Rock Gardening For Beginners

There are a wide variety of gardens which you can design that make your yard extremely nice looking in your neighborhood. These can make you the envy of your neighbors. Rock gardens can complement a nice manicured lawn and will greatly improve your yards appearance in any subdivision or neighborhood. This is one of the simplest of gardens to take care of and even if you have yards nearby which are shabby looking, your yard will look fantastic.

This type of garden focuses on rocks of different sizes and colors with a few plants placed in the center which one would normally see in rocky areas. These plants are usually small and innocuous but help to give color to the garden which would otherwise look bland.
Because these plants are indigenous to rocky areas, these plants will be small and although the soil will thus be kept much drier, it will still require a little moisture to survive. One of the more popular styles of rock garden is where the bedrock is arranged to give the impression of a bedding plane that has shifted naturally over time or had partially been lifted above ground from the ground shifting.

When this type of garden is constructed, plants are placed in between where the stones meet unlike the natural setting which would run in a continuous line flow of rock. In Victorian times, this type of garden, or rockery as they were also called, was extremely popular.
The Japanese version of this type of garden, commonly called a Zen garden, is basically a sand box which contain sand, rocks and sometimes grass. The sand is a visual representation of water and rakes are used to ridge the sand which represents ripples in the water.
In these gardens, the rocks are representative of islands. Although not the original intention, these gardens are said to be very soothing to the mind and conductive to meditation. Knowing how to construct a garden for your particular terrain brings out the beauty of your landscape.

No matter what type of soil you have or the amount of space that you have without rocks, it doesnt mean that having a garden will help your landscape. If your land is perfectly flat, rocks can be imported for a rock garden. If you want your rock garden to look as natural as possible, observe what types of rocks are common in your area before you start moving in a great amount of rocks. When you start looking at plants to add to this garden, consider using local plants. This will give your garden a much more natural look.

Investing a little extra time and work into your rock garden will garner a lot of compliments from your neighbors and your yard will be the star attraction of your neighborhood. And since a rock garden is not deep as other gardens are, it requires very little upkeep other than a small amount of watering.