Rock gardens and rockeries. What is the difference between rock garden, alpine hill, rockery, rocky garden

The garden is the most favorite place to relax and therefore you want it to look beautiful and well-groomed. For this we make a lot of efforts, we plant flowers, trees, etc. Huge popularity among gardeners is a mysterious and romantic place called an alpine hill or rockery. An alpine slide or rock garden is a bright, fashionable highlight of your garden. The rock garden transforms our garden and plot and turns it into a "candy".
Many people think that an alpine slide, rock garden or rockery is one and the same, but there are some differences in landscape design. The author of the creation of the Alpine slide is Tatyana Kuzmina.

Alpine slide or rock garden- This is a type of European rocky garden. The rock garden comes from the German word "Alps", which is why mountain alpine plants are selected to the alpine hill.
If we consider the classic version of the alpine hill, then it is an artificially constructed small hill with conical stones and installed on the base. The stones imitate the top of the mountain. Also, very often there is a staircase to the top, which is also made of stones (granite, limestone or porous tuff). Instead of stairs, you can also make a path of flat stones.

rockery- This is a kind of rocky hill, which is closer to the natural landscape. This is the difference between rockeries and rock gardens. Rockery complements the general view of the site very well, it may contain elements of a mountain landscape, scree or dry channels, but on the contrary, paths or curbs should be absent.
The most distinctive feature of rockeries is the use of forest and steppe vegetation, and mountain vegetation is used in rock gardens. Fits very well in rockeries: ferns, conifers, dwarf plants and various garden plants.
It is better to have rockeries on a slope or in a ravine, in the form of a retaining wall or terrace, and even on level ground.
I hope you have a little idea of ​​the distinguishing features between rockeries and rock gardens. Most often in the gardens you can find, you guessed it, rockery, as it uses more accessible and common materials that we have at hand.

The production of an alpine slide (rockery) takes place in several stages:
1. You need to choose a suitable place for rockeries or rock gardens.
2. Drainage device.
3. Selection of stones and their laying.
4. We prepare the soil.
5. Planting plants.

For the manufacture of rock gardens we need:
* Good lighted place.
* Old cinder blocks.
* Rubble.
* Sand.
* Plants.
* Geotextile.
* Patience.

Choosing a place for an alpine slide

The most important and important thing is to choose a place for our rock garden. Alpine slide should be located in a sunny place, as well as in a prominent place. After all, the rock garden is our pride, so we choose the best place for it on our site.

Drainage devices

The first thing to do is dig a pit, the size depends on the size of the alpine slide. We make drainage at the bottom.
Drainage at the base of the alpine slide (rockery) is simply necessary: ​​it eliminates stagnant water and also serves as a solid foundation for the entire structure. Construction waste, brick battle may well be suitable and used for this purpose. It is laid at the base of the future slide, covered with sand from above, and then the soil is already placed.
When Tatyana started making a hill, she dug up the ground especially for autumn and left it until spring, so that the whole embankment would settle down and get stronger.

She put old cinder blocks at the base of the alpine slide.

Add crushed stone, broken bricks and sand in the seams - for good drainage.

The main base of the alpine slide is the key to a good alpine slide. Add more sand.

Here is our rock garden base.

Now everything is well spilled with water and several times .... We fall asleep with earth until next spring. We cover with geotextile so that weeds do not cause.

Selection of stones and laying

When we select stones, you must consider what size your alpine slide is. For a large rock garden, large stones will look beautiful, and if the rock garden is small, then the size should correspond to this. It is also necessary to lay stones unnaturally and of the same breed. In the wild, a pile of stones is found from one breed. It is very important that the stones look good even without plants.
We make flats for the plants on top.

Trying out stones. Then you need to spill everything well.

We prepare the soil

Soil requirements depend on the specific plants you intend to plant. However, some general guidelines can be given.
The main thing is that the soil should be light in texture. This is due to the fact that most mountain plants are accustomed to growing on slopes, where there are many large particles of the parent rock, the soil is well ventilated and allows moisture to pass through, and there is no stagnant water.
To improve the land, you can add sand, bark, perlite to it, expanded clay or small gravel is also suitable. Thanks to these materials, breathability will increase and there will be no stagnation of water.
Also, the soil should retain water a little, otherwise the alpine hill will have to be constantly watered.
To increase the moisture capacity in the soil, organic substances are added to it: peat, humus, etc.
Also, for each type of plant organic matter will require different. For example, peonies do not like sour mail and they can get gray mold, so sphagnum and peat are not suitable for them. Heathers do not react well to humus, while primroses, on the contrary, develop better in soils rich in mineral elements.
For some plants (peonies, adonis, backache), the soil will have to be deoxidized by adding chalk, dolomite flour or wood ash to it. Perhaps it is most advisable to break the rock garden into parts, in each of which you will plant plants that differ sharply in soil requirements.
In general, alpine plants do not need abundant nutrition, so a medium or even mineral-depleted soil will be optimal.
Your green pets sometimes require soil of a certain structure and chemical composition - soddy, leafy, coniferous or heather.
So, rhododendrons will prefer heather, coniferous plants, liverworts, hellebore - coniferous, leafy land is useful for forest plants.
Note that willow or oak leaves are very rich in tannins that inhibit the development of plants, so they are not used to prepare leafy soil.
Of conifers, spruce has a bad effect on plants, and pine, on the contrary, favorably affects their development. You can prepare the right soil only in your summer cottage.
Layers of turf or needles, bark and sawdust of coniferous plants, or heather, or leaves are placed in a pile (about 1 m) and kept moist, stirring occasionally.
Leaf and sod land will be ready in 2-3 years, coniferous and heather - in 3-4 years. This soil should be mixed with normal soil before planting.
Peat, sphagnum, charcoal are very valuable primarily for their disinfecting effect, since they release substances into the soil that kill pathogens.
They can be applied to almost any crop with the only limitation: peat and sphagnum acidify the soil. As we have already said, the introduction of any of these materials makes the soil looser, increases its moisture capacity.
For further care of plants on an alpine hill, it is important that the soil is free from weeds. To get rid of the rhizomes of couch grass, thistle, dandelion and other perennial weeds, it is recommended to sift the soil through a metal mesh.
With large volumes of soil, it is advisable to remove the top layer of soil about a year before the construction of the hill and store it in the form of a heap. The remains of plants rot, and sod land is formed.
When weed seedlings appear, treat the soil with a herbicide (for example, Round-up). You may need to repeat the treatment 2-3 times per season.
It is also useful to shovel this layer of soil. For miniature rock gardens, you can purchase a suitable peat soil, in which there are no seeds and rhizomes of weeds.
This is especially true for rock gardens in containers, but for large rock gardens, buying peat soil can be too expensive.
Usually, the acquired mixture has to be mixed with sand and other materials so that it does not cake and maintain an optimal structure.
Remember that peat soil has a high moisture capacity, however, with a complete loss of water, peat particles are wetted with difficulty. Overdrying peat soil or peat mixtures is highly undesirable.

planting

Before planting, it is important to know if the plant is adapted to your weather conditions. If you are not sure, then it is better not to experiment, plant the plants with seeds. Thanks to this, the seeds will be hardened and adapted to the local climate.

I won’t tell a lot about plants, a little later I’ll write a special article on each plant individually.
Tatyana sowed perennials on her alpine hill, and also planted conifers, rose, spirea, juniper, hosta, lobelia and other plants

Tatyana also added some decorations around the rock garden. I made a path around it, and also sprinkled gravel around the hill. Geotextiles were laid under the rubble. I also bought a beautiful sprinkle and added it to the decoration. All alpine slide (rock garden) is ready. We thank the author for the work and detailed description of the work.

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The hill was named after borrowed from the Alps. It was they who became the prototype of plants grown in artificial conditions. For self-construction, the creation of an earthen embankment equipped with good drainage is required. The upper, visible to the eye, part of the structure is laid with stones of various shapes and colors, between which pre-planted flowers sprout. Special care is not required, sometimes it is necessary to provide watering.

To make a rock garden as soon as possible and enjoy the beautiful view, you need to choose the right place to create it.

The design of rock gardens varies slightly and depends on the chosen style, of which several are known:

1. European style involves planting plants that grow and bloom slowly, but life cycles occur at different times of the year, so they can bloom alternately almost all year round, delighting the owners. The general view of the rock garden is always attractive, there are young buds, flowers.
2. English style has its own characteristics. Stones for the site are selected non-standard, often they have a pointed shape or unusual branches. Among them are coniferous plantations that grow for a long time and never get too high, which makes it easier to care for them.
3. Japanese style includes exquisite details, but their list is small. The stones are not stacked end-to-end, they resemble small ovals in shape. Plants are selected multi-colored, but inferior in number to other styles. Undersized, but bright and long-flowering options are appreciated.
4. Czech style resembles a constructor, the modules of which are interspersed with various colors. Slabs are selected by size, using the same, and sometimes playing with their shape, contrasting colors. The elements are stacked like a mosaic, mounted on the edges. The field for laying the main pattern is defined by holes in which seeds or plant seedlings can be planted.

The elements are stacked like a mosaic, mounted on the edges. The field for laying the main pattern is defined by holes in which seeds or plant seedlings can be planted.

When choosing a place to create a rock garden, it should be taken into account that it should be a picturesque island, so you should refrain from designing it on the location of a bad landscape. You should not place it near large bushes, trees, buildings, if they do not look harmonious. You need to choose a well-lit area, preferably throughout the year. You can orient yourself to the south, providing for any possible inconvenience.

It will not be possible to sow tall plants in front of the future flowering hill, and it should also be taken into account that the possibility of using the territory for storing something will not appear for a long time.

To harmonize the rock garden with other elements of the landscape or buildings, you can frame it with any building materials of the desired color. It is worth remembering that the addition of additional elements expands the entire structure.

A lawn is created next to the stone masonry, dim plants, mostly green in color, are planted on it.

Compared to other plants rock garden must rise, so you should additionally bring the earth, pour and compact the mound.

Rockeries: simpler designs

To create a rockery you can use certain plants that have long been tested by compatriots, which will help get rid of the risk of taking plantings unsuitable for the climate, caring for plants for which you need to develop individual methods of watering and feeding.

1. The planting area is relatively even, so it is necessary to select plants that are in harmony with each other in color and shape. Extraordinary species will stand out brightly, but ridiculously against the general background.
2. Flowers should bloom and stay green all year round. This property will help make rockeries attractive all the time, and in winter it will not spoil it with bare stems that have grown mixed with stones.
3. It is necessary to decide before creating a rockery which plants will be planted: fast-growing or slow-growing. Mixing these two varieties will make the overall look untidy, all the stems will be different in size, which would normally look in a rock garden. As a result, stronger plants will drown out the rest, so when connecting several types of dissimilar plantings, they should be placed at a distance from each other.
4. When selecting plants, they try to adhere to a certain color range or brightness of shades. When forming rockeries, the choice of color is especially important, so you should think in advance about the general appearance of future plantings and their combination with each other.

Unlike climbers, where refinement and light shades are valued, when creating rockeries in a dark place, you can make the site beautiful without a lot of sunlight. Rock ferns and ephemeroids will look great in the middle of small stones, casting a whole range of transitional, contrasting shades.

What is the main difference

Speaking of rockeries and rock gardens, they often mean the same type of flower garden. This is a mistake, as differences can be seen in any garden plot. Rockery is usually located horizontally, however, for its correct formation, several tubercles are often used. Randomly occurring hills will help make the terrain as unusual as possible, help you independently build additional jumps in the growth of green spaces and their location. It is easier to install stones on a smooth base, but laying out a memorable composition is almost impossible, so the work is complicated.

In the first photo there is a rock garden, and in the second a rockery.

Rockery has an advantage over rock garden, since for its construction there is no need to buy plantings that are especially resistant to negative factors, it is enough to purchase weakly growing plants. Alpine varieties will not be useful, as the terrain will be lighter, calmer. Usually necessary or very beautiful plants for rock gardens are unsuitable for growing in mid-latitudes, so many owners prefer to build rockeries rather than rock gardens.

When choosing a stone for rockeries you should focus on monochromatic colors, slight wear, general dullness after installation. The rock garden involves the creation of an eye-catching pattern that attracts attention even without grown plants. Stones and tiles of any kind can be used, since the hilly structure allows you to look at objects gradually, in contrast to the moderately flat surface for rockeries, where the overall picture is visible at first sight and any bust in color can be regarded as bad taste.

Determining the materiality of the differences between rockeries and rock gardens should be remembered that you need to stick to your own taste. If there is an opportunity to demonstrate design skills by creating unusual stone areas with the addition of flowers, it is worth a try.

With a competent approach and a clear understanding of the differences between the two types of structures, your own flower garden can turn out to be brilliant.

Among a large number of various elements of the landscape, rockeries and rock gardens occupy a special place. Both of these landscape elements are areas on which various compositions are composed. Despite the fact that these gardens have much in common, there are also some differences between them.

Elements of landscape design in the backyard

The differences between these two varieties of compositions are as follows:

• The rock garden should resemble the mountain landscape of the Alps as much as possible, so rock gardens are created in the form of slides. Rockery can be placed on a flat surface.
• In a real rock garden, only those plants are planted that can be found in nature on the slopes of the mountains. For rockeries, small coniferous and ground cover species, ornamental shrubs are usually selected, which are usually not found in such a combination in nature. In the next photo, one of the options for creating a flower garden.
• Rock gardens are placed only in well-lit areas, while rockeries can also be placed in the shade.
• In rock gardens, significantly fewer stones are used than when creating rockeries.

There are also other differences, which we will consider in the following sections of the article.

The basic principles of creating rockeries

When choosing between two types of compositions from plants and stones, it should be remembered that rockeries are simpler in both creating and selecting vegetation. Designers have developed several basic rules for choosing plantings for rockeries:

• For rockeries, it is not recommended to use plants with bright and large leaves. They stand out too much and can disrupt the harmony of the composition.
• In addition to flowers, it is necessary to plant evergreen and coniferous plants. Then your rockery will look beautiful at any time of the year.
• For rockeries, slowly growing specimens are selected.
• It is advisable to plant plants of the same color range in rockeries, since many different bright colors will disrupt the perception of the composition.
• In the case when the rockery will be located in a partially shaded area, select plants that will have a decorative look even in the shade.

Before you equip rockeries, decide on a set of plants and the size of their root system. The depth of laying the drainage under the composition will depend on this.

Site preparation

The first stage of arranging rockeries is site preparation:

• To do this, the soil is removed at the site of the future composition. The depth of removal can vary from 20 to 50 cm.
• A layer of broken brick or rubble is laid out at the bottom to remove excess moisture.
• Next, coarse-grained sand is poured with a layer of at least 10 cm.

The base for rockeries must be sufficiently dense, otherwise the stones will begin to sag and damage the roots of the plants.

Selection of stones and plants

The choice of stones is very important when arranging rockeries, because they are the central element of the composition.

1. It is necessary to choose stones of natural shape, large enough. Stones covered with moss are great.
2. The largest of them must be placed on a site with prepared drainage before falling asleep with earth.
3. Next, you can add a layer of soil and place smaller stones (as in the photo).
4. Planting begins with the largest specimens, gradually moving to smaller ones.
5. The unplanted areas between the stones are filled with ground cover plants. To do this, you can use shaving, sedum, spirea or undersized juniper.
6. The soil is mulched with marble chips or gravel.
7. As a result, you should get a harmonious composition.

The design also uses such an element as a mini rockery:

• This is a small rock garden housed in a container.
• As a container, you can use any suitable size container with obligatory drainage holes.
• The bottom of the container is covered with a layer of sand and then work is performed in the same sequence as in the arrangement of a large rockery.

The convenience of a mini rockery (pictured) is that it can be easily moved to the right place.

How to equip an alpine slide

As the name implies, the Alpine corner is an attempt to recreate the beauty of the Alps on its site. The rock garden repeats the mountain landscape and is created in the form of a hill or a rocky slope, as in the next photo.

A prerequisite for choosing a place for a rock garden is its good illumination. If you want to recreate a mountain slope, position it facing south.

Since the main task of the rock garden is to recreate the mountain landscape, the method of laying stone in the form of layered mountains is very often used.

For this, flat stones are used. This method has several advantages:

• Each plant has its own section, this helps distribute the root system more evenly.
• The location of the stones stimulates the growth of the root system deep into the ground.
• By mulching the space between the stones with marble chips or pebbles, weeds can be eliminated.

Site preparation for rock garden is carried out in the same way as for rockeries.

• First, a drainage layer is built at a depth of 30-40 cm.
• Next, you need to form an elevation for the future rock garden.
• After that, you can proceed to the placement of stones and backfilling of the soil and the last stage - planting.

In rock gardens, plants play the main role, so they are chosen very carefully.

• Very bright and colorful plants are not suitable for planting. Preference should be given to flowers with a long flowering period.
• When choosing plants, it is necessary to take into account their soil requirements, because some stones can change the acidity of the soil. The soil becomes more acidic when granite and volcanic rocks are placed, and sandstone and marble can alkalize the soil.
• When choosing plants, it is necessary to take into account the size of the root system. The thickness of the soil layer, which will need to be placed on the base of the slide, depends on this.

The more drought-resistant the plant, the higher it can be placed on rock gardens. Moisture-loving flowers and shrubs are placed closer to the base (pictured).

The stone garden is very popular among summer residents. Almost every homestead owner wants to create a rockery on their territory. To competently create such a flower garden, you should study the types and design features of rockeries in landscape design.

What it is?

The history of this flower garden began about 15 years ago. Then, in all publications that were related to landscape design and architecture, they began to draw a clear line between rock garden and rockery. Today, many experts combine the two terms, calling this creation a rocky garden. This solution equates the two destinations with rock gardens that emphasize the Japanese style.

In fact, this is not so: rockery is a decorative composition in which there are stones and miniature plants. A rock garden is a hill made of stones where creeping types of plants grow. The rock garden requires special drainage systems, which are of great importance in the entire structure. A rockery differs from a rock garden by a drainage system.

The difference lies in the fact that the vegetation used in rockeries is unpretentious in care. In landscape design, flowers are used that are easy to care for. Even a novice gardener can create an original flower garden, since knowledge of special skills is not required to arrange a flower bed. For this reason, rockeries are popular among summer residents and gardeners.

Types and styles

Before arranging rockeries, it is necessary to decide on the type of future composition. There are several conventional names for this flower garden:

• Landscape. Such a flower bed is arranged in the garden, based on the design of the entire site. The composition acts as a component of the design of the entire landscape space. With its help, you can combine all the elements into a single picture.
• terraced. This flower garden is used in areas with slopes. Such a system combines walls of stones with different shapes and heights.
• Rocks and cliff. This rockery can act as a separate composition or be a component of a complex landscape design. The design of places for vegetation is carried out in the process of creating a flower bed.
• Mountain valley. This is a flower garden in which there are stones sunk into the soil. Paths should pass between the boulders, distributing the territory into several zones.
• Mountain slope. The creation of such a rockery is carried out on the slopes. Outwardly, it looks like a mountain scree with fragments of rocks and creeping vegetation.

There are several styles in which you can decorate your stone garden.

Japanese

You will immediately recognize this design due to the many stones with the moderation of bright colors and decorative vegetation. Most often, granite is used in such an interior. The Japanese style is able to show the beauty of wild stones, the exotic setting contributes to peace. When creating a flower garden, harmony should be observed. Plants in pots, Buddhist statues, small tables and cages with singing birds will fit into the atmosphere. Lighting can be provided.

English

In the English style there are evergreen conifers that create a pleasant environment. You can add cereals, decorative wormwood, various flowers and deciduous vegetation to the flower garden.

European

In European design, it is necessary to use plants that can adapt to the climatic conditions of the middle lane. The pattern changes due to wild flowers, smoothly replacing each other. You can plant perennials, miniature shrubs with colorful leaves, or whatever plants you like.

Alpine slide

This direction represents bulbous and coniferous varieties of plants growing in the mountains of Italy, Switzerland and France. As a decorative component, you can equip artificial water structures in your garden.

You can arrange rockeries in different styles that harmoniously fit into the overall picture of the chosen style of landscape design. There are temporary flower beds that are suitable for areas where flat terrain or a slight slope prevails. For the middle lanes, low shrubs are relevant, which take root without problems in these climatic conditions. If you have artistic knowledge and skills, you can create an original design by diluting your summer cottage with an exclusive garden.

When choosing a planting scheme, consider the parameters of an adult plant and its crown. While the plants are small, use temporary fill and small stones. As the shrub grows, it will be necessary to replace the old elements with large boulders. Rockery should look beautiful, the design should take into account the size of the shrub.

Rockery can be located near the house. Decorate the composition with mountain plants, among which lavender, moss, fern will grow. Thanks to a discreet range, you can emphasize the style of a chalet or any of the rustic trends. The decoration may consist of natural elements (eg driftwood, logs, boulders) with natural forms.

photos

Location

Once the design is determined, you will need to select the location of the stone garden. The selected site must have all the conditions for arranging rockeries. You need to create a project of the territory, study the area of ​​​​the site, the features of its landscape, soil. For example, pompous stone heaps should not be placed on a small area: they will look unnatural. In large areas, small rockeries can be lost, so the choice of the size of the future flower garden should be approached with all responsibility.

When choosing a place, preference should be given to ravines, terraces and other uneven surfaces. You can beat these areas with your imagination and turn unattractive areas into an original creation of nature. If you plan to make rockeries in the country, it is important to take into account the fact that not every site may have a ravine, pond or terrace. There is no need to be upset, since the stone flower garden is successfully located on any type of terrain.

Consider the lighting of the selected area. If possible, choose the sunny side: not every plant can grow in the shade. The flowerbed should be located in such a way that the rockery is in a conspicuous place and pleases others with its composition. Beginning gardeners are encouraged to carry out their work in small areas. For arranging a large area, it is better to turn to professionals (not every beginner is able to cope with a large amount of work on their own). Avoid placing rockeries along the fence and next to buildings. If this option cannot be ruled out, fill the area with climbing plants.

A little about stones

The choice of stones should be based on simple tips:

• all stone components should have an interesting shape. You can opt for porous stones, cobblestones with attractive cracks, moss-covered boulders. Black sea stones are suitable for creating rockeries;
• the color scheme depends on the taste preferences of the creator. If you have a good artistic taste, you can easily combine a rocky garden in shades;
• for beginners who are afraid to make a mistake, you can use plain stones of the same type. To dilute the composition, you can experiment with sizes and shapes;
• flower beds with two large stones in the center have the best view. The rest of the representatives must have the same size. Choose stones that are 30-40 cm long;
• if you decide to break a flower garden on a slope, laying stones should be done from the bottom up. Each tier is laid out sequentially. Initially, you should install large stones that will act as a support. To make the structure reliable, boulders can be dug up to the drainage base. Some gardeners use cement mortar to fix;
• any stones are suitable for construction work: crushed stone, granite, fragments of bricks. Tuff is popular (rock boulders that are created from volcanic ash and other debris). When choosing stones, choose durable varieties that can withstand the sun's rays and time.

Plant selection

Once you have decided on the stone base, you can begin to select the vegetation. Plants divided into 4 categories take part in the creation of the flower garden:

coniferous flower garden

Usually mini-trees are planted in such rockeries. An attractive stone garden will look if it contains thuja, juniper, dwarf firs. You can equip the original flower garden in a pine design.

shrubs

Suitable vegetation includes honeysuckle, cinquefoil, and various varieties of cotoneaster. Planted plants should have a compact size, as they have a secondary role.

perennials

A combination of bulbous and herbaceous plants will look good in rockeries. Annual varieties are not popular, as such flowers need to be planted every year.

groundblood

Phloxes or a cat's foot can be attributed to the number of such representatives. When choosing plants for your rockery, remember that you can not plant colorful and bright flowers. The composition should be based on stones, representatives of the plant world only complement the ensemble of such a garden.

If you have chosen conifers, you should follow a few rules:

• plants should be low;
• choose varieties that are characterized by slow growth;
• trees must be shaped;
• if you do not know if this variety can take root in your area, use planting along with a tub.

Once you have decided on a place for plants in the flower garden, you can start choosing flowers. You will need to achieve constant flowering. When one kind of flower stops blooming, it must be replaced by others. You can use different varieties of plants, based on the climate of your area. Many gardeners know such names as: rhododendrons. These perennials are often used in the arrangement of Japanese rockeries. Only in rockeries you can find plants that cannot be found in natural conditions.

Basic requirements for vegetation:

1. Undersized varieties of plants should be planted in rockeries, which during the flowering period reach a height of no more than 50 cm.
2. Give preference to varieties that are distinguished by massive flowering and an attractive crown.
3. Ornamental varieties of plants look good in a stone garden, which do not lose their attractiveness during growth and maturation.
4. Pay attention to plants with resistant forms: such varieties will not require frequent transplanting and division.

To create a stone garden, you can use different varieties of tulips, wild violets, hyacinths. Follow the planting order: plants with well-developed roots should be planted first. Next, you can plant ground-blooded representatives. Such vegetation performs decorative and applied functions. It is entrusted with the strengthening of the upper layer of the soil, due to which erosion of the surface is excluded. If there are no slopes on your site, you can plant moisture-loving plants (for example, primrose, astilba). For flat rockeries, cereals should be selected: they will give the composition a little carelessness.

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Landing Rules

When the stones, seeds and seedlings are selected, you can begin to create a rockery with your own hands. At the time of the start of work, you must decide on the style of the future composition, choose the location of the stone garden. A step-by-step guide to creating a rockery is as follows:

• no project is complete without a blueprint. Before starting work, it is necessary to draw drawings on which it is worth displaying all the components of the stone garden;
• construction should be done in late autumn or spring. Mark the perimeter of the future flower garden on your site;

• remove 20 cm of soil and remove weed roots from the top layer;
• then you will need to cover the selected area with non-woven material;
• lay the drainage layer. It should contain gravel, pebbles and bricks. Compact this layer with sand. The final drainage thickness should be 20 cm. If you do not create a drainage layer, vegetation that does not tolerate moisture will die;

• in this state, the site should stand for about 2 months. This time will be enough for shrinkage;
• after 2 months, you can continue the arrangement of the flower garden. You will need to install large boulders on sand that has already reached sufficient density;
• do not overdo it with the number of stones. When creating a rockery, remember that each stone must play its part in the garden;
• the remaining space must be covered with a substrate in which plants will then be planted;
• when choosing a substrate, remember that in rockeries the main role is played by stones. For this reason, it is not recommended to choose fertile formulations. The only quality that you should pay attention to when choosing a mixture is the permeability of air and moisture;

• check the stones for stability and make adjustments if necessary. If the boulders sway, you can fix them with cement;
• When watering the substrate, care should be taken to ensure that it does not erode. Otherwise, you will need to redo everything again;
• when the mixture settles, you can start planting vegetation. The order of planting depends on what composition device you came up with;
• First you need to plant coniferous shrubs. They are deepened into the soil through a circle cut in the film;
• at the next stage, you can plant shrubs, flowers;
• when you finish working with vegetation, the film must be sprinkled with soil again;
• at the final stage, you need to add small stones and backfill for decoration.

This instruction will help equip your stone garden in the country and avoid the mistakes that beginners often make. Follow the above rules to correctly create a rockery that will decorate your summer cottage.

Care

For rockeries, you should select plants that are resistant to the climate of your region. It is necessary to choose varieties that do not need daily care. Despite the unpretentiousness of the stone garden, it periodically needs to be moistened with water from a hose with a sprayer and top dressing should be added. Soil filling is carried out once every few years. For the winter, the vegetation is covered, the dried components are removed. If your rockery has grown, it should be thinned out.

Tired of the paths laid “under the ruler”, geometrically-correct forms of flower beds and flower beds, smoothed-combed territory of the site, so predictable and boring? Then, perhaps, rockery in the country is exactly what you need! Some "artistic mess", albeit carefully thought out and planned, will give your dacha a unique charm and personality, allow you to rest your eyes and move away from unwritten "rules" and conventions, to fully show your imagination and artistic taste.

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

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

It is customary to allocate three main types of rockeries, depending on the nature of the vegetation used and the general appearance of the composition: European, English and Japanese .

For European rockery when choosing plants, preference is given to well-known inhabitants of the flora of the middle zone, with possible "interspersed" 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 very reminiscent of the well-known ”, however, they necessarily contain a minimum amount of vegetation, unlike the latter. Such rockeries, in addition to the general appearance, are sometimes easy to recognize by the pattern on the pebbles:

rockery often confused with its close relative, alpine slide or rock garden However, there are some differences between these landscape design techniques:

- unlike the alpine slide, rockery is not inherent in tiered arrangement of its elements, although the use of stone "peaks" is allowed;
- rockeries are characterized by the placement of stones and plants within a relatively flat composition, which, unlike an alpine hill, does not require intense lighting;
- along with large stones and cobblestones, gravel is necessarily used in rockeries, both in the form of covering the paths and decorative filling between the elements of the flower garden;
- as plants for rockeries, it is customary to choose the most unpretentious ones that do not require complex care and special growing conditions;
- for the arrangement of the alpine slide, plants from mountainous regions are used, which is not mandatory for rockeries.

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

Usually, the rockery composition is based on several large stones with undersized 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 wildlife. It is not customary to give rockeries a regular geometric shape; their borders, as a rule, are arbitrarily outlined and curved.

Mini-rockeries near or gazebos are very popular:

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

A good solution is also the breakdown of rockeries on a "useless" slope

or, for example, along a decorative stream:

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A real find for rockeries will be various ground cover plants and succulents (ivy, various stonecrops, young, purslane, mosses and others).

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

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

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

Of course, there are certain rockery breakdown rules. First of all, you need to choose a site with a fairly even surface and, using pegs and a rope, mark the boundaries of the future composition. In the designated area, it is necessary to remove the entire 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 into the ground by about half! The remaining recess is filled with a mixture of garden soil, sand, peat and fine gravel in a ratio of 3:2:1:1.

It is better to sketch out a plan for the future rockery on a piece of paper. In this case, the basis of the composition is stones, the plants will only be an effective addition, therefore they are planted only after the stone “plot” of the rockery is fully built. For coniferous rockeries, undersized spruce, thuja, larch, 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 rockeries.

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