Creating a rock garden: ideas, pictures & instructions

Rock gardens can differ in design and effort. Here you will find suggestions, instructions and plants for your own rock garden.

We hear "Rock garden", we often think directly of those modern stone deserts that are increasingly emerging in German front gardens. However, using plenty of stone in garden design has a much longer tradition. The reason for this lies in the rugged flair and partly also in the symbolism or even the spiritual charge of rock: It is not for nothing that Jesus is considered the “rock in the surf ”, the Indian world spirit Manitou also lives in stone and the Greek demigod Prometheus teaches the ignorant little people to build more firmly Stone houses. Surrounding us with stones gives us a feeling of stability and support - but the way it is used can vary widely.

Create a rock garden

We would like to introduce you to the three rock garden shapes that are most relevant to us and then go deeper into them Immerse yourself in design: There you will find instructions for a rock garden and a selection of suitable ones Rock garden plants.

Rock garden design

The range of possibilities is wide: from the lime-rich, alpine rock garden to the Japanese Zen garden to barren front gardens with Box - Planting is all called a rock garden. We present three important, "extremely rich" variants.

The European rock garden

Rock gardens use gravel and stones to provide the appropriate location for a specific group of plants. Here, drought-loving or alpine plants should find a suitable habitat and be staged with their often unusual, downright bizarre look. Despite the intensive use of “dead” rock, the focus here is on the plant. Mighty stone blocks and Dry stone walls create structure and different microclimates convey a special atmosphere through their mere appearance. A southerly or south-westerly orientation, if possible on a slope, further intensifies drought and solar radiation. The plants that thrive in such gardens are aptly called rock garden plants and include genera, species, and cultivars of various natural sites with similar conditions. Large rock gardens of this type can also be found in Germany, such as the Rennsteig Garden in Oberhof in the Thuringian Forest and the Alpinum in Rostock.

The Japanese zen garden

Colloquially known as Zen gardens Kare-san-sui are Japanese rock gardens. Translated, "Kare-san-sui" means something like "dry landscape". But the gardens will too Kasansui ("Fake landscape"), Fursansui ("Old landscape") or Arasensui ("Dry pond") called. They are a special form of the Japanese garden, in which mainly stones, gravel and rocks are used and apart from mosses there are no plants. The layout of these gardens follows many rules and patterns: gravel surfaces symbolize water, rocks are supposed to be in relation to each other in an arrangement that seems as natural as possible and grouped together in odd numbers - usually five or seven will. Japanese gardens are often so artfully laid out that from every point in the garden there are completely new perspectives with interesting ones Details emerge and the clever draping of the elements creates various associations - for example of animals or people will. The artistic structuring of the gravel areas by raking is used for meditation and is intended to emphasize the other garden elements - it is practical to keep the areas free of weeds. Other Japanese gardens also often contain gravel areas and rocks, which are more like accents or centers in a dense and well-planned overall concept. Large Japanese gardens can be found in Germany, for example, in the Augsburg Botanical Gardens and in Kaiserslautern.

The gravel garden

A modern gravel garden is laid out for different reasons than the variants mentioned above. No specialized plants are cultivated here, and meditative relaxation or the artistic exploration of the elements stone, plants and water are not found here. The systems are simply implemented: Without surface alignment, water, planting areas and height differences, there are no special small climatic zones or different lines of sight. An area covered with gravel is adorned with larger rocks or gabions, accompanied by solitary shrubs in topiary or grasses. The simple design is an expression of the desire for order and low workload and is therefore mainly found in front gardens. These serve as a figurehead for the residents of the house and a neat impression is desired - only without the associated maintenance effort. Unfortunately, a gravel garden is not always easy to maintain. The entry of biological material such as leaves or dust is inevitable. This creates a perfect breeding ground for undemanding wild herbs after a while. Now the fight against the green invasion begins, which is becoming more and more labor-intensive. After a few years, the entire area then has to be renewed at great cost. The use of herbicides on paved areas is prohibited and there is a risk of fines of up to 50,000 euros - to protect people, animals, soil and groundwater.

Design rock garden

The European rock gardens described above represent a special habitat and are therefore extremely valuable from an ecological point of view. They provide a niche for living things that like and need it hot, low in nutrients and dry. In times of excessive fertilizer input into our environment via wastewater from agricultural areas or via polluted groundwater nutrient-poor poor areas have become rare and dry locations are also used for agriculture or forestry and with all available means for us made usable. Customized specialists such as lizards, sand bees, thistles, cloves or the rarely seen pasque flower fall by the wayside (Pulsatilla vulgaris). By creating a natural rock garden, you create an easy-care and valuable area. This does not necessarily have to take up your entire garden - even small areas can make a difference if they are carefully laid out.

Instructions for a rock garden

Unfortunately, it is not enough to distribute some rock and procure special plants. A specialist company has the necessary skills to create a rock garden professionally. If you want to make a slightly simpler version of a stone bed yourself, proceed as follows.

Preparation for creating a rock garden:

• Choosing the right location: it should be in full sun all day and ideally sloping to the south. Roughly horizontal surfaces can be modeled advantageously, but pronounced depressions are rather unsuitable for a classic rock garden.
• Assess the adjacent soil: It is optimal when it is well-drained and poor in nutrients. Is your soil consistently very clayey or is it prone to waterlogging due to a water-impermeable mineral layer in larger areas Soil depths, more soil may have to be replaced before a rock garden can be created, and a drainage layer in any case to be built in.

Creating a rock garden in 8 steps:

1. Use a roughly to scale plan to determine which elements should be where. In this way, you can better plan the material to be procured.
2. On the entire area of ​​the future rock garden, 30 to 50 cm of the subsoil are now excavated, whereby a slope to the south can be created. (This step is not necessary if you already have particularly well-drained, nutrient-poor soil. In this case, the subsurface is loosened as deeply as possible and modeled as required.)
3. Plants and roots are thoroughly removed from the area.
4. In order to prevent the surrounding vegetation from penetrating the rock garden area, it is advisable to close the area with a paved edge - similar to a mowing edge.
5. A drainage layer can now be installed to promote water permeability. 10 to 20 cm of sand, gravel, brick chippings or another permeable material are installed for this. In the process, hills or other shapes can arise. If you want to use very large stones later, you should create hollows for these.
6. The underground or the drainage layer can be covered with a weed fleece in order to exclude any root weeds from the area.
7. Now the plant substrate and large stones are distributed. The latter should be sunk to about a third in the surface. A mixture of sand, gravel, gravel and soil, mixed in roughly equal proportions, is suitable as a plant substrate. A cement mixer can be used for mixing if you need large quantities. When installing the substrate, model the terrain according to your wishes.
8. Ultimately, smaller stones are now also distributed a little more superficially, dry stone walls can be and stepping stones are draped, herbal spirals are erected or stone benches are built set up.

Rock garden plants: the right planting

When planting the rock garden, select plants from the area of ​​life “stone plants” (St). These are further subdivided into the areas of “rock steppes” (FS), shallow “rock mats” (M), stone joints (SF) and wall crowns (MK). The division of plants into such areas of life makes them easier to use, you can use them in nurseries and in Mail order companies search specifically for the respective categories and are sure to find plants that thrive in your stone bed can. Below is a table with example plants for all areas of life mentioned.

Area of ​​life	description	plants
Stone plants (St)	Plants for the “stone complex” area of ​​life feel at home in all of the following sub-categories	Prickly pots (Acaena microphylla), Spring Adonis (Adonis vernalis), Caucasian rockcress (Arabis caucasica), Alpine aster (Aster alpinus), Lime aster (Aster amellus), Dalmatian bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana), Common arum (Dryas x suendermannii), Rolling Spurge (Euphorbia mysinites), Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris subsp. vulgaris)
Rock steppe (FS)	Stony, rock-interspersed, permeable and deep soil	Spring Adonis (Adonis vernalis), Pearl basket (Anaphalis triplinervis), Carnation (Armeria maritima), Mediterranean Junker Lily (Asphodeline lutea), Alpine aster (Aster alpinus), Snail knotweed (Bistorta affinis)
Rock mats (M)	Shallow soil over rocks and larger stones	Cat paws (Antennaria dioica), Caucasian rockcress (Arabis caucasica), Alpine aster (Aster alpinus), Lime aster (Aster amellus), Garden silver arum (Dryas x suendermannii), Sword-leaved elephant (Inula ensifolia)
Stone joints (SF)	Joints filled with little substrate between stones in stone piles or walls	Caucasian rockcress (Arabis caucasica), Red spurflower (Centranthus ruber), Roller Spurge (Euphorbia mysinites), Carpet gypsophila (Gypsophila repens), Sun rose (Helianthemum nummularium)
Wall crown (MK)	Sun-exposed, elevated position on walls or piles of stones	Caucasian rockcress (Arabis caucasica), Blue pillow (Aubrieta 'blue tit'), Rock rock cress (Aurinia saxatilis), Garden feather carnation (Dianthus plumarius), Garden silver arum (Dryas x suendermannii), Roller Spurge (Euphorbia mysinites), Carpet gypsophila (Gypsophila repens)

An illustrated presentation of ours Top 10 rock garden plants You will find here.

Tip: Wild herbs are just as unwelcome in planted rock gardens as they are in barren gravel gardens, they have However, it is much more difficult to emerge if a desired planting has already spread in the bed Has. You can also watch herbs growing for a while. Because of the special conditions that you have created, interesting weeds, adapted to drought, such as the heron's beak, may settle here instead of the classic weeds (Erodium cicutarium) or the white light carnation (Silene latifolia).

More information about the Rock garden can also be found in this article.