Creating Your Garden Paradise ĂƌƟ ĐůĞ ďLJ :ŽŶĂƚŚĂŶ ŝƐŚŽƉ
ROCKERIES L
ike all areas of the garden, by creating different environments for plants to grow means you can extend the range of varieties needed.
Rockery Options There are two options for building a rockery: either build it into an existing slope, or create/construct a mound with the rocks built into it. Either option is suitable, but the selected plants would change.
Rock gardens offer the chance to grow alpines in your garden, that would normally grow on the side of hills. These areas of changing interest are coming back into fashion with the wide range of plants available in garden centres nowadays.
If you are building into an existing bank, the bank might already be wet. If you are creating a mound then this area would tend to be drier. Therefore choosing the correct plants would be essential to fit into those areas.
In the local area of Ledbury, all the way down to Monmouth and in the other direction towards Malvern and parts of Worcester, it is quite commonplace for these ranges of hilly ground to spread into people’s gardens.
Choosing your Rocks The best thing to do is to choose a random selection of rocks. If they are all the same size then this looks rather unnatural. If they can be layered to resemble a natural rock face, this would create the desired result.
A straightforward rock garden is one without water; obviously water is another thing that can be added in to create movement through a rock garden, but can be quite complex to build into the rockery. Therefore we are just looking at rockeries themselves.
Placing the rocks in a crescent shape, starting at the bottom and digging into the bank, will create pockets for planting. Choosing your Plants Choosing your plants is obviously very critical because you want plants that will flow over the edge and slowly cover some of the rocks to make it look natural. Something to bear in mind when placing your plants is that you might want to use some of the stones as stepping stones through your planting in order to maintain and weed the area.
Stones The type of stone used is particularly important. Ideally, when picking rocks, a granite stone and not a porous stone would be preferable. This will prevent them shattering during the frosts/winters and ensure that the rocks look as good as when they first went in. 28
