When it is about designing your landscape, there are a lot of factors to consider. Homeowners with green thumbs might be interested in filling their yards with all kinds of plants and flowers however it may not be the choice of everyone. If you're not much of a gardener and don't fancy the idea of maintenance work that comes along with having plants and gardens, you can go for low-maintenance options like rock gardens.
Here are 15 easy ideas to design a rock garden for your home.
Gather Inspiration
It is quite challenging to envision what you may want your rock garden to look like. Even if you get a clear idea, it’s almost impossible that the final look is exactly like the rick garden you envisioned. Thus it is important to do research and gather inspiration. Visit the best public gardens in your area or comb the internet for rock garden pictures that fancy you. Look through to identify certain features, materials, or layouts that seem to be your idea of a garden.
Do The Prep Work For The Area
Clear the area to start your project. The complexity and length of this step mainly depend on what your yard is like starting. In most cases, you'll have to do some clearing. Remove any plants, bushes, and vegetation such as leaves or twigs to get a clear area. Dig things up below the roots to ensure that unwanted shoots don't peek through your rock garden later on. It may seem like an unimportant step but it's laying the foundation for your slice of rocky paradise.
Plot Your Design Out First
A lot of the materials for a rock garden are quite heavy and difficult to transport so it’s crucial to have a good idea of where everything will be going before you begin. Moving it around is not so easy after all. No one wants to haul endless wheelbarrows full of rocks and soil, only to realize that they do not need them in that particular spot. Although you may not be working as a professional landscape architect, it's best to sketch out a rough idea of what you want the finished garden to look like.
Make A Mini Rockery Entwined With Green Plants
Make a mini rockery perfectly positioned in the front of your house! Everyone will love this beautiful idea, and even more so when the perfectly sized rocks are entwined by green plants. You can make the garden at the corners of your house to give an interesting look or put it around a structure so that it surrounds your yard.
Design An Alpine Garden With A Bridge
Are you a fan of the texture of the smooth pebble? Consider the rock garden design with lots of white smooth pebbles. Design a lovely garden that comprises a small pond constructed using these pebbles and rocks. The number of boulders used to construct the pond may make it pricey, but you could always customize it to bring it within your budget limits.
Mediterranean Style Dry Rock Garden Looks Ravishing
Without a doubt, one of the most pleasing sights to behold is a flower garden. Nothing can beat the refreshing feeling that comes from sweet-smelling plants thriving under the moderate conditions of your garden. Such a rock garden is known as a Mediterranean-style garden with blossoms everywhere! If you don’t want a lot of flowers, there are other options to design your yard the way you want it! Think of purple fountain grass, lavender, or a compelling combination of both.
Incorporate Native Rocks
Although you can use whatever type of rocks you love in your rock garden, incorporating native rocks can help make your yard fit into the landscape. You will relish the amount of cohesion given by the native rocks. The idea is also beneficial for your budget because generally rocks native to your area will be less expensive as they don't have to be shipped as far. It’s a win-win!
Find A Reliable Supplier
One of the most essential steps in designing your yard is finding a reliable source or supplier of materials. You will typically get the rocks at a quarry, or landscape or garden center of some sort in your area. You can also get them in varying quantities according to your landscape requirements. Starting from 40-pound bags for accent areas to 2,000-pound bags for larger swaths of land, you can pick what suits your rock garden the best. Typically, the details on the particular package include the measurement of cubic feet that the number of rocks will cover so it gets easier to determine how much you need to purchase.
Gather The Right Tools
You can't move rocks around the same way as you would move flowers or plants. Consider getting tools such as a back brace, shovel, and wheelbarrow for your rock garden. A two-wheel dolly is quite useful during the designing process. For oversized boulders, hire a contractor or use some type of power equipment to deal with the heavy rocks.
Use The Right Type Of Soil
Soil matters in your rock garden just as in a flower garden. Avoid using nutrient-rich soil filled with compost for this purpose. A blend of sand, small rocks, and lean topsoil are perfect to lay the foundation for your rock garden to thrive and survive.
Use Varying Sizes Of Rocks
Selecting just one size of rock creates more of an industrial look. I am sure you don’t want that! Play around with scale and use varying sizes of stones to create a natural-looking and eye-catching design. This could mean putting a few larger rocks as statement pieces and filling the remaining area with smaller pebbles. Large stone slabs can also be used as a walking path between areas in your rock garden.
Think Natural While Designing Your Rock Garden
If you prefer symmetry and want a perfectly designed rock garden, that is totally fine but that's a rule of try to arrange your rocks in a way that looks natural. This could mean incorporating elements like elevation, slopes, and some not-so-perfect-looking rocks.
Add Some Interesting Accessories
Get creative with your yard and bring in a few elements beyond just the variety of rocks and stones. This allows your personality to come through in your space as well. Items like sculptures, outdoor lighting, decorative pots, and feeders for wildlife can be very attractive as well as affordable.
Add A Few Plants
You may have opted for a rock garden because you don't have a green thumb, but that doesn't mean you can't have any plants whatsoever. The types of plants that do well in rock gardens tend to be drought-resistant and low-maintenance species. Depending on the aesthetic look you're going for, you may want to consider creeping plants such as moss for more of a forest feel or succulents for the desert vibe.
Focus On The Benefits
Among many other benefits of making a rock garden the most important is that it allows you to craft a thoughtfully-designed yard that can endure any weather conditions. It doesn't matter if it rains or the sun beats down relentlessly on a particular area of your garden. A rock garden is suitable for yards that have problematic areas.
You can simply mask the problematic spots in your yard with an interesting arrangement of rocks. The ideal works well for uneven areas as well. Furthermore, you can find a garden style that matches your aesthetic sense to create a showstopping look. According to experts, the right design of a rick garden can even make your yard feel larger!