If you love to have a beautiful landscaping around your home but don’t have a lot of time to tend to it, you may want to consider creating a rock garden. Rocks and plants have a natural affinity for one another. You can find plants that are nestled into rock crevices, growing wildly in nature spreading all over the rocks. Even though there is very little soil and water, plants can still grow and have flowers.
Drawing inspiration from nature, we can soften any hard surfaces in our own yard whether it is a concrete path, walkways, patios, and stone walls by adding greenery and flowers. Rocks and plants complement each other. The sharp contrast of the hard surfaces of the rocks can provide a beautiful backdrop for flowering plants of different colors. On the other hand, plants can soften and add warmth to an otherwise hard, rugged, and cold surface of rocks.
Rocks can be a haven offering many benefits to plants. They have the ability to create their own microclimates. Rocks can hold heat and can prolong the growing season for hardy plants. They can also either offer the shade loving plants a shelter from the sun or reflect the sun onto sun-loving plants. Rock crevices can trap scarce water for plants which can provide nourishment during dry season.
Any nook or cranny between stones can be a home to a plant, even if it seems there is very little room for soil to be added.
Here are some ways that you can create your own low maintenance rock garden:
1) On garden walls or stacked blocks of concrete you can add a plant in the crevices. Tuck in the plants to allow the roots to go lower than the leaves, allowing water to run towards the roots and not away from them. Then add a handful of soil enough to cover the roots. Use a garden hose to sprinkle some water.
2) On walkways or paths you can add tiny-leaved plants like Irish moss (Sagina subulata), blue star creeper (Laurentia fluviatis), and thymes that can take some foot traffic. Stepables, which is a low-growing plant, have been used specifically for walkways; they are very easy to find at your local nursery. When adding plants to your walkways or paths, make sure to set the crowns of the plants lower than the top surface of the rocks so they are protected from foot traffic. Also, when you add soils, make sure that the level is below the top of rocks so they do not wash out easily.
3) On top of a low stone wall or a patch of concrete you can create a miniature garden. Add mosses, ferns, and trailing ivy’s that will spill over to soften the areas.
4) In between big boulders you can add plants that are drought tolerant in between the holes. Pick out plants that would be in proportion to the size of the boulders; like ornamental grasses that can grow as high as the boulders themselves.
5) In between the threads of stairs made of rocks add clumps of tiny plants or moss to soften the look. Do not choose plants that spread too wide that they would obscure and pose safety concerns when navigating up or down the steps.
Many plants that grow amidst rocks are intolerant of too much moisture, so make sure that your soil mix can provide good drainage. Mix equal parts garden soils, sand or grit and compost. If the spot is very dry, use more soil and compost and less sand; if the spot receives more moisture, use more sand and less soil and compost. Add a layer of gravel on the surface to keep the crowns dry. Water your rock gardens once a week with only a few sprinkles of water either using a garden hose for your stone wall or by adding sprinklers with timer for the lower rock gardens.
