

The technology of creating a rocky garden

For creating natural look rockeries, the following proportions of the composition must be observed. If the maximum height of a rock garden is one meter from the ground, its total area should not be less than 10 sq. m.

Choosing a place for landscape composition

To create a rockery, it is better to choose areas well-lit by the sun away from outbuildings and large trees. If you plan to organize an alpine rock garden, you should also take into account the cardinal directions.

Rocky gardens located on a slope look as natural as possible, because in nature stone outcrops are found on relief surface, however, an imitation of a mountain valley would also be appropriate. It is not recommended to break a rocky garden right next to a lawn or a lush flower garden. In the first case, grasses and weeds from the lawn will begin to migrate to the rockery area, where it will not be so easy to remove them without injuring cultivated species. And in the second version, the very style of the stone composition will be violated.

Rock garden with a minimum of plants

How to decide on the shape of rockeries

When thinking about how to make rockery with your own hands, you should consider the basic rule when creating a rock garden. It sounds like this: a landscape composition should not be symmetrical or have a geometrically correct shape (circle, oval, etc.).

Rockery cannot have clear boundaries, and even more so borders, its contours should be made rather blurry. This can be achieved using gravel fill and ground cover plants.

The largest boulders should be placed at the foot, forming compositions from them. Smaller stones for rockeries also need to be placed in groups with an odd number of elements (no more than five in one composition).

Rocky scree on the site

Stages of work on the creation of a rocky garden

1. Clear the area from vegetation, tree roots, stumps, remove the fertile soil layer (about 20–25 cm), cover the bottom with geotextiles for horizontal type compositions.
2. Organize a drainage layer of gravel, crushed stone or broken bricks, put coarse sand on top, spilling water and ramming.
3. Lay the first tier of stones (on the slope you should start from the bottom), tilting each boulder to the center so that it flows under it rainwater. Stones should be buried by 1/2–1/3, simulating the outcrops of rocks from the ground.
4. In the process of laying, the stones must be rammed with fertile soil, cleared of weed seeds, organizing "pockets" for plants. For alpine rockeries, the soil must be “deacidified” with ash or dolmite flour. And to create a forest rocky garden - add peat and rotted leaves.
5. 1–2 weeks after the composition shrinks, plant 8–10 species of plants on the plateau and in the gorges, mulching them with bark or fine gravel, which retains moisture for a long time and prevents soil from washing out. The ratio of flowers and stones in rockeries should be 55% to 45%.

Laying the first tier of stones

What plants are suitable for rockeries

To give rockeries a natural look, it is necessary to plant three types of plants on its territory:

1. Ground covers with the largest specific gravity in the composition: juvenile, awl-shaped phlox, panicled saxifrage, saxifrage spatularis, alpine cuff, stemless tar, bulbous ryegrass, sedum sedum, Schmidt's wormwood, dwarf iris, finely toothed primrose, spoon-leaved bell.
2. Dwarf and creeping coniferous shrubs: juniper and cotoneaster horizontal, Canadian thuja, barberry.
3. Bulbous and corms: undersized tulips and daffodils, crocuses, muscari.

Rockery landscaping scheme

Plants growing on rocky soils natural conditions, prefer sparse soil dominated by sand. On excessively moist or nutritious soils, these flowers die, as their root gradually rots. In addition, the poor soil provides beautiful compact dimensions flora representatives.

Creating a rocky garden is not an easy, but very interesting process in which all family members can be involved. If some points on arranging rockeries with your own hands remain incomprehensible, watch the video or seek help from a specialist.

Video: the principles of creating rockeries