How to create a Rockery

With our busy lives today, it is often difficult to find time to take care of our gardens, thus why not consider creating a low-maintenance rockery in your garden!

"This rock garden (left) is a succesful feature. The "outcrops" of rock of which it is made to look natural, resembling strata exposed by the elements. Much of the planting appears to be shaped by its site so that rocks and plants complement one another.

In each of the two alternative designs, a specific weathering process has been simulated. In the first example, the rocks are part of a composition that includes water - the 'worn' rock face looks towards the water. A still sheet of water will reflect a rocky landscape and provide an area of calm that will balance the drama of the rock and plants. In this design, the fastigate conifer, placed centrally, echoes the vertical line of the waterfall. The pool is made to look completely natural with no visible surround. Planting follows the plan for the original rockery, except for a horizontal-growing juniper and low, poolside planting of sedums and primulas.

When planting a rockery garden, think carefully about the naturally form you are copying. An alpine bluff has characteristices that the gardener should note. An exposed rock face will produce a crumble of rock particles, or scree, at its base in which only hardy, tufted plants could live. Larger, less hardy plants only survive in the areas sheltered by the rock formation but away from the exposed face. It is in such reas that any fastigate plant must be sited. A well-sited vertically growing plant will relieve the otherwise horizontal forms that go to make a rockery garden. Indeed, most planting will 'ground-hug', try simulating the hardy primary growth of such sites with Saxifraga or Sempervivum.

In this design, the rock faces have been supposedly exposed by weathering from the right of the illustration. The rock group is split up by a gravel path. The rockery feature has been reshaped so that the rocks are revealed down the length of a slope. The vertical line of a fastigate juniper to one side of the group balances the visual weight of the rocks below it. Low-growing plants, including delicate alpines, clad the planting areas."

Alfresia is a UK based retailer and supplier of garden furniture.