The Choice Of Stones For The Rock Garden

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The rock garden is a very expressive decorative element of the garden, reminiscent of a natural corner of nature in the mountains. To cultivate it on flat terrain, create artificial conditions using a rocky embankment. The stones mimic the conditions in which alpine plant species grow. Of particular importance for creating an alpine slide are stones that serve as the basis of the composition and interact with vegetation

There is no single way to purchase a rock garden stone. Follow the recommendations that are worth paying attention to. Decide in advance what flowers will grow in your rock garden. Considering the natural characteristics of plants, choose stone material for an alpine slide. It is important to correctly combine the texture and type of stones, because they have different fragility, acidity, the ability to weather and absorb moisture. Especially good are old stones, with traces of erosion, which are sanded by water, wind and time. But run-in river stones will not be able to fully interact with vegetation. Rocks covered with moss and lichen are of great value. The color of the cobblestones plays an important role: the dimmer it is, the brighter you choose plants and vice versa.

Stone selection criteria:

it is advisable to use a breed of the same shade and shape, otherwise your garden will look like a mosaic;

rocky rocks must be strong to withstand the blows of garden tools, accidental mechanical damage and the weight of the soil at the base of the slide and the retaining wall;

it is important that the stones do not have oxidizing properties and do not saturate the soil with salts of heavy metals, which is detrimental to plants;

use stones weighing 10 to 100 kg.

Limestone

The most suitable stone material for an alpine slide is limestone. This stone is a sedimentary rock that comes in a variety of colors. Most often, the color of limestone is white, gray, brown or cream. The main advantage of this breed is its weathering ability. The surface of the stone changes shape under the influence of the environment and usually has smooth curves. Due to the roughness, mosses and lichens often grow on the limestone, which is of particular value in the design of an alpine slide. Moss is in perfect harmony with plants and gives naturalness to the rock garden.

Tuff (travertine)

Tuff is a type of limestone characterized by a high level of porosity and light weight. Very convenient for planting.

Sandstone

The oldest building stone is sandstone, which has been used for thousands of years. This solid sedimentary rock is beautiful and reliable, will perfectly fit into the landscape of an alpine slide. The color of the stone can be creamy gray, sandy, reddish and some other colors with many shades. There is sandstone with pronounced wood-like patterns, which is called "flagstone".

Sandstone has a clearly visible graininess, it perfectly absorbs and retains moisture for a long time, which makes the stone decorative. But it erodes more slowly than limestone and resembles neutral soil in composition. With these properties, sandstone actively and safely interacts with many plants.

Granite

When creating rock gardens, granite is not often used: it is a heavy and slowly aging stone. This rock is capable of acidifying the soil and does not interact with plants.

It is usually used as a decorative element to decorate adjoining or individual elements. The color of the stone is determined by the composition of the feldspars included in it. Most often, the color of granite is gray with a pink, orange, blue or green tint.

Slate

The slate will fit into the main idea of the rock garden as well as possible. It looks spectacular and attractive in the alpine slides, thanks to its rich and varied shades of red - purple, white, gray or green. Slate is compatible with other rocks. Sharp corners of the stone eventually begin to be smoothed and weathered.