Type of flowers of rock gardens and rockeries. Differences between rock garden and rock garden

Construction of a rock garden or rock garden - the right way obtaining a unique and extraordinary landscape. Having decided to decorate your property with a rocky garden, even before starting its construction, figure out which plants to use. alpine slide will turn out to be the most suitable, which flowers will make it bright and original. Find out which conifers in the best possible way fit into the composition, how to arrange decorative greenery among stones. Having understood this, you will create a unique corner on the site that you can be proud of.

Criteria for selecting plants for a rock garden

There are certain canons in the selection of ornamental plants for a rocky hill. The classic option involves populating it with perennial plants growing in the highlands. These are ground cover and low-growing, with a compact bush, undemanding to soil and moisture, winter-hardy, and wind-resistant.

Rock garden on the site

However, time makes adjustments, and lovers of rocky gardens have expanded the range of plants, including some inhabitants of forests, steppes and long-flowering annuals. Most often in rock gardens and rockeries there are:

  • Low-growing species of conifers and deciduous shrubs or varieties with a slow growth rate. They, along with stones, form the basis of the rock garden composition.
  • Creeping ground cover plants filling the volume of the rock garden. Among them, it is advisable to choose varieties that do not lose their decorative effect after flowering ends: for example, those that have leaves with a specific color.
  • Herbaceous perennials. Particular attention should be paid to those appearance which resembles specimens growing in the mountains.
  • Bulbous. They enliven the landscape in the first days of spring, but after flowering the aboveground part dies off. Therefore, there is no need to allocate a separate place; they need to be planted together with ground covers.

Combination of plants in a rock garden

When choosing plants for a rocky garden, you should definitely take into account its location and lighting. The “new residents” of the alpine hill should receive the amount of sunlight they need. Accordingly, in a rock garden open to the sun, it is necessary to place light-loving species, and on a hill located in the shade or partial shade, shade-loving species will be comfortable.

Plants in the rock garden are combined in appearance

In order for the composition of the mini-Alps on a summer cottage to be harmonious and decorate the garden, it is necessary to select neighboring plants with approximately the same growth rate. Otherwise, too actively growing shrubs and flowers will not allow less energetic neighbors to grow. In addition, the selected plants should be similar in terms of growing conditions, flowering period and compatible in appearance.

An example of an alpine slide

How to choose flowers for an alpine slide

It’s hard to imagine a rock garden without flowers. Carefully selected beautifully flowering perennials and bright, low-growing annuals add a special charm to this unique flowerbed, and with it the entire site as a whole.

Long-lived rock garden - perennial flowers

When creating a rock garden on a site, several reasons encourage preference for low perennials:

  1. They form dense thickets-clumps along the perimeter of the laid stones, going around them, repeating the stone relief, partially hanging on the boulders. This looks inimitable, especially during the flowering period, since perennial flowers have a high density of inflorescences.
  2. Most perennials have a long flowering period (40-80 days) and after flowering remain attractive due to the highly decorative leaves.
  3. When caring for perennials, less labor is required: there is no need to replant plantings annually. Weeding is also easier - active perennials fill all the crevices between the stones with their roots, preventing weeds from developing. And weed seeds have too little chance of surviving in the dense shade of clumps.
  4. These flowers are drought- and frost-resistant, undemanding to the soil.
  5. Many species can bloom again at the end of the season if faded flowers are removed in time and faded specimens are fed.
  6. Perennials can be propagated by dividing bushes, cuttings, and seeds.
  • Perennial flowers of alpine origin are sun-loving; in shade and partial shade they develop poorly and may die.
  • “Alpines” cannot tolerate high soil humidity, especially stagnant water in it - good drainage under their plantings is mandatory.

Dense clumps of perennial flowers

You can get acquainted with some representatives of the vast world of perennials for the rocky hill at brief descriptions and photo.

Popular perennial flowers for alpine hills

Edelweiss(popular name highlander). A sun-loving mountain flower, growing on the poor soils of inaccessible rocks, will decorate the top of the hill and be your pride. It is listed in the Red Book, but you can grow the legendary flower yourself from seeds, then propagate with seedlings.

Edelweiss

Rejuvenated. An extremely unpretentious plant with fleshy leaves collected in a beautiful rosette, for which it is sometimes called a stone rose. There are many types of young, there are rosettes different shapes and shades: from silver-green to burgundy. There are chameleon varieties that change color according to the season. A stone rose will strengthen the slopes of a rock garden, since it can take root in the narrowest crevices between stones.

Rejuvenated

Rejuvenated in a mini rock garden

Alyssum(Alyssum) rocky. Drought-resistant, demanding sunny color. Small golden flowers, united in lush decorative inflorescences, bloom in May, decorate the garden for about 50 days, emitting a sweetish aroma. Faded inflorescences must be cut off. At proper care blooms again.

Armeria seaside. Highly resistant to cold and drought, and reacts negatively to waterlogging. Compact bushes that simultaneously produce up to 10 flower stalks with spherical inflorescences, similar to the inflorescences of decorative onions. Flowering is long lasting, almost throughout the entire season. Old inflorescences, like all long-blooming ones, must be removed in a timely manner.

Armeria seaside

Echinacea. Perennial with rather large, bright flowers, hardy, drought-resistant. Loves good lighting, prefers nutritious soil. It blooms from the second half of summer to September, replacing previously faded specimens.

Echinacea

Carnations(grass, pinnate, alpine). All these carnations form clumps that can cover bald spots between taller neighbors, and bloom luxuriantly. Grassweed is the first of the perennials to bloom, and in mid-June it is joined by pinnate and alpine carnations.

Carnations: grass and pinnate

Annual and bulbous flowers for rock gardens

Decorative perennials planted when creating a rock garden do not grow overnight; some species bloom only in the second year. A rocky hill built according to all the rules at this time looks, if attractive, then too austere, reminiscent of harsh mountain peaks. Perhaps someone will be satisfied with just such a composition. And those who wish to create a semblance of a multi-colored alpine meadow on their site will be helped by annual flowers.

Annuals, together with bulbous flowers, will help the alpine hill awaken to a bright life with the melting of snow and blaze in the garden with different colors all season long. Bulbous plants for rock gardens should be low-growing and medium-sized. Let's say gladioli on it will be clearly inappropriate. Suitable:

  • scillas,
  • colchicums,
  • snowdrops,
  • muscari,
  • crocuses,
  • birdwatcher,
  • Kaufman tulips.

Kaufman tulips

Low-growing annual flowers planted on an alpine hill will make it bright and attractive, help hide empty spaces, and hide fading bulbous flowers. Get to know individual annuals for rock gardens.

Dimorphotheca notemata. By origin it is a perennial, but in Russia it is often grown as an annual crop, unpretentious, resistant to cold and drought. Among other inhabitants of the rock garden, it stands out for its large inflorescences of sunny yellow and orange shades; it blooms profusely and for a long time.

Dimorphotheca notemata

haretail(lagurus). This is an ornamental grass that will add “naturalness” to a rocky hill. Loves sun, light partial shade, requires regular watering, has a negative attitude towards the slightest drying of the soil.

haretail

Brachycoma iberisolifolia. Not particularly widespread yet, but deserves more. Light- and heat-loving, requires watering only in drought. The soil for it needs to be light, dry, but nutritious for greater decorativeness.

Important: Do not overdo it with the number of flowers, because you are recreating on your site not a flowerbed, but a miniature fragment of the mountains, and the role of stones in it is dominant.

Brachycoma iberisolifolia

Annuals and perennials blooming all summer

Flowers are a wonderful gift of nature, and anyone who grows them wants their appearance to caress the eye and warm the soul all summer. There are two possibilities for this:

  1. Pick up various types, blooming, replacing each other, throughout the season. Perhaps this is not a very simple option.
  2. Choose long-flowering representatives to your liking flora, which decorate the site and delight with flowering all season.

Arenaria purpurea

The latter include the above-mentioned Armeria, Brachycoma iberisolifolia, Dianthus grass, and Dimorphotheca notemata. But the list goes on and on. It is worth paying attention to the types of flowers presented below.

Arenaria purpurea. An extremely unpretentious, drought-resistant flower with crimson-colored shoots. An ideal perennial for rock gardens, capable of growing on stones and sand. The height of the stems is up to 15 cm. Small star flowers cover the bushes from early June until autumn.

Periwinkle. It grows as an evergreen mat, feels equally good in the sun and in the shade, which is rare. Pleases with small blue flowers from late May to September. In warm autumn, you can admire the flowers even in October.

Periwinkle

Balkan geranium. A fragrant perennial that blooms in June and again in autumn. The bushes, 20-25 cm high, are decorated with carved foliage, which turns yellow and sometimes red in the fall; the leaves often overwinter. It is noteworthy that this type of geranium has a branched rhizome, from which new rosettes of leaves extend, forming dense thickets. Grows equally well in moist soil and dry soil, in the sun and in the shade.

Balkan geranium

Rhodiola. An impressive looking mountain perennial with healing properties. Loves sun, moist (without stagnant water) nutritious soil mixed with gravel and sand. Blooms from spring to autumn.

Marigold. A charming, unpretentious annual with an amazing variety of varieties. It begins to bloom at the beginning of summer and continues until frost. Heat- and light-loving, adapted to limited watering, does not tolerate stagnation of moisture.

Marigold

Ground cover plants for rock gardens

If it’s hard to imagine an alpine hill in the garden without flowers, then it’s completely impossible without ground covers. Stones, ground cover plants and conifers are the “three pillars” on which rocky gardens rest.

Advantages and disadvantages of ground covers

Ground cover representatives of the green kingdom have earned recognition among summer residents because they:

  1. They are highly decorative throughout the summer (some even in winter), adding originality and charm to the rock garden composition.
  2. They are unpretentious, do not particularly require care - time is saved for other things.
  3. They cover the ground with a continuous living carpet, preventing it from overheating, drying out, and weathering, which makes them better preserved. useful substances in the ground.
  4. Prevents weeds from developing.
  5. Hardy, most of them are not afraid of lack of nutrients, cold and drought.
  6. Being planted on the slopes of an alpine hill during its creation, they strengthen the composition.

Important: When purchasing ground cover species, carefully read their characteristics. Many grow aggressively, peremptorily conquering territory from neighbors, and not only weeds, but also your pets can survive. Such specimens should be planted away from other inhabitants of the rock garden.

Ground covers on the slope of a rocky hill

The most common ground covers

The range of ground cover plants is wide. Many of them are creeping: they spread through the rooting of whiskers and stepsons. Others produce many shoots, turning into a fluffy mat, while others grow in breadth with the help of surface roots. Meet some of the flora that can create impressive living carpets on garden plot.

Saxifrage. An almost indispensable inhabitant of rock gardens, it is found in perennial and annual crops. Some species of saxifrage prefer full sun, others prefer partial shade, and all need high humidity. Graceful bushes are decorative, forming many rosettes that merge into dense mats. They can bloom for up to 4 months (from May to August). Saxifragas easily reproduce by rosettes, which need to be separated after flowering.

Saxifrage

Arabis. One of the best perennials for rock gardens and gardens. Honey plant with a rich aroma. It blooms during May-June, has decorative leaves, thanks to which it decorates the hill even after flowering. It blooms more luxuriantly in the sun, and grows stronger in the shade of the garden. It has incredibly intense growth, displacing its neighbors, just like saxifrage, by the way. Because of this, the layers have to be removed.

Aubrieta. Groundcover perennial, elegant, profusely flowering. Creates a “carpet” 10-30 cm high, up to a meter wide (depending on the type). In early spring, the rock garden is decorated with overwintered small leaves of aubrieta, which can be bright green, bluish, or variegated. By May, the rug is transformed, covered with an innumerable variety of small flowers, their color depends on the variety.

The flowering of aubrieta lasts up to one and a half months. A faded rug dries out and looks sloppy. But if you cut off the shoots after flowering, this encourages the beauty to produce new ones and bloom again in the fall.

Delosperma profusely flowering. A charming groundcover annual. Loves heat, bright sun, frequent watering, well-drained, poor soil. Blooms in the year of sowing, flowers are pinkish-lilac, star-shaped.

Delosperma

Dwarf shrubs and conifers for rockeries

If the construction of an alpine hill seems too labor-intensive for you or there is not enough space for it, you can create a small rock garden of conifers in front of the house, placing in it dwarf or low-growing species of spruce, juniper, pine, and thuja. Arranging a rock garden on a flat area does not require such serious expenditure of physical labor and money as building a rocky hill, but in terms of decorativeness, a rock garden is not inferior to a rock garden.

Rockery in front of the house

Choosing conifers for rock gardens

In creating a decorative rock garden, large and small stones play an even greater role than on an alpine hill, and should occupy at least half the area of ​​the rocky garden.

Coniferous composition

Shrubs and trees should be planted in small quantities and the composition should be supplemented with ground covers and flowers, with which it is also important not to overdo it. As on an alpine hill, first of all you need to plant trees and shrubs on the site.

For a small rock garden, you should choose low-growing conifers or dwarf species, the various shades of greenery of which will decorate the garden all year round. Their range is not particularly large.

Combination of conifers

Dwarf spruces. They grow slowly, eventually reaching a height of 0.6 m, and tolerate being trimmed well. The shape of the crown can be pyramidal or spreading. The color of the needles ranges from blue in seaside spruce to lush green in Canadian spruce. Spruce trees are unpretentious and require almost no care. Being resistant to dry conditions, they are very suitable for rock gardens.

Dwarf spruce

Junipers. They have many very decorative types, both creeping and standard. The needles are green, sometimes with a yellowish tint. They grow well on rocky soil and are light-loving. What makes junipers attractive are their cute, indehiscent cones.

Junipers

Mountain pine. There are several varieties. An interesting dwarf pine Pug has a spherical shape. By the age of 10, the diameter of its crown reaches only 50 cm. The needles are greenish-blue. This variety of pine is undemanding to external conditions and feels great in rock gardens and rockeries.

Mountain pine

Thuja. A shrub with a cone-shaped (some species with a spherical) dense crown and delicate green needles. Under the bright sun, the greenery sometimes turns red. Thuja can be cut to give the desired shape. The shrub is unpretentious, cold-resistant, and drought-resistant.

Thuja in rock garden

Evergreen shrubs for rock gardens

Deciduous shrubs are undesirable inhabitants of rock gardens, where removing leaves is difficult. However, there is a group of evergreen small shrubs that do not shed their leaves and are very decorative. Here are the most popular ones.

Cotoneaster horizontal. In nature, it is an inhabitant of mountain slopes. The bush shape is compact, with small dense foliage. The foliage is green throughout the year, turning purple in autumn. In May it becomes covered with inconspicuous pink flowers. The cotoneaster is very decorated with fruits that appear in the fall and persist throughout the winter.

Cotoneaster horizontal

Iberis evergreen. Low-growing (up to 50 cm), strongly branching bush with dense foliage. It has a pleasant aroma and is highly decorative. The first buds appear in May, it blooms luxuriantly for 2 months, the flowers are white. Unpretentious, but does not tolerate shade and stagnant water. Requires watering during drought. Loves sandy, rocky soil.

Iberis evergreen

Barberry evergreen(boxwood). Dwarf bush, up to 50 cm high. Undemanding to soil, loves sun or partial shade. It is cold-resistant, but in very severe winters it needs shelter. It blooms in May, but its main decoration is its luxurious greenery.

Barberry evergreen

If there are not so many true “Alpines”, then it is impossible to list all the names of the various plants that have found shelter in stone gardens. Choose according to your taste, taking into account the needs of your green friends, their relationships with each other, follow simple agricultural practices, and your rock garden will be inimitably beautiful on a country plot or in the garden.

A rock garden or rock garden will help give the site a noble appearance. But what is it?

Rockery- This is a modern decoration of the site that came to us from the West. It is a landscape composition that imitates rocky terrain, like a stone flowerbed.

Rock garden or alpine slide- this is a place on the site where alpine (mountain) plants are grown surrounded by large stones that imitate mountain peaks.

These two trends in landscape design are very similar, but each is interesting in its own way, so let’s figure out what exactly will look more interesting on your site and how to create such beauty with your own hands.

What is a rock garden: rock garden design, main styles and types

The usual flower beds have been replaced by a modern rock garden, which looks much more interesting and harmonious. It can be placed anywhere, on a slope with a difference in height or on flat terrain. Such an element of landscape design can imitate a rock or an area of ​​natural pristine wildlife.

There are several styles of making rockeries, the most popular are (the design of these rockeries is shown in the photo):

  • Japanese style. It consists of placing granite stones on level ground. Here you can find neatly arranged plants in pots. Decorative pieces of furniture and Japanese figurines are not alien to this style.





  • English style. Distinctive feature This style is landscape, coniferous vegetation and cereals are used here.




  • Italian style. There is a special aesthetics here, preferences are given to large rounded stones, spectacular sculpture figures, and a lot of varied greenery is planted. The presence of forged items is allowed.




  • European style. The emphasis is on plants that bloom in succession throughout the season. The composition is diluted with various stone sculptures of European design, as well as plaster flowerpots and lanterns.




  • German style. The most conservative and thoughtful. Here, ordinary stones are replaced with stone structures, which can perform not only a decorative function, but also a practical one. This rock garden is distinguished by the strictness of the stones laid out “under a line” and plants planted in a row.




  • Alpine style. This style earned its name due to the location of the rockery on a hill, imitating a mountain descent. The vegetation planted is that which grows in alpine areas, mainly conifers and bulbous flowers.





Differences between a rock garden and a rock garden

The Alpine rock garden style and the Alpine slide are similar to each other in design, choice of stones and planting of vegetation. But still differences exist.

Characteristic features of the rock garden:

  1. A rock garden can have the appearance of a rock, as if rocks rise above the surface of the earth.
  2. Its design may resemble an alpine meadow with a limited number of stones and boulders.
  3. The design of the alpine slide reproduces the mountain landscape to the maximum.


Features of rock garden:

  1. It contains a variety of colors, unusual shapes, and interesting textures.
  2. This means many huge boulders and blocks of the same type of stone.

These two styles of landscape design are united by the fact that the composition of stone and plants should look organic and fit as naturally as possible into the overall style of the site.

What is the best place to place an alpine slide and rock garden?


The place for placing a composition made of stone, both for a rock garden and for an alpine slide, is chosen in the same way, but in order to achieve a decent result, you need to take into account some rules:

  1. A stone flowerbed should fit perfectly into the landscape of your site.
  2. Take care of the background on which the rockery or rock garden will be located. If you have buildings or ineffective fencing on your site, you can plant climbing plants that will cover the unpresentable appearance of the buildings and serve as an excellent frame for the stone composition.
  3. When placing, take into account such factors as natural phenomena. Since strong currents water flowing from the roofs can inadvertently damage the flower bed.

Take into account all the nuances when planning; you should not plant such a flower bed directly next to the garden bed or outbuildings.

The advantage of such a composition over a regular flower bed is that for its layout it does not matter at all what kind of soil is on the site, what kind of lighting and what kind of relief.


The place where you plan to build a stone flower bed should be without large trees and large shrubs, since such large vegetation is not used in this type of landscape design. Any uneven surface available on the site will do; if there is none, it doesn’t matter, you can create it yourself.

Such beauty should be placed in the most visible place. The ideal place is where you usually relax or the area adjacent to the house, which will be visible from all sides.

Drainage and soil preparation


First of all, we mark the place on the site where we will place the rock garden or alpine slide. This can be done using rope and pegs. It is necessary to remove the fertile layer of soil.


Now you need to think about drainage, which will be poured into the base about 5 centimeters. Gravel, pebbles or crushed stone can be used as drainage; broken brick will also work.
This is necessary so that excess moisture does not accumulate in the structure of the future rock garden, and large stones do not sag over time.

To achieve the natural appearance of the vegetation that will grow in such a flower bed, you should prepare a special soil mixture.

  • The first half of the mixture is soil from the garden.
  • The second half consists of sand, peat and gravel in equal proportions.
  • Mix all this and get the required substrate.

Selection of plants and flowers for rock gardens and alpine slides


In order for the finished composition to harmoniously fit into the style of the landscape design of your site and delight you with its appearance, you should opt for plants consistent with the general style.
The beauty is that you can choose the plants to your liking, but there are some rules to follow.

  1. Vegetation and stones in a rock garden should cover the area of ​​the flower bed in a ratio of 50 to 50, and in a rock garden, 75% of the area is stones and 25% is plants. As for the plants themselves, the optimal ratio is 35 to 65, coniferous and deciduous to ground cover. Rock gardens should be dominated by rich mountain flora.
  2. It is not recommended to plant large, very lush, brightly flowering plant varieties. Because they will distract attention from the stones and turn the stone flowerbed into an ordinary front garden. Perennial decorative conifers, ferns and bulbous plants - tulips, crocuses, snowdrops and others - are perfect.
  3. Plants should be planted based on the individual characteristics of the plant. We take into account light, shadow and soil composition.

Stones for rock gardens and alpine slides: which ones to choose?


Stones- this is the main component of both the alpine slide and rock garden, so they must meet the following criteria:

  • durability – to be used for as long as possible;
  • naturalness - to have a natural appearance;
  • decorativeness - decorate and transform the territory;
  • naturalness - not to be artificial.

It is necessary to select soft stones of natural shades, this will makethe composition is naturalistic and will highlight the beauty of plants.

It is better to choose large stones, with coarse fragments, of the same type for rockeries and different types for rock gardens.
The most popular are:

  • granite;
  • sandstone;
  • slate;
  • limestone.

Let's take a closer look at them.

  • Granite stone- one of the most durable, hard, slowly ages, resistant to weathering, highly decorative.

  • Sandstone– does not weather; this leaves the stone with sharp edges for a long time. It happens: with a red tint, sandy, creamy-grayish.

  • Slate stone– This is a natural rock stone with a layered structure. Has a large selection of color shades. It happens: black, green, brown, gray, red, purple, burgundy, red, yellow, golden.

  • Limestone- the main advantages of such stones include the ability to weather. Due to this, the corners are smoothed out and the surface of the stone is overgrown with moss and lichen, which gives it a natural look and increases its decorative value. Available in: white, gray, cream, golden and blue. Limestone blocks often imitate rocks well.

Construction of a rock garden and rock garden: step-by-step instructions

Since the organization of a rock garden and a rock garden do not differ from each other, the instructions for breaking them down will be the same.

Step 1 – Layout


You should make a plan or diagram of the future stone flowerbed, taking into account all your requirements and the possibility of recreating them on your site.
When creating such a plan, you should consider whether all the necessary materials are available. Decide what type of structure the structure will be. What plants will grow and where, depending on whether the side is sunny or not.

Step 2 - Work on the site

  • Initially, they clean the area.
  • Next, the outline of the future composition is broken up; this can be done using a rope.
  • The fertile soil layer is removed approximately 10-20 cm.
  • After the hole has been dug, all roots should be removed from the soil to prevent clogging of the fertile layer with weeds.
  • Cover the recess with geotextile. This material perfectly prevents the growth of weeds.
  • The next stage is drainage. Fine gravel or material that is available is filled in.
  • All this is sprinkled with sand and thoroughly compacted.

The end result is a fairly rigid base that can allow the necessary moisture to pass through, while preventing the stones from sagging.

Step 3 – Arranging the Stones


Only after preparing the soil can you begin placing stones. They need to be selected in different sizes, so the flower bed will look more interesting.
You need to make small indentations under the stones. This will contribute to their stability; cover the perimeter of the flowerbed with sand.

If the stones are very large, then they should be buried by a third, or even better by half. They should be laid on drainage or buried even deeper; the stones should not swing, much less turn out.


It is necessary to take into account that the stones must be oriented in one direction, thus creating the impression of rocks naturally peeking out of the ground.
We should not forget about the space between the stones for the ornamental plants themselves.

Step 4 – Planting


Plants need to be chosen so that you can get a good combination of size, color and shape. Imagine how they will look in a couple of years.
Plants should be planted in tiers:

  • the tallest plants are suitable for the first tier;
  • for the second – average;
  • respectively, for the third - the lowest or creeping.

First, you can display the plants in pots, so to speak, take a closer look, maybe you don’t like it, and you’ll change something.


Once you have decided exactly where to put the greenery, you can start planting.


After planting the plants, decorate the top layer of soil around the plants and stones with crushed stone, river pebbles or gravel chips. A layer of 3-4 cm will be enough for this.

Mistakes when creating rock gardens and alpine slides

The most common mistakes when creating rockeries and alpine slides are the following.

Wrong choice of location for the structure


The location is very important, since alpine plants love a lot of light, this should be taken into account when laying out an alpine slide.

If you place a rock garden next to a lush flowerbed, the composition will be completely lost.

The size of the structure also matters. A huge rock garden on a small plot of land will look ridiculous, and a small alpine hill can get lost and lose its charm in the corner of a large plot.

Incorrect selection of plants


If you are planning a rock garden, then choose flowers and shrubs that can grow among the stones and will not require a lot of fertile soil.
For a rock garden you can take any plants; here there are fewer requirements.

Many people do not pay attention to the choice of plants, and therefore the stone flowerbed is empty due to the incorrect selection of plants based on growth rate, flowering, size and location.

Plant load


Too many plants in a stone flower bed obscure the beauty of the stone and it seems that this is not a rock garden or rock garden, but an ordinary flower bed.

Incorrect selection of stones


The alpine slide and rock garden are intended to imitate a certain natural area. Therefore, when choosing stones, you should take into account which stones should be placed on the stone flowerbed.

In a rock garden, the stones should be sharp, not smoothed, and look like fragments of mountains, but round stones are quite suitable for a rock garden. Since there are no brightly colored stones in nature, preference should be given to natural colors stone

Incorrect stone placement


Some, when creating a slide or rockery, arrange the stones with geometric precision - in a circle or with a square at the base, and a regular pyramid rises to the top. This is wrong, because this does not happen in nature.

Savings per device

When, when setting up a rock garden or rock garden, in an attempt to save money, they use “available” material that is lying around on the site, in the country house, in the yard, it turns out that the stones do not correspond to the style of the flower bed, and the arrangement of the composition is thoughtless. On such hills, plants very often rot because there is no drainage system, and they also collapse and die for the same reason.

Caring for rock gardens and alpine slides


Maintenance of such a flower bed is minimal. If this is a hill, then it needs to be watered in the spring, when the plants begin to actively develop. It is possible that moisturizing may be needed in the summer. To do this, use a watering can or hose with a sprayer.

Periodically it is necessary to remove dried flowers and broken branches from ornamental plants. When weeds appear, you need to weed them.

Fertilizers should be applied infrequently and fertilizers should be weak. For the winter, it is better to hide plants, if they are not frost-resistant enough, in bags placed on top. Sometimes you will need to add soil.

Security issue

When creating an alpine slide or rock garden, one should not forget about safety, especially for families with children. When creating a structure from stones and plants, consider the following rules:

  1. Do not use sharp stones.
  2. Fix the blocks well so that they cannot turn out.
  3. If there is a hole with water, do not leave children alone.
  4. Protect the stone flower bed with a small hill.

Setting up a rock garden or rock garden is not very difficult, the main thing is patience and the desire to get good result. Such a flowerbed can create coziness in the yard. Thanks to this design, the area will sparkle with new colors, and you will enjoy its beauty for many years.
Creating a stone flowerbed on your own site with your own hands gives you the opportunity to feel like a landscape designer. There is always room for creativity here. You can make changes to your composition, add stones, plant new plants. This place will become a favorite vacation spot for the whole family.

The concepts of “rock garden” and “rock garden” in landscape design are quite similar, and there is no clear boundary between them. These are very fashionable and unique elements of landscape design, becoming more and more popular every year and increasingly used for arranging personal plots. And in landscape gardening architecture, these man-made creations have been successfully used for more than two centuries. Both rockeries and rock gardens are considered rocky gardens and consist of stones and a variety of vegetation, but there are a number of important differences between them. These concepts are confused mainly due to the fact that when creating such beauties, the source material for their construction is almost the same - fancy stones, soil, all kinds of plants.

Rock garden

- this is a kind of imitation of mountainous terrain, artificially created relief, a picturesque hill of stones with a slope, on which mainly alpine plants are planted. It can take the form of a gorge, cliff, plateau, terrace, slope, mountain valley, cliff or other relief elements inherent in mountainous areas. In a word, such a composition should always be as close as possible to the mountainous terrain.

Rockery

- a rocky garden of flowers and stones, located on a plane without a slope, and the presence of any plants on it is not at all necessary. Rockeries are also good because they are quite simple to build, and they do not require particularly complex care.


Different basis. The main element of the rock garden is a composition of stones erected on a flat surface, and the basis of the rock garden is a rocky hill covered with rocky vegetation (the leading role in the rock garden is given to plants, which are quite fastidious in their care). For this reason, it is recommended to create rock gardens in areas with excellent and bright lighting (ideally it should be natural), while rock gardens can also be created in the shade.

Plants used. In rock gardens, plants growing mainly in the alpine zone (subalpine or alpine zone of mountains) are planted, and in rock gardens almost any plants can easily take root (conifers have also proven themselves excellent here), the choice of which is usually unlimited. Different types Creeping plants are never used in rock gardens, but at the same time such plants are an invariable attribute of rock gardens. Plants in rockeries are also planted in relatively small quantities, since their main decorative effect is based more on the beauty of inanimate nature - it is important that at least half of the area of ​​the rockery is occupied by gravel and stones. Most of the current “rock gardens” are actually rockeries, since the bulk of alpine plant varieties simply cannot grow normally in our climatic conditions.


Elevation and flatness. Rockeries can be created not only in the vertical, but also in the horizontal plane (for example, in the form of scree). If a rock garden is always a hill, including bright ground cover plants and stones, then a rock garden is always a rocky and gravel flat area. When constructing rockeries, a smaller number of stones are used; a mound for them is usually not made either - stones of different sizes and shapes are placed in a special order on the plane.

Square. Rock gardens are mostly small in size and occupy a fairly small piece of land. As for rockeries, they require a much larger area (sometimes up to a couple of tens of square meters). Rockeries look more natural, being a natural continuation of the area they occupy, since, unlike rock gardens, they do not have borders or edgings.

Regardless of whether it is planned to create a rock garden or rock garden on a personal plot, it is very important that they fit into the natural environment as harmoniously as possible, thereby complementing it. The creative and incredibly interesting process of creating rockeries and rock gardens always requires skill and serious skill.

Tired of the lined paths, the geometrically correct shapes of flower beds and flower beds, the smoothly combed territory of the site, so predictable and boring? Then, perhaps, a rock garden in the country is exactly what you need! Some “artistic disorder”, albeit carefully thought out and planned, will give your dacha a unique charm and individuality, allow you to rest your eyes and move away from the unwritten “rules” and conventions, to fully express your imagination and artistic taste.

Definitions rockery varied and somewhat vague. However, they all agree that a rock garden is, in fact, a kind of composition of stones and plants, imitating a natural landscape and located on a flat surface.


It is also allowed to lay out on the slope of the site, in this case the rockery stones imitate natural rock outcroppings:


It is customary to highlight three main types of rockeries, depending on the nature of the vegetation used and general view compositions: European, English And Japanese .

For European rockery when choosing plants, preference is given to the well-known inhabitants of the flora of the middle zone, with possible “interspersed” with more southern or northern neighbors.


English rockeries bear the imprint of some restraint and stiffness, in them you can often see all kinds of cereal plants, wormwood, dwarf coniferous bushes and trees.


Japanese-style rockeries are very reminiscent of the well-known “ “, however, they necessarily contain a minimal amount of vegetation, unlike the latter. Such rockeries, in addition to their general appearance, are sometimes easy to recognize by the pattern on the pebbles:


Rockery often confused with his close relative, alpine slide or rock garden, however, there are some differences between these landscape design techniques:

- unlike an alpine hill, a rock garden does not have tiers in the arrangement of its elements, although the use of stone “peaks” is allowed;
- rock gardens are characterized by the placement of stones and plants within a relatively flat composition, which, unlike an alpine slide, does not require intense lighting;
- along with large stones and cobblestones, gravel is necessarily used in rock gardens, both as a covering for paths and as a decorative bedding between flower garden elements;
- as plants for rock gardens, it is customary to choose the most unpretentious ones that do not require complex care and special conditions cultivation;
- for the arrangement of an alpine hill, plants native to mountainous regions are used, which is not mandatory for a rock garden.

Recently, another type of rockery has been gaining popularity, "mobile" . Such compositions are either placed in a hollowed out tree trunk, or when they are broken down, plants in pots or containers are used. It is clear that, if desired, such a rockery can be moved to any place on the site.


Typically, the rockery composition is based on several large stones with low-growing perennials and gravel between them:


It is desirable that the appearance of such a flower garden be as natural as possible and resemble a piece of wild nature. It is not customary to give rockeries the correct geometric shape, their boundaries, as a rule, are arbitrarily outlined and curved.


Mini rock gardens near or gazebos are very popular:


Such compositions make it possible to make even a small dacha plot unique and do not significantly reduce its usable area.

A good solution is also to lay out a rock garden on a “useless” slope


or, for example, along a decorative stream:

landscapingeastperth.landscaping-kwikfynd.com


A real find for a rock garden will be various ground cover plants and succulents (ivy, various sedums, sedum, purslane, mosses and others).


However, you should avoid very aggressively growing species that can quickly destroy the overall composition of the rockery - to prevent this, you can also lay a layer of black polyethylene film under a layer of pebbles between the stones and plants.

es.paperblog.com


Quite often, in the design of rockeries, especially in the Mediterranean style, heat-loving palm trees, agaves, cacti, kalanchoes, cordylines, dracaenas and other southern plants are used that are not able to overwinter in our conditions. open ground, even with shelter.


It is clear that for the winter they will have to be put away in a heated room, so it is more convenient to “plant” them in the rockery directly in pots or tubs, which, if desired, can be disguised with pebbles.


Of course, there are certain rules for laying out a rockery. First of all, you need to select an area with a fairly flat surface and use pegs and rope to mark the boundaries of the future composition. In the designated area, you need to remove all the turf and prepare a kind of “trough” 20-30 cm deep, on the bottom of which geotextiles are laid, and on top of it - a drainage layer of sand and gravel about a third of the depth. Important: large stones and boulders must first be placed in their places and dug about halfway into the ground! The remaining excavation is filled with a mixture of garden soil, sand, peat and small crushed stone in a ratio of 3:2:1:1.

It is better to first sketch out the plan for the future rock garden on a sheet of paper. In this case, the basis of the composition is stones; the plants will only be a spectacular addition, which is why they are planted only after the stone “plot” of the rockery has been completely built. For coniferous rockeries, low-growing spruce, thuja, larch, and juniper are suitable. In deciduous rockeries, dwarf shrubs with decorative foliage, beautiful flowers or fruits are widely used. Roses, azaleas, petunias and other plants with long colorful flowering can become bright accents in a rock garden.

For rockeries, it is preferable to choose stones of beige and yellow-brown colors, which go well with the greenery of the plants.

Share: