What you need for an alpine slide. Rock garden: the best design diagrams and an example of making it yourself. How to make an alpine slide with your own hands

Retaining wall in the form of a rock garden - a new escape from “boring” walls

Advice!The main rule is that a rock garden should look decorative and beautiful even without flowers. Stones must be harmonious and balanced to create a stable and extremely natural composition. The less symmetry it has, the more organic it will look.

The pride of the homeowner - a do-it-yourself alpine slide

Implemented step-by-step instruction alpine slide will give you the opportunity to create a real masterpiece of landscape design on your site. And to make it impeccable, we will reveal some secrets that will help you in your work:

A mini rock garden in a flower bed is very suitable for small courtyards where there is no room for standard stone compositions

To create a miniature rock garden you will only need dwarf plants, pebbles and terracotta pot

A piece of the Alps on a summer cottage

The alpine slide in the country is becoming an increasingly popular decorative element for even small garden plots. After all, beautiful stone elevations look impressive and fit perfectly into any stylistic design space. Any alpine slide is a unique design object. There are certain rules for its creation, but the style, size, and features of the slides depend directly on the taste and creative idea creator. Probably even if you use it to create an alpine slide with your own hands step by step photos, two different designers will get different final options.

The base is stone. But not all piles of stones with vegetation growing among them are called alpine slides. There must be aesthetic appeal and harmony. There are several types of rock gardens:

DIY alpine slides - where to start?

Before you start directly creating a rock garden, you need to prepare for such work. After all, just based on photos, alpine slides in landscape design can be created quickly and easily with your own hands. The creation process is usually preceded by careful preparation, which includes several stages:

We select a place for placement. The choice may fall on uneven surface or flat area, if there are no natural irregularities. The size of the rock garden depends on the size of the plot. But it’s better if you can find a spacious and bright place to create a landscape design element.
Sketch a sketch of the future rock garden. To do this, you can use a photo of alpine slides in the countryside, created by yourself. The sketch will help you ultimately get the result you originally expected.
Buy everything necessary materials to create a slide. It is better to prepare stones, soil, plants and other decorative elements immediately so that work does not stop due to a lack of one or another component.

When choosing a location for the future rock garden, try to choose favorable angles. Such beauty cannot be hidden from everyone, it is important to show it off!

Choosing stones and plants for the rock garden

Any alpine slide in the countryside is created with your own hands from several basic elements:

How to make an alpine slide yourself?

So, everything is ready to create a beautiful rock garden. The most difficult thing remains - completing the slide on your own. In order for the result to soon delight you with its beauty, you need to follow simple recommendations:

When placing large boulders, be sure to leave some space between them, as the planted plants will need space to develop their root systems.

The best time to start creating an alpine slide with your own hands is in the fall. The soil will settle over the winter, so in the spring it will be possible to fill up the voids that have arisen and plant plants. A competent approach will allow you to create a beautiful alpine hill in your garden.

Master class on creating an alpine slide - video

Secrets of successfully creating an alpine slide

Every landscape designer has certain secrets that help him create stylish, spectacular and unique elements when designing a garden or park area. But all these nuances can be used by beginners. Just in the photo, a do-it-yourself alpine slide for beginners seems like a simple and laconic structure. In reality, it consists of selected elements, well-planned placement and several subtleties that help achieve a stunning appearance.

To make the first rock garden you created with your own hands look great, we share a few secrets of its harmonious appearance:

To create a hill, it is better to choose stones of the same type. Only in this case it is possible to achieve a natural appearance of the slide.
The size of the stones should correspond to the area of the rock garden. How larger size alpine slide, the larger boulders can be used.
When choosing plants, preference is given to evergreens and low-growing species. In this case, the hill itself will not be lost in a few years behind the lush greenery of overgrown flowers and shrubs.
They look ideal among stones, as well as cover and creeping species. Flowering plants It’s better to choose small flowers that won’t distract all the attention.
It is better to plant plants in small holes and cover them with soil and small stones. This will help prevent weed growth.
Plants should be placed so that they do not block stone embankments.

Despite the fact that grass and flowers should not block the stones, in a rock garden the vegetation is always in the foreground.

The choice of plants to create an alpine slide gives room for imagination, because this element of landscape design allows for a riot of colors, a variety of varieties, even a combination of opposites. Alpine slides imitate rocky areas, which are diverse in nature. The main thing is that the slide has a realistic appearance, and how steep, rocky and flowery its slopes will be depends only on the author’s imagination. And it is in this versatility that lies the very “zest” that made the alpine coaster into modern gardens so popular.

We create an alpine slide ourselves - video

Alpine slide in the country or in country house- it's very fashionable. It is in great demand because it promotes peace and complete rest. Most often, it is not built independently, but with the help of specialists. Designers, of course, know their business, but the cost of their services is sometimes fabulous. In fact, there is nothing complicated in arranging a rock garden, and you can do it yourself in just a day or two. You just need to understand some of the subtleties so as not to make typical mistakes.

Stages of work

Several stages can be distinguished:

First of all, you need to choose a place for a rock garden or rock garden.
The second stage is the installation of drainage.
When the site is ready, you need to pick up the stones and lay them.
The next step is to prepare the soil for the vegetation.
The fifth stage is planting plants.

The whole process consists of only five stages, each of which must be analyzed in detail.

First you need to choose a sunny and visible corner on the site. Rock garden is a piece wildlife, created artificially. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that both stones and plants fit organically into the landscape.

A shaded place is not suitable for such purposes. Likewise, an area hidden from view will not work. The best place for the slide - south side. Usually there is optimal lighting here during daylight hours.

Site drainage

You need to build on a good drainage system. Otherwise, one fine day the soil under the alpine hill will begin to sag, and it will no longer look so aesthetically pleasing and natural.

How to do it drainage system?

First you need to dig a pit.
The depth of the pit depends on the area of the future rocky garden. So, for a rock garden measuring 2.5 by 2.5 meters, the optimal pit depth will be about 1 meter.
A drainage system must be installed at the bottom. Here you can use sand, crushed stone, construction waste, and shards. Wood shavings, however, should not be used.
Fertile soil is placed on top of the drainage.
The last stage is compaction.

Stones for the slide

When the drainage is ready, you need to pick up the stones.

The stones are laid in tiers. Below are the larger ones. At the very top you can put some unusual or especially beautiful specimen boulder.

Soil for plants

In order to plant vegetation on an alpine hill, you need to carefully prepare the soil. You can do it yourself. To do this, you need to take clay soil, clean enough so that later on it does not appear weeds. The soil is mixed with peat. There should be three times less peat than soil. Next, you need to add a little gravel to the soil composition.

The soil is poured into the places intended for planting. These may be clefts and free places between boulders. You can also simply sprinkle soil over the rocks.

Vegetation selection

Plants for an alpine hill are selected according to certain criteria.

They must be unpretentious. This ensures that the owner does not have to constantly maintain his stone garden. After all, a rock garden should be as natural as possible. This means that human intervention in his environment should be limited.
Plants should please the eye not only in summer, but even in the cold season.
All vegetation must coexist peacefully. You should avoid planting species that are hostile to each other on the hill.

For your alpine hill, choose unpretentious and cold-resistant plants that are compatible with each other.

The top is usually planted with low-growing shrubs. These can be either deciduous or coniferous trees. So that you can enjoy the beauty of your creation all year round, you need to plant both types of shrubs. From coniferous species Juniper is perfect mountain pine and thuja. As for deciduous trees, you can plant cotoneaster here. However, the choice of trees is best left to the owner.

Flowers for an alpine hill are selected according to the same criteria. The most important thing is their compatibility and unpretentiousness.

Rock garden or rock garden

Rockery is a garden of rocks, rock garden is a garden of plants.

A rock garden is, first and foremost, a rock garden. Here vegetation may not be used at all or present at a minimum. Rockeries are usually not very tall.
A rock garden can be up to three meters high, which is 3 times the size of the tallest rock garden.

History of rock gardens and rockeries

Structures such as rock gardens and rockeries have existed in Eastern culture for three thousand years. They came to the West a couple of centuries ago from China and Japan. Possessing a special charm, rock gardens instantly won the hearts of aristocrats and wealthy people.

Very soon a fashion arose to create such recreation areas. The philosophy behind creating these structures is that they are unique. There are many rock gardens in the world. However, it is impossible to find at least two similar ones.

Scheme

Use the techniques that nature itself provides. There are quite a lot of such sketches, and some of them are very difficult for a beginner. However, there are also very real projects. For example, "Alpine Highlands" is one of classic options such structures. It follows the features of a typical highland area. Created from boulders and stones. Plants such as edelweiss and gentian are planted on them. At the very top you can place small pine trees. True, you will have to take care of the flowers. They are growing too fast.

More complex varieties of rock gardens can resemble gorges, swamps and ravines. This type of work will require several days of hard work.

More realistic for self-creation a slide imitating an alpine slope with an embankment. Pines will look great on such a slope.

Imitation of a rocky cliff is also suitable for self-construction. True, difficulties may arise with stones. This will require very heavy boulders, so workers will need to be involved. Plants such as wormwood and ferns can be planted on the cliff. At the top, juniper bushes and pine trees will look good. Thanks to the availability coniferous trees The rock garden will decorate the garden all year round.

You can find an idea for a stone garden by looking at pictures of nature. A rock garden is a type of creativity that in itself pacifies. In order to create a masterpiece, you just need to be able to observe. There are no standard schemes here. After all, even two slopes cannot resemble each other.

Video: about the features of creating a rock garden

Video: procedure for constructing an alpine slide

Photo

If you do not want to do this work yourself, then order landscape design and landscape design of a summer cottage. Landscaping also includes planting trees, flower beds and landscaping.

Decorating your garden or summer cottage is nothing easier. You can arrange them with a variety of flowers that will delight their owners all summer. You can plant flowers along garden paths or just near the house. Or you can build an alpine slide to your delight and to the envy of your neighbors. This landscape design object is becoming more and more popular from year to year. For help you can contact professional designers, or you can build this miracle yourself. Each element should be thought through so that the alpine slide fits harmoniously into the landscape.

A rock garden will perfectly decorate any area, and it can be placed in areas of different sizes. A small piece of the rocky surface of the Alpine mountains looks very good against any background. To create such a miracle on your site correctly and beautifully, you need to know several nuances, otherwise it will have to be disassembled and wasted time and money will be irretrievably lost.

Choosing a location for an alpine slide

First you need to choose a place to place the slide. Natural unevenness can be used; it is also possible to use a flat surface. The most important thing is that there is enough sunlight, ideally in the center of the site.

If this is not possible and personal plot cannot meet all the requirements, there is no need to be upset.

Next, the base is marked. At the same time, you should consider approaches to the slide. For work you only need gardening Tools. You will also need stones of different sizes, stone chips, drainage material, sand, fertile soil, seedlings of flowers and small shrubs.

In order for the alpine slide to look harmonious, you need to dig a shallow hole under it, its size is made on a scale of 1:2, no more than a meter deep. Strengthen the bottom of the hole with a cushion of gravel, broken bricks or other construction debris, water it generously and compact it.

In the central part, the drainage layer should be larger than at the edges. A ten-centimeter layer of sand is poured on top of it. Water, tamp down, add sand where needed.

Cover the top with soil with a high clay content, you can purchase it in a store or mix it yourself, proportions clay soil with peat 4:1, add a little peat to the soil in a ratio of 5:1. This stage is very important for an alpine slide; if the drainage is done incorrectly, then everything will spread out and settle after a large amount of precipitation falls.

The stones are laid on top. Moreover, their size and number will depend on individual fantasies. The shape of an alpine slide can be either horizontal or vertical. It is advisable to use natural stones and avoid sharp chips. If flat stones are chosen for the rock garden, then they should be laid with one edge raised.

Selection of decorative elements

Stones are an integral part of an alpine slide. The sizes of the selected stones should be proportional. Huge boulders cannot be used in a small alpine slide. Stones need to be taken different sizes, large stones are placed in the base, and smaller ones are installed on them.

For structural strength, large stones are covered with earth. The stones must be of the same type. Symmetry when laying stones will ruin appearance alpine slide, they should look as natural as possible.

Harder stones will last longer. Soft stones, such as limestone, will become covered with moss over time, this will give the alpine slide an original and primitive look. Lay out the pebbles from bottom to top, determining a place for each.

Large stones should be placed at the very bottom; it is advisable to place small stones at the top. Be sure to provide “pockets” for planting. The main rule at this stage is the stability of the stones (if necessary, they are additionally strengthened) and the asymmetrical arrangement of all elements. The almost finished slide should be spilled with water and, if necessary, soil should be added in sagging areas.

Plants for alpine slides

Plants for the slide must be selected different periods flowering. From early spring to late autumn it will look playful.

Another rule is the location of plants. They cannot block stones. Perennials are better suited small plants, they must be unpretentious. When choosing plants, it is worth remembering seasonal changes.

The top of the hill is usually decorated with small trees or shrubs; these can be juniper, thuja, dwarf pine. Flowers that complement the composition are better of natural origin; they can be found in the nearest forest; they should not be tall so as not to cover the stones.

Plants such as saxifrage, edelweiss, poppy, violet, cactus, spirea, and cinquefoil are suitable for this. The main thing is that they get along with each other and withstand the conditions of your climate.

Plants for rock gardens - phlox awl-shaped and young

Multi-colored purslane on an alpine hill

Plant in shallow holes, filling with soil with the addition of a small amount of very small stone. This will prevent weeds from growing and will help retain moisture.

50 examples of alpine slides for every taste

Alpine slide photo gallery

A rock garden is a rather labor-intensive structure that requires excavation, hence, competent planning and serious preparation. Get to know the “pitfalls” of building an alpine slide that can spoil the impression of the result. Find out how to choose the right material and plants for a wildlife corner in the garden, and what difficulties you should take care of in advance. Learn the rules of care that will help preserve the composition for many years.

What is a rock garden and rock garden?

There are often cases when the owner of a site conceives a rock garden, draws a sketch, compares it with images found in magazines and discovers that he is going to build a rock garden. To avoid confusion in concepts, let’s figure out how a rock garden differs from an alpine slide.

The best stone flower beds give the impression that no human hand has touched them

Rock garden - an artificial rocky hill, laid in tiers and planted with continuously flowering herbs and low bushes. Classic slide decorated with plants from Central Europe (Alps, Carpathians), although there is a Japanese version that involves planting Far Eastern species, and even a Mexican one with cacti.

Alpine coaster styles

A rockery is a garden made of stones, often on a flat topography. Large and small stones, gravel areas, waves of sand - each detail has its own sacred purpose. Single plants are emphasized as much as possible. In Japanese rockeries there may be no plants at all, in European and English versions species native to middle zone.

The design of a rock garden is based on contrasts in the texture and size of the stones, while on an alpine hill the main characters are plants. The second basic difference is that a rock garden involves working with a deliberately uneven terrain, while a rock garden can also be flat.

Rockery in Japanese style– emphasis on inanimate nature

Making an alpine slide with your own hands

When developing a rock garden plan, you need to remember the main features of such landscape design structures:

tiering;
availability of open stone surfaces;
predominance of low-growing plant forms;
combination of contrasting views.

Scheme of a terraced composition

When determining the length and width of the composition, a ratio of 5:1 is usually used, the height is taken from 1 to 3 m, while remembering that the size of the rock garden should be in harmony with the dimensions of the site. It is advisable to depict the project to scale, in as much detail as possible, from all sides and in color, and also to think through seasonal changes in the habit and color of the plants planned for planting.

A carefully executed project in color makes further work much easier

A simple alpine slide for beginners - possible difficulties

Having simple diagram, it’s not difficult to make an alpine slide with your own hands using scrap materials. However, any error made on initial stage, will lead to the composition having to be rebuilt. To avoid this, consider the following issues:

Water stagnation. A combination of factors such as a low-lying area, an abundance of snow and melt water, heavy rainfall and clay soil, will quickly deprive the building of its decorative effect. Rock gardens are built with good drainage.
Soil subsidence. Before building the slide, the soil underneath is compacted, otherwise the stones will fall through, tilt, or even slide down the slope.
Weeds. The Alpine hill will have to be protected from their penetration from two fronts: from under the soil and from the air. To prevent the rhizomes remaining at depth from sprouting upward, the bottom of the pit is covered with geotextiles. If the seeds are carried by the wind, the weeds are pulled out by hand.
Burrowing animals. Sabotage by moles and shrews is prevented by fine-mesh galvanized steel mesh, which is laid under geotextiles.

Elegant rock garden-flower bed

Action of the listed negative factors increases in the case of arranging a rock garden, the relief of which is more easily subject to deformation. In particular, against weeds, experienced designers treat the soil with herbicides two to three weeks before planting.

Choosing a location for an alpine slide

To obtain the maximum aesthetic effect, the rock garden on the site is formed in such a place that it can be viewed from at least three sides. It would be a good idea to consider placing a comfortable bench nearby under an awning or dense tree canopy.

Construction is often started in order to hide a lack of relief: a ravine, a hill, a slope, the top of a moraine boulder peeking out of the ground, which cannot be dug out due to its size. The existing height difference will allow you to supplement the rock garden with a stream and even a waterfall. Best neighbors rock gardens in landscape design are open lawns and thickets of bushes, the worst are metal fences.

The grasses of alpine meadows, accustomed to living without forest canopy, are sun-loving and require full lighting. Rockeries can also be placed with light shading, but then the species composition of the plants must be corrected.

Mini rock garden is relevant for small courtyards

How to choose and where to get suitable stones

Properly selected stones mean the beauty and durability of a rock garden. Each breed has its own special qualities, on which its resistance to precipitation and winter freezing. The most popular breeds are:

shell rock and limestone are rough, which allows mosses and lichens to cling to them, absorb moisture and gradually release it to plants, but are destroyed by acid rain and become polluted;
sandstone – has a beautiful layered structure, slightly weathered;
granite and basalt are massive, almost impossible to process with home tools, but they are resistant to any impact;
slate - forms thin, even tiles, great for creating deliberately careless stairs.

Large beige stones are an excellent background for lush greenery

In nature, there are stone fragments with jagged edges and smooth - rolled by the sea or river. Debris looks natural on rock gardens, especially with pronounced signs of erosion. But if the plan provides for a pond, then its banks can also be lined with smoothies.

Excessive diversity disfigures alpine hills, so it is recommended to limit yourself to one or two types of rocks. The largest boulder forms the center of the composition; the rest will complement the landscape, provided there is a balance between orderly and chaotic placement.

There are two ways to purchase stones. If you have a truck or passenger car with a trailer, they collect the cobblestones they like on the bank of the nearest river or in a quarry. It’s easier, but more expensive, to order them with delivery to the site from organizations that sell natural stone, or negotiate with the quarry workers, if there is one nearby.

Rock garden arrangement

Arrangement of a small rock garden and its construction

Before planting the plants, the rock garden must settle, so work on creating it with your own hands is carried out in early autumn. Let's look at them step by step using the example of building a mini-rock garden about 1 m high.

Pit. Soil is removed from the contour outlined with twine to a depth of 30-35 cm. Placed on the bottom metal mesh from burrowing animals and geotextiles.
Drainage. Made from expanded clay, broken tiles or bricks. 10 cm of coarse sand is poured onto 10 cm of drainage and spilled with water to prevent the formation of cavities.
The device of the lower tier. To prevent large elements from sagging, several rubble stones are placed on the lower tier, and the volume between them is filled with crushed stone. In this form, the slide is allowed to stand for about a month: during this time, the foundation stones will gain stability.
Formation. The composition of stones is laid out in accordance with the sketch, leaving gaps for soil and roots. Soft rocks such as shell rock and tuff allow you to drill holes into them the right size under flower pots.
Making an earthen mixture. The soil removed from the pit is sorted out, removing weed rhizomes from it. Add equal shares of river sand, expanded clay and humus. A granite hill allows the use of peat, but if limestone is used, acidic additives are avoided.
Filling with earth mixture. This operation is performed on each tier, carefully filling the voids. It is necessary to water the soil with a spray jet, otherwise the water will wash it out of the recesses.

In this form, the rock garden will have to survive the first winter in its life.

The finished slide is left to winter. In the spring, if necessary, they correct it and begin decorating with plants.

Video instructions for beginners

So as not to miss a single one important point When creating an alpine slide with stones at your dacha with your own hands, you can use the video instructions.

An experienced landscape designer, who has decorated dozens of luxurious estates and ordinary dachas, will tell and show how:

get by with a minimum of material, money and hard work;
do not make mistakes when laying blocks and planting flowers;
properly care for the rock garden so that the decorative effect does not disappear over time.

Video: Instructions for building an alpine slide

Using the instructions, even a beginner will turn the shortcomings of his site into a rock garden or rock garden worthy of admiring glances.

The arrangement of plants has its own order: herbs should not be blocked by bushes

Alpine slide with a waterfall - a duet of water and mountain landscape

The highest aerobatics of mastery in relation to stone structures that imitate natural ones is the combination of rock garden and water in landscape design. The rustle of streams or slowly floating along a stream yellow leaf adds European romanticism or Eastern philosophy to the composition.

Maximum naturalness

What to consider for a composition with a pond

If it is possible to add a pond or even a waterfall to the rock garden, you will have to take into account the following nuances:

the bottom of the reservoir should not allow water to pass into the ground;
for the pump that lifts the water, you will need to lay an electrical wire;
when selecting plants, the difference in humidity along the banks and at the top is taken into account;
The pond will have to be cleaned periodically and drained in the winter.

Bright fish in mysterious water give the composition a special charm

IN summer period Japanese koi carp look impressive in a pond, but for them you will have to create a wintering pit at least 80 cm deep and aerate it after it hardens on the ice surface.

Creating a reservoir bowl - how to avoid disappointments

They begin to make the pond at the same time as the slide in order to immediately remove the soil from under both objects. At this stage, the depth of the pond is determined, which rarely exceeds 30 cm: a shallow pond is easier to clean, and the pebbles at its bottom become especially expressive. The section of the bottom intended for installation of the pump should be deepened. At the same stage, an electric cable is connected to the pond to power the pump.

Waterfall diagram

It is advisable to place the pond in the northeast of the hill so that it is in its shade for several hours every day, otherwise the water will bloom too quickly. It is better to leave the walls with a slope, this will make it easier to place stones on them.

The bottom of the pond is covered with a layer of sand 10 cm thick and compacted thoroughly. Geotextiles are first placed on top of the sand, and on top of it is a waterproofing film made of butyl rubber, the service life of which is 20-30 years. For reliability, the edges of the film should protrude 30-40 cm beyond the pit. Subsequently, they are buried in the ground, but by the time the bowl is filled with water, the edges of the film are left free.

Rock garden with a pond – perfect solution for hilly area

Technical equipment and artistic decoration of the waterfall

A pump for a small waterfall is purchased with a power of 70 W. It is installed in the bowl of a reservoir on a special stand to minimize contact with bottom silt. The device itself, as well as the hoses that take in water and push it out, are masked with stones. Be sure to check the safety of the connection to the electrical wire.

By this time, the slide should be laid out to the point from which the water begins to fall. The ejector hose is brought to this point, hiding its tip among the stones.

Pumping equipment is carefully camouflaged

Decoration of the waterfall is carried out using rough flagstone, which prevents slipping on wet stones. Sometimes it is appropriate to use large ceramics in decoration, for example, an old jug, which can be slightly buried when lying on its side.

The presence of water dust in the air will affect the selection of vegetation: ferns, mosses, bergenia, and bergenia will take root near the mirror of the pond. Potted specimens also look good if they are planted in wide flowerpots, reminiscent of flagstone in color and texture.

Placement and combinations of plants

What plants are needed to decorate a garden composition?

To ensure that the rock garden always has a well-groomed appearance, plants for it are selected taking into account their flowering time. They must enter the best time of life one by one and permanently create joyful variegation. In this case, the appearance and range of colors will change along with the seasons of the year. General rule This is: the clump of any plant should not grow rapidly and thereby suppress neighboring species.

Sometimes it makes sense to plant plants in pots

The second factor influencing the choice of flora is the tier and direction of the slope. The northern part is populated with sedums, spurges, violets, and saxifrages. Iberis, thyme, alyssum, pike, and cat's paw are ideal for the southern slope and summit. In the lower tier it is allowed to plant such favorites of landscape design as tagetes, highlanders, and hosta.

Plant placement scheme

A low-growing juniper bush, whose elegant greenery will be emphasized by the snow that has fallen on the stones, allows you to maintain the decorative appearance of the rock garden all year round. When the flowers bloom again, this dark conifer will highlight their beauty.

Plant selection

Alpine slide care

A rock garden requires less attention than, for example, a flower bed or bed, but you shouldn’t forget about it either.

Maintaining attractiveness depends on the well-being of the plants planted in the rock garden.

Open area, heated stones and free winds contribute to drying out of the soil, so alpine grasses need careful but systematic watering with a spray stream. The frequency of watering depends on the weather, but it should not be done more than once a day to avoid rotting of the roots.
At least once a month, plants are fed with complex fertilizer, applying it at the root in moist soil and preventing liquid from flowing down the slopes.
During the summer, dead shoots are cut out, unwanted insects and their larvae are monitored, mulch is added if necessary, weeds are pulled out and leaves blown by the wind are removed. If the rockery contains crushed stone laid in waves or ridges, it will need to be adjusted from time to time with a rake.

Wide spaces open land mulch

Preparing for winter - how to protect your design corner

Before the onset of winter, care should be taken to ensure that the plants can survive bad weather. Species for which winter temperatures in the region are unacceptable are dug up and transferred to protected soil. The remaining plants are covered with agrofibre - a material that does not allow damping. The conifers are completely wrapped in it and tied on top with twine.

To protect from wind and frost, the hill must be well covered with snow. Shields placed around will help to hold it: old doors, remnants of corrugated sheets and slate. In order not to spoil the aesthetics of a snow-covered alpine hill, you can weave special fences from willow twigs with your own hands.

The pond located at the rock garden is drained or several children's rubber balls are thrown into it, which will absorb the pressure of the ice. The pump and hoses are removed and stored in the house.

Spring work – cleaning up the consequences of winter weather

The most extensive work on caring for the rock garden is planned for spring, since at this time of year it will be necessary to restore the masterpiece after snowfalls, blizzards and an abundance of melt water. It is usually discovered that some of the plants have died, some stones have slipped, and the entire structure is covered with unattractive, rotten foliage. After carefully removing the covering material, perform the following operations in the spring:

remove dead plant debris with a fan rake;
return the “escaped” stones to their place;
add soil and mulch;
Plants that have overwintered in the warmth are planted and new ones are added.

At the same time, conclusions are drawn about what mistakes were made when preparing the rock garden for winter, so that the upcoming cold season does not become so destructive.

So that a rock garden, rock garden or other stone and flower arrangement becomes a genuine decoration country estate, follow the three golden rules:

Divide the volume of the slide into zones to create a plateau, scree, rock, staircase. This will allow the eye to never get tired when contemplating an object.
Avoid excessive variegation. 3-4 different-sized spots of color look ideal on a dense green background of ground covers.
Do not buy flashy, tacky jewelry made of ceramics and plastic.

We present to your attention beautiful examples registration for garden plot alpine slides and rockeries. Of course, each of them is tied to a specific area, so when transferring the idea to your hundred square meters, adjustments will have to be made to the sketch.

It’s worth designing an alpine slide with your own hands, if only because it maximally reflects the character and mood of the author. Rock gardens are unique, each has its own flavor, unique design, inimitable compositional notes. Building a slide with your own hands is an amazingly powerful compromise between the severity of the garden and the indomitable riot of pristine nature.