Plants For Rock Gardens

A lot of houses have hills and steep banks in their yards. Irregular terrain makes it difficult to plan gardens. Of course, one thing to remember is that if you have irregular terrain in your yard, you have the perfect yard for rock gardening.

When planning to do rock gardening, you want to make your rock garden plants and the rocks in the garden mesh with your home. The idea is to make the garden look natural. The more natural your rock garden plants look, the more attractive your rock garden will be to the onlooker.

What are Some Good Plants for Rock Gardens?

One thing to keep in mind with regard to plants for rock gardens is that most of the plants should be small in size. This is because they are used more to complement the stones in the garden, not hide them. You can throw in some shade trees or backdrop plants for size differentiation, but all other plants for rock gardens should be small.

You want to choose garden plants for rocky areas that require little care. The plants should be able to tolerate the conditions of the area, wet or dry, hot or cool. It isn't easy to get into rock gardens to weed and water and prune, so the plant ideas for a rock garden should include easy-care plants.

When choosing your plants, ideas for a rock garden should bring to mind things like spreading succulents or evergreens. A lot of nurseries have catalogs you can go through to choose the right native plants and perennials for your rock gardening. Here are a few plant ideas for a rock garden:

• Carpet bugle
• Mountain alyssum
• Snowcap rock cress
• Sea pink
• Basket-of-gold
• Serbian bellflower
• Bluebell
• Snow-in-summer
• Dwarf coreopsis
• Ice plant
• Cottage pink dianthus
• Cranesbill
• Creeping baby's breath

How to Construct a Rock Garden

Rock gardening is easy enough, especially if you have an irregular terrain in your yard. You can create a rocky hillside or even a series of ledges with garden plants for rocky areas woven in.

You want to use weathered stones that are native to the area and that blend into the landscape and your home. This will give your rock gardening a natural look. You want to place your rocks in positions that are natural with the same plane as the existing ground structure.

Also, make sure you tip the stones so the water can run into the soil. This helps your rock garden plants absorb more water. Make the rocks large as well because they will help hold the soil better.

Make sure the soil level for your rock garden plants is deep enough to give them nice pockets in between and even behind the rocks. This way, the rock garden plants will grow better. Additionally, make sure you add compost or dried manure to the soil so that the organic quality and fertility of the soil is increased.