Having An Attractive Rock Garden Anyone Would Be Proud Of

A rock garden can bring instant life, interest and intrigue to an otherwise bland area of your landscape. Many new gardeners think that rock gardens are hard to plan and expensive to make and fill with colorful plants but nothing could be further from the truth. Rock gardening is fun, easy and can be very economical depending on how you approach it. They are very popular and one of the most economical ways to enhance the landscape surrounding your home.

Rock gardens bring with them the assumption of having very few plants, or no plants at all but that’s not true. In fact it is the arrangement of the rocks in your garden, complemented by attractive plants with coordinating colors, that really adds to the beauty of the home and provides a low-maintenance landscape feature.

The first thing to do when starting your rock garden is to carefully check out where you are thinking of creating your rock garden. You should clear the area of unwanted plants, grasses and make sure there are no remnants left. Be sure to dig out the roots as well as the tops, or you may find your rock garden invaded at some later time by an unwanted fern or intrusive perennials.

After you make sure the soil is good (proper PH and well fertilized), then it is time to place your rocks. It is important to not choose rocks of the same size or shape and to not space your rocks evenly. Your want your garden to look natural. Variety in the types of rocks used is as desirable as variety of plants chosen to place in between them.

If you plan to have a lot of plants, then your rocks should be spaced further apart to give more room for the flowers. If, however, you plan to use plants only sparingly, arrange them closer together, but make sure that you allow some room for plants to grow. Try to make the design look as natural as possible, as it will be more attractive. A few large boulders usually look better than a number of small rocks and in a well-designed rock garden rocks are arranged so that there are various exposures. It is also a good idea to mix in some soil enhancements such as mulch, compost, and other compounds as you fill in the soil between the rocks.

It is advantageous, even after you have placed your rocks and decided where you want to put any plants, to wait a while before you attempt to plant the flowers in your rock garden. This will ensure that the soil has settled, and it will give you a chance to make sure that you have gotten rid of any pesky weeds. This way as soon as they make their appearances above the ground you can easily remove them.

It is best when placing the rocks in a garden that is sloped, to start at the low part of the slope and work up. Also try to slope the top of the rock back toward the slope so that water from rain and sprinklers is guided downward. You also want to try and keep the upper rocks from overshadowing rocks and plants below them. The goal is to create a sense of stability both visually and physically by setting each rock so that its widest side serves a base. To build the rocks up you can set a larger rock on top of smaller rocks and then fill in between with soil.

Placing the rocks on flat ground is a little different. Here you want to work from the inside toward the outer edges of the garden. It is always a good idea to lay out which rocks you would like where so that you can ensure your garden is balanced and look natural. It may be necessary, on a flat site, to build up small mounds of dirt in different places to give the rock garden an interesting appearance.

You should be careful to plant your flowers and plant only after everything else is in place, and after you make sure the soil is properly settled. Early spring or early fall are always the best times to do any planting. You want to make sure you choose plants that are suited for rugged terrain and adapted to your climate. The end result will be a beautiful garden that requires little upkeep.

Rock gardens are here to stay. They are a delightful feature in any home landscape and afford the opportunity to create charming pictorial effects as well as to grow a wide variety of plants, including many bulbs, in a comparatively small area.

Rock gardening “by the yard”