Rock Gardening for the Hobbyist

There is a way to create a low maintenance area surrounding your home that is also beautiful. If you have parts of your lawn that are hard to keep healthy then this is an excellent place for a rock garden. Planning is an important part of any landscaping project as you want there to be balance and symmetry when you are finished and it will make the whole project go smoother from the beginning. The kind of rock is all a matter of personal taste but there really are two trains of thought when it comes to creating a rock garden. One is to use similar rocks. Ones that are alike in color, origin, form and size. The other option is just to find rocks that you like and use those. If you really want to create a stunning rock garden then the best way to do that is to use smaller stones and then place your plants strategically so they create an appealing pattern. Larger objects either man made or natural can be used to draw visual attention. You can even go so far as to use elements that will shade parts of the garden for even further contrast and interest. Beyond that there are even more elements of interest that can be added like big rocks that never fail to become a focal point. If you so desire to stray from the natural look you can use fountains but to keep it natural a stream may work as a water element. Your garden store will likely have many other things that can be used for making your garden complete. The first step in preparing the part of your yard that you want to transform into a rock garden is the make sure that all of what was there is removed. Any vegetation and their roots need to come out. Once you have this done you will better be able to visualize your garden. If you intend to incorporate plants into your rock garden and this is definitely not a requirement, you will want to try to place them in a fashion to accentuate the summitry. You should actually go get the plants you want to incorporate and place them on the ground before you dig so you can better visualize the result. When you get ready to start your project and have all your materials in place you will want to start with placement of bigger rocks first. Once they are in place you can begin placing your base materials over the whole area. Then go back and fill in the areas that surround the larger rocks. Use your imagination. If you follow this plan and put in the proper time to layout your garden you will end up with a beautiful addition to your home. The final step you will want to do is go back and add the finishing touches that will really set it apart from all others. That can be water elements, rustic materials or whatever you like, be it old rusty farming equipment or anything that strikes you fancy. I hope this helps you understand and gives you a little push to start your very own rock garden. It is one of my hobbies and maybe it can be yours too.

 Print this page 

del.icio.us Digg Furl Reddit Feed Me Links Technorati Newsvine Socializer Stumble Upon Google Bookmarks Squidoo BlinkBits BlinkList blogmarks Netvouz Ma.gnolia RawSugar Rojo Simpy Spurl Shadows Wists Yahoo! Co.mments! Scuttle!