A Rock Garden Is A Unique Landscape Feature Rock Garden Press Play To Have Article Read To You
Rock Gardens
A Rock Garden Is A Unique Landscape Feature
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Rock Garden Designs
A rock garden is a beautiful, restful place, and requires no maintenance – no water or mowing or feeding. Some gardens are meant to be spiritual, others are spiritual only in their beauty. It’s time to break out of the everyday landscaping design. What does your lawn consist of? Lots of green grass – that takes a lot of time to mow and a lot of water to look healthy, trees and shrubs. Perhaps some flowerbeds flanking the house itself. But there’s so much more you can do with your landscaping, if you just decide to do things a bit differently. In desert locations, of course, like Arizona and Mexico, why bother to try to force grass to grow at all? Why not simply cover your yard with attractive, ornamental rock and stone, with a few shrubs. Or as the joke has it, “I’m retired, I’ve mowed my last lawn!” The reason is simple – you may think water is a renewable resource – but it doesn’t renew as fast as mankind is consuming it. In desert states where water comes from below ground aquifers, the level of this fresh-water source is lowering every year, and rainwater cannot replenish that level fast enough. Even if you don’t live in a desert climate, there’s no reason why you can’t make a rock garden – either large or small – in part of your yard. Such a garden will cut down on the time needed to mow your lawn, there’ll be no need to spread pesticides around, and it will be a quiet and restful place around which to sit.
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Rock Garden Designs
Like any other landscaping element, a rock garden does have to be planned carefully. Rock doesn’t absorb water – so any rain run-off will go straight into your lawn and does need to be carefully drained off. Don’t put your rock garden over electrical or phone lines, either. You may think that a rock garden is equivalent to a Japanese garden, but that isn’t necessarily the case. The Japanese garden combines three elements: stone which represents mountains or islands, water – representing purity, and plants. A Zen garden is what most people think of when they hear the term Japanese garden – a stretch of white sand with black rocks placed strategically about, and one meditates by raking the sand smooth. There are two ways to install a rock garden…one would be to make the rock look like a natural outcropping of http://bedrock…used to cut off an inconvenient slope. The more usual design is to pile up the stones – both large and small – in harmonious groupings…and if you simply must have greenery, leave small gaps between the rocks into which the plants may be placed. Surf the web to get ideas for how to design your rock garden, and venture far and wide, into sites from Japan and India as well as the United States. You’ll find beauty everywhere. By: Mr.Andrew Caxton Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Andrew Caxton is the editor of many articles on lawn care published at www.lawn-mowers-and-garden-tractors.com . A focused website that offers the best articles on landscaping and gardening design.
The Intricacies Of Planting A Rock Garden
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Rock Garden Designs
With most kinds of gardening or landscaping, the gardener may exercise a rather wide range of choices when it comes to treatment; he may make his planting formal, informal, natural, highly decorative, or more picturesque. With a rock garden, however, formal treatment is precluded. Neither the materials used in the construction of the rock garden, nor the plants which will occupy it, lend themselves to any formal arrangement. Straight lines, regular angles or curves, the trimmed plants, statuary, fountains, and all that sort of thing are so foreign to the whole conception of the rock garden that any attempt to introduce them would appear ludicrous. A rock garden is the most natural kind of garden there is, chiefly designed to be constructed with materials that are already present. A lot of fuss is just not appropriate or necessary One may, however, choose between a naturalistic treatment and what may be termed “the Japanese style,� the chief difference being that in the Japanese style an effort is made to reproduce a miniature landscape. This requires an excellent sense of proportion and a knowledge and use of a wide variety of plant material. The satisfactory execution of a Japanese rock garden is much more difficult than that of a rock garden which will appear satisfactorily natural looking. Unless the services of a landscape architect are available, it is better to try the simpler form first. It will become apparent that in planning a rock garden, even a simple one, that the gardener will be presented with the choice of a number of different types. It is a sensible route to take to plan what type of rock garden that is desired beforehand so that time, resources, and materials are not wasted.
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Rock Garden Design
The first step in success with rock gardening, as with other types of gardening, is to have a definite objective before starting. It is not practical to plan a rock garden in every little detail before one begins the construction; but a fairly definite idea as to what is to be attempted there should be. One of the most critical elements that should be taken into consideration in determining the type of rock garden to be made is space available: A rock garden may be built on a few square yards of ground, or cover a considerable area. The expense is not, necessarily, in direct proportion to the size, particularly if there are natural features that can be taken advantage of. On a small place, however, the size of the rock garden should not be out of proportion to the other elements of planting. Where outcropping ledges or rocks flourish, it is sometimes possible to convert the whole place into a naturalistic garden. Where this may be done it is economical as well as one of the most attractive of all methods of treatment. The character of location is another critical element that should be considered prior to beginning. Where the rock garden must be built artificially, “from the ground up,� it should not be made too conspicuous. Small rock gardens, fairly well done themselves, but planted squarely in the middle of the front-lawn area and look even more out of place than the old-fashioned geometrical flower bed which has, happily, pretty much become obsolete. For a small rock garden, a corner of the grounds, preferably flanked by evergreens or by a thicket of shrubs and providing some seclusion as well
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Rock Garden Design
as protection and shade usually offers the best opportunity. A conservatively placed patio water fall never hurts either. Time available for taking care of the rock garden is another consideration. If its construction is simple, and the plants in it are such that they will largely care for themselves, the rock garden will require very little time. A more elaborate scheme and the inclusion of varieties which easily perish or must be protected from more rampant growers, require just as much care as any other kind of a garden. The most important thing, however, is to plant a rock garden which will please you. Before starting your own rock garden, you should by all means make the effort to visit several rock gardens so as to see firsthand for yourself the results which are possible. Observe elaborate gardens, complete with garden fountains and outdoor water features, as well as more basic gardens. A number of the leading parks now have excellent rock gardens. Some of the nurseries specializing in rock plants have been wise enough to create small gardens on their own premises illustrating in a practical way what the possibilities can be. Various garden magazines, from time to time, also illustrate great examples of rock gardening. By: Sarah Martin Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
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Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in home improvement, gardening, and interior decorating. For an amazing selection of garden fountains and other outdoor water features, please visit www.garden-fountains.com.
A Snippet Of History About The Rock Garden
Rock Garden Design
Both rock and water were old established garden features way before anyone thought of having lawns, flower beds or borders. Thousands of years ago the first Japanese garden was nothing more than an expanse of white stone chippings with a single Cleyera tree at the centre and the Ancient Persian ‘paradise’ had a long canal and fountains at its heart. The attraction was very easy to see, these two elements bring a natural feel to any kind of surroundings. Until quite recently however, they were the primarily for the wealthy. Before the latter part of the 19th century, rocks were used to create very bold structures in large estates and it was not until the middle of the 20th century that ponds and fountain construction became simple enough and economical enough for the ordinary gardener. It has taken a long time, but both rock and water gardening have at last come of age. There is now enormous interest in all aspects of the water garden. Rock garden plants are grown in great numbers, the variety available these days in both rockeries and rock-free situations is immense. I find it interesting that both these natural elements have several features in common. They can extend for a few square feet or more than a quarter of an acre, and both provide the opportunity to grow a vast range of plants not found in the ordinary, ever-day garden. The drawbacks that they share are that careful and preparation are required and an appreciable amount of labour and money is required for their creation. By the latter part of 19th century the age of the large rock garden was all but over. In 1772 the second period of rock gardens began, a garden of rubble and Icelandic basaltic lava was created inside a greenhouse at Chelsea Physic Garden for the cultivation of plants collected from the Swiss
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Rock Garden Design
Alps. Here the rocks were used as a home for plants rather to provide just an ornamental feature. This second period got off to a slow start, although rock gardens were created at various sites in Britain and the idea of laying stones to give the appearance of a natural outcrop was developed. Things changed in the 1860?s and the rock garden at last took its place as an important part of the British garden. Rockeries were built at Kew Gardens in 1867 and in Edinburgh in 1871. In 1870 William Robinson’s Alpine Flowers for English Gardens was published. During this period and into the early 20th century Pulhamite Stone was manufactured in Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and used to create public and private rock gardens throughout the country. The three decades from 1900 to 1939 were the heyday of the rock garden. Reginald Farrer was the leading figure and his ‘My Rock Garden’ book became the first bible on the subject. Plant hunters scoured the mountains of the world looking for new alpine plants and the rock garden at Wisley was started in 1911. In the years prior to World War II interest in the rock garden declined, only recently has there been a resurgence. During the 1920?s and 1930?s the idea of growing alpines in non-rock situations took root, this coupled with the appearance of the garden centre in
Rock Garden Design
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the second half of the 20th century brought about the third period in this history. People began to see the full range of plants which were available along with all sorts of easy and inexpensive ways for cultivating alpines without having to build a rockery. So, interest switched to the plants and away from the rock structures, and this is the key feature of this third period in the history of rock gardening. By: Stephen Drummonsy Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com A great deal of my time is spent in my garden. I have been searching for help on how to develop an ideal pond habitat for those fish which I intend to stock it with without much luck. To get the assistance I will need I have decided to make use of a company called Gardener London. Up to now they have given me all the help and advice that I have asked for, as and when I ask them for it. How to Build a Rock Garden
How to Build a Rock Garden
Gardening Tips : How to Design a Rock Garden
How to Build Rock Gardens http://landscaping.about.com/od/rockgardens/ss/rock_gardens.htm This tutorial illustrates how to build rock gardens. The look of rock gardens is enhanced if attention is paid to color choices (both for the stones and for the plants). Rock Garden Plans http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/rock/ Create a charming, colorful rock garden in your landscape.
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North American Rock Garden Society http://www.nargs.org/ Organization for gardening enthusiasts interested in alpine, saxatile, and low- growing perennials. It encourages the study and cultivation of wildflowers above … Rock Garden Plants http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07401.html Necrotic ring spot (NRS) is one of several patch diseases caused by the fungus Ophiosphaerella korrae. HowStuffWorks “Rock Gardens” http://home.howstuffworks.com/rock-gardens.htm Rock gardens add a touch of the alpine to your landscape. Learn all about planning, building and maintaining rock gardens.
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