How to start your own Lawn Care Business a whole new way!
Starting and Running a fun, profitable lawncare and landscape business and becoming a better human being in the process.
The Science of Great Landscape Photography.
Learn the science of taking Great Landscape Photographs With Any Camera And A Few Basic Accessories With This $19.95 216-page EBook(R)!
Ads by CB Ad Rotator

Grow Lovely Rock Gardens To Create A Way Of Life

 

Grow Lovely Rock Gardens To Create A Way Of Life

Submitted By: Louanne Baelde
 
 
 

Rock gardens are not only created as a beautiful display for bulbs and flowers, but are increasingly growing to be a way of life. As numerous varieties of plants become favorites for the front and backyard, more gardeners undoubtedly become acquainted with the rock gardens.

What exactly is a rock garden? Quite simply, it is a sloping pile of ground with rocks. Many gardeners have magnificent spring-time beauties of sprays of color that peek from behind and beside orange or black and sometimes grey stones or rocks.

Many home gardeners select bulbs to plant in their new creations of rock and rolling hills of flowers. Quite a few have brief spring blooms that go dormant during the very hot and dry summer.

Alpine condition climates that bring the cold and the wind tend to favor perennial ground cover plants that can hug around the rocks so that they can protect themselves. If they were to be tall, they would freeze and die. These types of perennial plants do great in sandy and rocky soil.

Most of the time, gardeners choose a sunny spot that will allow partial shade from the rocks for the plants that need just a little more shadowing. Also, several types of bulbs do wonderfully in rock gardens because of the quick drainage.

Usually, rock garden soil is made up of gravel, sand, grit and organic material like peat moss. Natural looking mulch helps to keep lower leaves and plants from rotting from too much moisture. The mulch also helps to keep the mud off of the flower blooms.

Rock gardens are most often raised, as to allow proper drainage and bring the eyes closer to the picturesque displays. Crocuses and hyacinths do amazingly well in the springtime in these types of gardens and look charming as they spread between the cracks of different flat stones.

Arranging small paths between the rock gardens can add a wonderful twist to a somewhat boring square garden and planting the bulbs in clumps and drifts of color can be breathtaking.

Rock gardens can create mountainous displays of beauty to what could have been small unnoticed spaces. Many home gardeners do not have the advantage of lots of space. By creating swirls of blossoms between different sizes of rocks and stones, an outstanding dream of sloping beautiful gardens, flourish into a richness of natural beauty.

About the Author:

Louanne is passionate about gardening. She welcomes you to visit http://www.EZ-Gardening-Tips.com for a large data base of extremely helpful gardening articles, gardening resources and gardening free stuff.

iSnare Articles Trademark Balls Check out our huge selection of home and garden fountains, birdbaths, planters and statues. Just choose a catagory on the left or type what your looking for in the search box. You can also go to our main store at Home & Garden Fountains

Add A Rock Garden To Your Landscape

Practically every home owner has the same type of landscape design - lots of grass, flowers and trees. For a truly unique design, try adding a rock garden.

Green grass. Trees and shrubs. Flowers. That’s what the typical landscaped lawn consists of. And properly designed, such landscapes can be quite pretty, of course. But there’s many different ways to landscape your yard - and you should consider them all before making your final decision. Let your imagination run riot.

Why not try a rock garden?
If there’s a section of your grounds where the grass just won’t grow, why not replace it with a rock garden? Of course, you don’t want to place such a garden in an area which gets a lot of water run-off. If that’s the reason why your grass won’t grow, consider fixing the drainage! But if it’s a question of bad soil, or of too much shade in the area, a rock garden is the perfect solution.

Once you create a rock garden there will be little or no maintenance for it. But that’s contingent on you building the rock garden correctly to begin with. The last thing you want is for the rocks to shift during a rainstorm, or for grasses to constantly crop up through the gaps in the stone and have to be weeded away.

There’s a dearth of sources on the web for rock garden design, but there are plenty of books on the subject, from Rock Garden Design and Construction by the North American Rock Garden Society , to Stonescaping: A Guide to Using Stone in Your Garden by Jan Kowalczewski Whitner, from Stonework: Building Rock Gardens, Walks, Walls, and Ornaments by Alan Bridgewater and Gill to The Rock & Water Garden Expert by D.G. Hessayon.

Apart from a rock garden ? not to be concerned with a Japanese garden ? there are plenty of other ways to use decorative stone to enhance your landscaping.

Warm, welcoming stone
A concrete sidewalk up to your front door is so prosaic! Why not change it into a rock pathway? And add a rock pathway leading to the back of the house as well. For those types of designs you’ll have to check the building codes in your area - many housing developments restrict the kinds of things you can do to your own yard.

As with a rock garden, the ground needs to be properly prepared first, so that water will run-off properly during even the most ferocious downpours, and the rocks themselves don’t tilt or slide when walked on…or settle and heave during a winter frost. Always consult a professional if you’re going to be working with slabs of stone or rock in an area that gets a great deal of cold weather.

Properly designed and executed, a rock garden can bring you joy for years to come.

 

About the Author:

Andrew Caxton is the consultant for http://www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . A website with tips on landscaping, amongst many related topics.

Check out our huge selection of home and garden fountains, birdbaths, planters and statues. Just choose a catagory on the left or type what your looking for in the search box. You can also go to our main store at Home & Garden Fountains

Next Page »