Rokariy is a small rocky kindergarten, more and more gaining popularity as an element of landscape design among the owners of small country cottages, as well as the owners of solid mansions and residences. The name "rockery" is of English origin, the root of the word "rock" is translated as "rock". An interesting form of flower garden is able to naturally combine the beauty of stone and plants. Do-it-yourself rockery is a great opportunity to embody the wildest fantasies on the site to create a marvelous rock garden that will become the highlight of the landscape, emphasizing the individuality of its owner.
What design styles exist?
The rockery in the garden resembles a rock garden in appearance: the compositions of both elements are formed from stones and plants. A distinctive feature between them is the relief arrangement and the choice of plants for composition. Rock gardens are located on the natural slopes of the site, and to create compositions, the choice is limited exclusively to alpine plants.
Absolutely any terrain, including absolutely flat ground, will be suitable as a site for the creation of a rockery.
The choice of plants for the rockery is extensive: in creating the composition, you can use both evergreen conifers and so beautiful flowering annuals.
You can learn about how to choose beautiful annual flowers from the material: //diz-cafe.com/ozelenenie/odnoletnie-cvety.html
Regardless of the style in which the flower garden will be made on stones, the layout of the rockery will be approximately similar
Landscape designers distinguish three main styles of rockeries: English, Japanese and European. The difference between them is mainly based on the ratio of the number of stones and planted plants.
The English style involves the use of long-lasting conifers in the composition. Evergreens perennials are loved by the British, because they allow you to create landscape decorations that are ready to last for more than one decade
The European style provides for the creation of stone compositions, which in terms of filling and composition are as close as possible to the natural conditions of the middle strip
In the Japanese style, the emphasis is on stones: slides abound in granite boulders, occasionally decorated with bright touches of various plants
The key to success - choosing the right place
Not every pile of stones, decorated with randomly planted plants, can be safely called a rockery. Thinking about the question: how to make a rockery with your own hands, you should first correctly choose the place for the future composition.
It is very successful if the terrain is heterogeneous and it has small hills and drops. An uneven surface serves as an ideal basis for creating decorative types of composition and the implementation of interesting ideas. Even a small mound can be transformed into a dry rocky scree, a system of ledges in a mountain valley or a picturesque cascade.
On a flat surface and you can create artificial differences in relief or form a "plain" stone composition.
Hilly terrain is convenient for creating a variety of variations of "mountain" rockery
Points to consider when choosing a place for a rockery in a country house:
- Preference should be given to sunny areas, which will expand the choice of photophilous plants to create a chic flower garden.
- The rockery should organically fit into the relief, combining into a single picture with other elements: a decorative "mountain" stream, elevation differences, retaining walls, an artificial pond.
- Decorate buildings or a fence, often spoiling the background of the composition, you can climb plants or shrubs.
- It is undesirable to place the flower garden close to the house, since spring snow melting can lead to destruction of the composition.
Rules for competent arrangement of rockeries
To facilitate the implementation of the idea of creating a rockery with your own hands, an approximate plan for the future composition will help. After that, with the help of the cord, the dimensions of the area under the flower garden should be indicated on the selected site. A layer of turf is removed from the entire surface of the site to a depth of 15-25cm, weed roots are selected from the soil. The bottom of a dug pit is covered with geotextiles, which prevents the growth of weeds.
The device of a rockery cannot do without such an important stage as arranging drainage, in which gravel or red brick can be used
The drainage system will save the flower garden on the stones from the accumulation of water. For this, the bottom of a dug pit is covered with a layer of selected drainage material, then 5 cm is covered with a layer of coarse sand and only then covered with a layer of soil.
Some gardeners use construction waste as drainage, but such a “neighborhood” can adversely affect planted plants.
At the base of the composition are stones with an attractive surface of the largest sizes. When deciding how to make a rockery so that it looks spectacular from any corner of the site, you should choose the most original side of the stones and turn it outward from the flower garden.
Stones should be placed in small pits corresponding to their size. Under the base of the boulders a layer of soil and gravel is poured, which are then carefully rammed so that there are no air pockets. You can check how well the stone "sits" if you stand on it and try to swing it a little.
When laying stones, one should adhere to the principle of naturalness: some small stones can be grouped in an original way, and large boulders can be set apart by filling the voids with plants. In this case, each stone should be allocated a carefully thought out place
To create a composition in a single style, it is desirable to choose stones of various sizes, but from the same material. Small stones can be held together with a special glue or mortar.
You can learn more about how to choose suitable stones from the material: //diz-cafe.com/dekor/kamni-dlya-alpijskoj-gorki.html
Which plants are best used in the composition?
Properly selected plants, along with stones, represent the face of a rockery. The main advantage of rockeries is the ability to use any plants that organically fit into the created landscape to decorate the flower garden.
Decorating the composition with spectacular flowering and complementing each other, the plants will make the flower bed on the stones elegant throughout the year
With the first rays of the spring sun after the snow melts, snowdrops and crocuses will wake up, painting the flower garden with bright touches of various shades. They will be replaced by undersized tulips, muscari and primroses, delighting the eye with colorful flowering. With the onset of heat, the summer ball begins to rule the beauty ball in the flower garden, which looks spectacular against the background of the lush greens of the pillows of the groundcover: stalk, sunflower, cat's foot, tenacity, awl-shaped phlox ...
Also useful will be material on the creation of a rockery with "Alpines": //diz-cafe.com/diy/delaem-rokarij-svoimi-rukami.html
The ground coverers, saxifrages, youngsters, sedums feel very comfortable surrounded by stones.
A coniferous rockery in front of the house will not only be a spectacular decoration of the landscape of the site. Essential oils secreted by needles have a beneficial effect on the well-being of the owners and guests of the site.
The decoration of the compositions of small size will be super-dwarf plants: evergreen junipers, miniature arborvitae, pyramidal cypresses, beautiful spruce
Plants are desirable to combine among themselves in color, shape and size so as not to violate the integrity of the flower garden. The soil around the plants can be decorated with gravel chips, as well as river pebbles or ordinary gravel.
