What you'll need
- You may already have an ideal location occurring naturally in your garden, if not, choose an area that has good exposure to the elements and an advantage is the soil doesn't need to be as fertile as for a vegetable patch for example.
- Choose rocks native to your area as these will look natural and be the cheapest and easiest to obtain. Large irregular shaped rocks will look interesting but you will need small rocks to compliment these. Think about your overall colour scheme and how they will tie in with each other and your plants.
- Limestone is a good choice as it is soft and porous and will allow moisture to seep through.
- Choose plants with similar growing requirements, draught-resistant plants are a good choice as you'll spend less time watering, low growing perennials are ideal. The plants you choose must compliment the rocks that surround them and be appropriate for your climate and exposure.
- Add diversity to your garden with plants of different heights, leaf shapes and textures.
Getting started
- Make more of a feature of your rock garden and keep it out of the way of mowing by making a small raised bed.
- Make a base of soil and smaller rocks upon which more eye-catching ones can rest.
- Start setting rocks in the lowest, front part of the garden and work your way upwards.
- Anchor each rock in place firmly by shovelling soil around them.
- Let them settle for a few days then make sure you are happy with the layout before you beginning adding the plants.
Routine care
- Cut back plants after flowering
- Clip back dead stems and foliage
- Occasionally loosen the soil around your plants with a small garden fork
- Regularly check for insects and diseases
- Weed in all the gaps
- Apply a heavy mulch before first freeze in cold climates
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