Rock Gardening

By: Jack Stone

For some people rock gardening is an unavoidable necessity due to rocky terrain, or even drought laden areas where they live. For others, rock gardening is simply another way to express their creative gardening skills through an unusual medium.

Having first been established in the British Isles, early rock gardens were generally thought to be an eyesore and were not as well balanced as today’s rock gardens. By the turn of twentieth century however, rock gardening had taken off and giant leaps and bounds were made, so much so that rock gardening took off across the Atlantic and crossed to Northern America where it still perseveres to this day.

Today, garden enthusiasts looking to create their own rock garden have a myriad of choices available to them, with two of the main types of rock gardening being Japanese, or Zen, gardens, and your average everyday rock garden.

Like most people if you’re going for the more widespread trend of rock gardening where plants abound, (Zen gardens are more rocky and less plant-filled) there are a few things you will need to take into consideration.

If your landscape is mainly rocky then you won’t have too much of a problem setting up your garden. If, however, you’re doing rock gardening for purely aesthetic reasons, then you’ll need to plan and create carefully to achieve the results you’re after.

Since most gardens always seem to have at least one troublesome spot, this seems to be the most likely place to start your planning. You’ll need a place with optimal sunshine, and preferably a slope. If you don’t have a slope don’t worry, you can build the contours that you need.

Next, scout out the rocks that you already have in your garden, if any. There’s a good chance that you can use at least some of them. If you don’t have any, don’t worry rocks are always available to buy, your local nursery will probably stock some as well.

When choosing your rocks, choosing a colour scheme that looks natural is a good idea. Keeping this colour scheme in mind when you go to buy your plants will help greatly as you can pick and choose the plants to suite you. Also, you’ll need to make sure that the plants you choose are the type that won’t need much water, as the water will tend to filter through the rocks.

Now that you’ve made your purchases you can now start your rock gardening in earnest. From here on out it’s mainly the task of giving your rock garden a slight elevation or slope, and mixing your plants in with rocks at a particular space, and angle to suite you, the person who is actually doing the rock gardening.

Depending on the size of your planned project, and rocks, hopefully you should be able to finish your sojourn into rock gardening within a day or two, leaving you to enjoy it for a long time to come. Enjoy!