Establishing a Rock Garden: What You Need to Know Before You Start

In short: A rock garden mimics a mountain or rocky landscape and needs a sunny spot with good drainage. Dig the bed about one spade deep, fill 20 cm with gravel, add 5-10 cm of coarse sand or rubble, then substrate – for most alpines a mix of 1/2 to 3/4 sand and grit with humus-rich soil of low to neutral pH.

Creating a Rock Garden: What You Need to Know Before You Start

A rock garden (lat. alpinum) is a landscaped part of a garden or park that mimics a mountain or rocky composition. Depending on taste and the garden's suitability, we can create a piece of steppe landscape, heathland, peatland, or water feature. However, it must be executed with taste and sensitivity to the surroundings, so the rock garden doesn't look kitschy and the chosen type isn't inappropriately selected in terms of plant choice and rock garden style. Simply put, the rock garden should harmonize beautifully and stand out, with plants thriving rather than suffering.

A rock garden isn't just a bed with stones. Even a small area is sufficient for creating a rock garden in your yard or in the bed in front of your house.

Stones are essential for a rock garden. They serve both aesthetic and functional purposes. Properly placed stones retain moisture and provide shade for plants.

Steps for Creating a Rock Garden

You'll need gravel, stones of various sizes, pebbles, sand, and individual stones of different shapes. You can also use interesting elements or imitations. This material is commonly found in nature, on vacation, brought back from trips, or purchased at building material stores. If possible, choose a sunny location with well-draining soil for your rock garden. In summer, take care that the rock garden doesn't dry out and water it lightly.

Using stones, we create suitable spaces for planting. We keep in mind that plants grow better in beds, and we enable them to thrive just as well in the rock garden.

With careful stone selection, we try to mimic the natural environment.

Planting the Rock Garden

• Remove soil from the entire area of the future rock garden. Dig the pit to approximately one spade's depth. Fill to a height of 20 cm with gravel
• On the gravel layer, arrange stones of various sizes.
• Between the stones, add a layer of coarse sand or rubble to a height of 5-10 cm, then add soil.
• If you want to give the rock garden a mountain character, add smaller stones or roots. Pile soil or suitable substrate on top. The soil must be properly prepared according to the planting plan. If you plan to plant species from rocky and scree habitats, we recommend exclusively mineral substrate. For most alpine plants, a mixture of 1/2 to 3/4 sand, grit, and humus-rich soil with low to neutral pH has proven successful. We can also add coarser peat. Peat with sand is suitable for ferns.
• Plant your chosen plants. Don't forget to weed the rock garden and maintain plants at the desired height.

Rewarding plants for rock gardens include: Rock Cress (Aubrieta), Sweet Alyssum (Alyssum), Carthusian Pink, and Daisy. A spectacular appearance with silver and gray tones is guaranteed by planting ornamental grasses.

Interesting rock garden plants are succulents - Aeonium tabuliforme and Aeonium spathulatum. Substrate for succulents consists of peat, silica sand, nutrients, clay and trace elements.

The increased proportion of porous material eliminates root rot in plants.

Succulents - Aeonium - is a genus of succulent plants from the Crassulaceae family. Approximately 40 species are known, originating mainly from the Canary Islands and Madeira, with one species each from Africa and Portugal.

Path to the Rock Garden

Around the rock garden, for better accessibility, we can have a stone path, or individual stepping stones, or terrain stairs made of stones. Around the rock garden we can place solitaires, so-called erratic boulders, which however should not distract attention from the rock garden.

Very popular are tall stones in the style of menhirs. Be sparing with their placement as they may not work well in relation to the size of the rock garden. The rock garden and surrounding stones should be in a reasonable size ratio.

We can have a rock garden just for pleasure, plant perennials or succulents that we like, or we can have an artistic rock garden that has style and the power to dazzle. Ensure monumentality for future generations, with the aim of creating an artistic impression.

If you decide on an artistic solution, a more colorful design using crushed brick or colored glass, always keep in mind that stones are also an integral part of the rock garden and that above all they should create a pleasant background for their beauty.

An important part of rock gardens are rock plants - alpines. Rock plants are an extensive group of small plants. Rock plants accustomed to mountain environments do not tolerate south-facing rock gardens very well.

Plant Selection

Not only rock plants are important for planting in a rock garden. An integral component are perennials, grasses, succulents and woody plants.

We select woody plants according to the size of the designed area and plant motifs according to the artistic intent that will be reflected in the rock garden.

When selecting, try to think carefully - here as in life, sometimes less is more, that quality is better than quantity. It is advisable, for example, to use more varieties and pieces of one plant. There is a large selection of plants on the market that we can use and plant.

Woody plants are planted in or around the rock garden as early as possible. Choose low-growing woody plants for planting. The placement of woody plants should appear natural. Woody plants at the foot of the rock garden should be low, with larger leaves and should optically increase its height.

On the contrary, woody plants at the top should optically reduce the height. Woody plants should never shade the alpine plants. Suitable woody plants include dwarf pine, juniper, rhododendron, bearberry, azalea, false cypress...

If we manage to place the rock garden properly, it will have both a sunny and shady side. For shaded parts of the rock garden, forest plants are suitable - corydalis, anemone, hepatica, lungwort, lily of the valley, wild ginger, ferns, periwinkle, ivy. For the joy of early spring flowers, we add small bulbous and tuberous plants - puschkinia, glory-of-the-snow, snowdrops, spring snowflake, scilla, chionodoxa, ornamental onions.

On the edges of the rock garden, or on larger areas on the rock garden, taller plants can also be planted - mullein, monkshood, delphinium, Solomon's seal, valerian, foxglove, columbine, ferns, foxtail lily, ornamental grasses, heather. For excessively sunny locations, choose grasses and sun-loving plants. Rock gardens can also include water features and wetlands, where marsh and moisture-loving perennials are suitable.

To keep the rock garden always green and beautiful, we maintain it by weeding. The soil can be carefully loosened around the plants. Top up mulch and peat. We recommend watering with settled water without calcium, or rainwater. Watering is best done in the evening or morning to avoid sudden cooling of the soil. It's better to mist the rock garden.

Stones placed in the rock garden accumulate heat and transfer it to the plants.

Air humidity is important for plants. In winter, we can cover more delicate plants with conifer branches or wrap them in textile. In spring, after removing the protection, we remove frozen parts from the rock garden, add soil and peat. We also secure loosened stones. We try to protect the rock garden from pests, mice, slugs, snails, and from birds scratching around. Rock garden maintenance is demanding, but it pays off.

Rock gardens are a jewel in our gardens.

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Try creating a rock garden according to the instructions!

Author: Hana Michalíková