A rock garden is the best place to take some peaceful breaths and ease your mind after a stressful day at work. They’re easy to build and easy to maintain, and they’ll give you a natural space to escape the burden and enjoy the outdoors.
Building a rock garden needs a less-maintenance way to charm your yard. Add a lonesome flower bed and pretty boulders to your yard. We’ll show you the steps to making your own stunning stone-filled space.
What is a rock garden?
A rock garden, also known as an alpine garden or rockery, is designed to showcase boulders, stones, and rocks. Rock gardens can make unique designs that carry beautiful drought-resistant plants and decoration accessories like pavers, sculptures, and fountains.
Rock garden designs: raised and sprawling
If you have a small space, a raised rock garden can be the perfect lawn addition. Raised rock gardens look the same as elevated garden beds, but rather than wood or metal, rocks form the exterior and slant inward. Depending on the design, raised rock gardens can look similar to old-fashioned stone wells, giving your lawn a charming, antique flair.
Sprawling rock gardens are a great way to add some green style to areas of your lawn you’d like to highlight (or dry spots where grass refuses to grow). They’re less defined than raised gardens, so you can build them to fit your lawn’s unique topography. If you have charming boulders on your lawn, create a sprawling rock garden in the spaces in between to accent your natural landscape.
Types of rock gardens
Require some help with rock garden ideas? Rock gardens come in various shapes, sizes, and designs. Some homeowner favorites include:
- Xeriscapes: Xeriscaping is the creation of a landscape that needs little water use. Xeriscapes are filled with drought-tolerant and drought-resistant plants, rocks, and hardscape features like footpaths.
- Japanese rock gardens: Japanese rock gardens are designed to motivate contemplation and meditation. Rocks showcase mountains, animals, and islands, while raked, fine gravel shows flowing water. Mosses, pines, and evergreen ground cover add texture and color. It’s important to understand the cultural significance of a Zen garden before choosing to build one.
- Water gardens: A koi pond could be the best antidote to a stressful day at work. Watching koi swim in your own backyard is a magical and soothing experience, and listening to the murmur of a fountain is a lovely way to unwind.
- Native plant gardens: To encourage biodiversity and attract charming birds and butterflies, prefer adding native flowers and shrubs. Native plants are perfect habitats and food sources for native critters. You can also add a pond to attract frogs, toads, and turtles to your garden.
What is required? DIY rock garden
Rocks: From boulders to stones to gravel, rocks will be the stars of your garden. Think about your desired color scheme and choose an assortment of sizes and shapes to give your garden visual appeal.
- Pea gravel (the earth-toned, pea-shaped pebbles you find near streams) is an attractive, inexpensive choice to fill in areas between plants.
- For a natural look, go for crushed granite in between stepping stones.
- River rocks are soft, smooth, small stones that look perfect around water features.
Pro Tip: For larger rocks and statues, choose a stone that is local and easily accessible. The cost of shipping can add hundreds to your bill.
- Sandy soil: Rock gardens need well-draining soil. If your soil has a high clay content, you may need to add compost and sand to give it the permeability it requires.
- Newspaper and topsoil: If you’d rather not dig up your grass, you can use newspaper to prepare the area.
- Garden hose: You can visualize different design possibilities for your garden by laying out a hose and playing with a variety of sizes and shapes.
- Measuring tape: Measure your garden area to select which rocks and plants will fit best and which ones might not fit in your garden. Measuring will also help you find out how many plants and boulders are required.
- Plants: drought-tolerant plants are the way to go. Your rock garden will get decent drainage, so make sure you select plants that thrive in well-drained soil (not clay).
- Go with plants that are native to your area. They’ll grow best in your soil type and climate.
- You can choose from a cornucopia of plants: Flowering perennials like phlox and yarrow, cacti like the prickly pear cactus, succulents like sedum, and shrubs like bayberry are popular choices.
- Trowel: Prefer a trowel to dig holes for tiny plants and bury any rocks you want hidden on the bottom garden layer.
- Shovel: Use your shovel to spread soil and dig deeper holes for bigger plants.
- Wheelbarrow: A wheelbarrow is a mandatory- tool to transport heavier rocks, soil, mulch, and decorative accessories such as statues or pavers.
- Mulch: After you’ve planted, add a layer of organic mulch like shredded bark or wood chips to insulate plants, protect against weeds, and prevent erosion. You can prefer a rocky look with stone mulches such as crushed granite, pea gravel, or pumice.
- Decorative features: Stepping stones, benches, statues, and fountains can make your rock garden the talk of the neighborhood.
7 steps to building your rock garden
Ready to jump into the low-water, low-maintenance sandbox? We’ll go through the steps to build a raised or sprawling rock garden.
1. Plan your design.
Before diving into digging, decide where your rock garden will go and how it will appear.
- Decide on the shape.
Use a garden hose to test out various shapes for your garden. For raised gardens, many homeowners opt for a circular design, but you can also choose another shape depending on your design tastes.
- Choose your garden size.
The Rock Garden of Chandigarh may be spread across 40 acres, but you’ll probably want to go with a more manageable size. Raised rock gardens can be 4 feet in diameter, while sprawling rock gardens use more yard space.
- Choose native boulders and rocks.
Shipping boulders can cost quite a penny, so it’s best to pick out rocks and boulders that are local to your area. You can buy boulders at home and garden centers, or you can visit quarries to check out their unique rock selections.
- Decide on a color scheme.
This can change with time based on the plants you select, but it’s a good idea to have knowledge of what colors you want to use in your rock garden. That way, you’ll know which plants will complement your stone.
- Measure and plan your planting area.
If your rock garden has a 6-foot diameter, you probably won’t need 15 purple coneflowers. Make a planting map to estimate how many plants you’ll need.
- Pick out your plants.
Start building your rock garden with an idea of which plants will suit your yard and where in your garden they can grow. To reduce maintenance and water use, prefer grouping your plants based on the sunlight and water they require. I also prefer plant texture, color, and height. Pair contrasting colors with various textures to make your rock garden visually appealing.
- Make an installation plan.
If your dream garden contains heavy statues, make a plan for how to take them from A to B without accidentally tripping over a sprinkler head. Make a safe pathway to move materials.
Pro Tip: Test your soil to check if it needs lime or peat moss. Contact your local cooperative extension office for information about labs near you.
2. Prepare your area.
Once you’ve chosen the perfect spot for your rock garden, it’s time to clear the space. If the area is covered with grass, you’ll need to either dig up the grass with a shovel, cut it out using a sod cutter, or opt for the lasagna method.
Intrigued by lasagna in a garden? This method, also called sheet mulching, involves placing newspaper on top of your grass and then spreading soil over the newspaper for weight. This causes your grass to die and decompose, adding healthy organic matter to your lawn.
3. Create your first layer.
Your rocks have been waiting to see their home, and now it is established.
- If you’re creating a raised garden, the first layer will serve as the elevated bed for your rock garden. Position the biggest, heaviest rocks around the area of your garden.
- If you’re creating a sprawling garden, strategically position your boulders as focal points in your garden design. They’ll know where you place your plants and decorations.
4. Spread the soil.
Once you’ve positioned your rocks, it’s soil time. For plants to flourish in a rock garden, the correct soil conditions are crucial.
Rock garden plants thrive in soil that drains well, so you may need to amend your soil with compost, topsoil, and sand to improve your soil’s permeability. Adding compost and sand is especially important for soils with a high clay content.
- For raised gardens, fill your circular bed with soil. Then, walk on the soil to pack it down and prevent erosion.
- For sprawling rock gardens, spread soil in the spaces in between your boulders.
5. Lay your second layer.
Wake up your inner lawn and be creative with your rock design. The second layer has smaller stones than the first layer.
For raised gardens, make a second rock circle within your broader first circle. You can make all kinds of shapes beyond circles. Position your rocks in various patterns and see what approaches your artistic side. You just want to make a shape, be it a circle, a square, a star, or something under the sun.
- Take care that your second shape is not too large. You want sufficient room to plant in both the smaller shape and the larger border.
- Experiment with various designs and see what makes you fancy. You may want to make stripes with your rocks down the center of your first layer, or you could place your favorite rock in the very middle of your second layer to give it center stage.
For sprawling rock gardens, choose spaces in your rock garden where you want to draw the eye around a colored water feature. Place your second rock layer in these areas.
6. Place your plants.
Grab your trowel. It’s digging time. You’ve chosen your charming drought-tolerant plants, and now it’s time to get them into the ground.
- First, you may want to lay landscaping fabric to prevent stone mulch from interfering with your soil and weeds from rearing their heads. Then, you can plant through the fabric, making a small incision and then digging a hole for each plant’s root ball.
- Group your plants based on their sunlight and water requirements to minimize maintenance, fertilizer needs, and water costs.
- It’s a good option to use the rule of 3 when planting. Plant three of the same type of plant together for a nice design.
Don’t be confused about changing up your design. If certain plants look fantastic together, go ahead and pair them up.
7. Add the finishing touches.
Now is the time to add the extra elements that will make your rock garden really shine. Intersperse small, multicolored stones around your plants and add a layer of mulch over your garden.
For a visual approach, you can add stone, brick, wood, or metal edging around your garden to highlight your design. Edging will add curb appeal and make your garden extra eye-catching.
Add an elegant statue or a cozy wrought-iron bench to make your rock garden the perfect place for relaxation.
Benefits of a Rock Garden
Rock gardens can be the benchmark of your lawn. They will:
✓ Increase your property value.
Rock gardens can increase your property value by up to 14%.
✓ Conserve water
Rock gardens are perfect for drought-prone regions. With drought-tolerant native plants, your rock garden will only need infrequent, deep waterings in the summer heat.
- Pro Tip: Prefer drip-irrigating your garden to conserve water.
✓ Save time, energy, and money.
You won’t have to mow your rock garden, and you can forget about expensive, harsh fertilizer. If your rock garden needs a nutrient boost, you can just apply compost or manure.
✓ Protect the environment.