Design a Rock Garden
Once you have learned how to design a rock garden, you will then have enough knowledge and inner motivation to go out and make your lawn much more attractive. There are just as many diverse ways to design your garden as there are rocks and plants, but if you a little caution when composing your design, you can achieve a pleasing rock garden which your neighbors will envy.
The first step to planning your garden is to assess the space that you have available. All lawns have a basic ground surface. Some lawns include grass, trees, weeds as well as other forms of vegetation. If you have an area of your yard that is vegetation free, then this would make the perfect spot for your garden.
A very popular form of rock garden is to lift bedrock, have it appear to shoot up from the ground, with a level of plants above it. With this arrangement, the plants hide the breaks in between the rocks. This gives the illusion of the bedrock being one solid piece instead of many small pieces.
The Japanese rock garden is also very common. With this garden design, sand is contained in a small area surrounded by rocks and designs are raked into the sand. This is very pretty and you can easily change the designs whenever you want.
After surveying your land, choose a spot that is bare of any vegetation. A perfect spot would be a sandy area or one that already has rocks on it. This would save a lot of planning time and hard work.
If, on the other hand, all you have to work with is a grassy area, then you will have a little more work to do. You can use the rockscape to decorate the edges of your driveway, or walkway. You can even decorate around a swimming pool in this way. You could also use a rock garden in between shrubbery so that the shrubs will stand out more.
Once you have decided on a location, you will need to clear everything off the area. You do not want weeds sprouting up in between the rocks as it will spoil the intended effect. Next, start bringing in rocks. Be selective with the rocks that you choose. Consider your area and get only the rocks which are native to that area.
If you already have an area that is filled with rocks, then this would be the perfect area to start your rock garden. You can always break these rocks, and then move them to another area if you want to. Once you get that done, then come the plants. But which plants do you choose?
You will want those plants which are smaller and thus need less moisture. Sage is a perfect choice since it is a desert plant. If you are trying to imitate nature with your design, then you will have a limited amount of choices in order to mirror the ecology of the area you are in.
When you start to arrange your rock garden, only use a small amount of different size rocks to start with. Using five rocks, arrange them in small piles, but not in a linear pattern as this is not the natural way. Use only a few plants in between the rock piles so that it will look natural.