Stony gardens
For centuries, gardeners around the world have been creating flower gardens with stones. A stone with its strict beauty, immobility, immutability at any time of the year is the perfect backdrop for the eternally changeable beauty of plants. In addition, such flower gardens represent a mountain landscape in miniature and are able to bring the diversity and charm of distant unseen mountainous countries to the shape of the garden.
When creating stony gardens it is very important to observe the natural proportions of the combination of stone sizes with the shape and height of plants, otherwise the whole effect will be lost. Stones in a rocky garden are a symbolic embodiment of mountain slopes and slopes, so plants should in no way suppress or drown their heights. When choosing and arranging stones and plants, you should achieve maximum naturalness in everything - in shape, size, color, combinations.
The rocky garden is a landscape flower garden, reminiscent of a fragment of a mountain landscape, on which stones are placed and ornamental plants are planted.
Flower beds of this form bear different names: rockery, rock garden, alpine hill, rocky hill, but their common feature is the combination of stones with various plants. All stony gardens can be conditionally divided into two large groups: regular and irregular.
To , the irregular refers to free arbitrary compositions of stones and plants within the garden. Stony gardens of irregular type are distinguished by the fact that individual stones and groups of stones are placed haphazardly, so in combination with plants these compositions resemble a natural landscape. The stones in the garden are not only mountains and hills in miniature. There are many other ways to harmoniously include them in the landscape, for example, make a fence of rough stones, set them under the trees, arrange on a flower bed, place alone or in groups on the lawn.
The shape and style of a rocky garden depends on the size of the site, rock and flower compositions, which can be picturesque, irregular or regular.
When decorating a rocky garden, it is necessary to select stones of the same color, of the same breed. You can use limestone, sandstone, granite. The stones can be round or irregular in shape, of different sizes, so that monotony is not created.
Successfully located stone gives a special beauty to the tree under which it is located, puts new accents on the bright palette of the flower bed. Stones can be linked to the terrain, with the characteristics of the surrounding landscape, for example, with roadside stones or with outcrops on the surface of rocks. Groups of stones should not be located symmetrically. The stones must be uneven and large enough. Beautiful stones are placed on more prominent places. It should not be forgotten that the shape of the stone and its texture should be in harmony with the planted plants, emphasize their originality and not overshadow them. So, an uneven fragment of limestone will best be combined with greenery and lush bushes of cereals.
The role of stones in the design of the stony garden
Whatever your rocky garden, the most important part of the work is the selection of stones, because a beautiful stone in shape and color is the basis of decorative and beauty of rockery or alpine hill. Very interesting stones with cracks and depressions, in which small, original plants can be planted. There are different types of stones, each of which has its own individual characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
Granite is a very dense, slowly aging fine-grained stone. Granite is very heavy, so it presents considerable difficulties when working with it.
Sandstone is rich in shades of color from gray and cream to brown and red, with a soft smoothness of the shape lines. Not as durable as granite, but as a whole it grows old and weathers slowly. Has a coarse-grained structure.
Limestone is not very durable, quickly eroded and washed out by sediments, due to which it soon acquires a smoothed shape, without sharp corners. The most commonly used is white and gray limestone, which has a very natural, natural appearance, especially when the surface of the stone is moss and lichen. A serious disadvantage of limestone is that under its influence, the acid reaction of the soil changes significantly and plants that do not tolerate liming grow poorly on it.
A stone can harmoniously blend into the landscape not only by its artificial modification, as in the alpine gardens. Several boulders scattered on the lawn can be an excellent basis for an unusual combination of diverse plants: cereals and junipers( in the northern regions), drought-resistant plants and light and moisture-loving( in the south).On light soils protected by stones, all these plants will find enough coolness for roots and sun for foliage.
With the help of flat stones you can create an oriental decorative element of garden decoration. Long stone slabs, laid on two flat stones, will create a bridge over the flowering river of plants. The amazing beauty lies in the contrasting combination of gray, stern stones, horizontal lines of the stone bridge and the luxuriance of plants.
To rocky orchards of irregular type also include rockeries on the plane.
Artificial rocks
When constructing artificial rocks, the decoration is the stone itself, and not the plants growing on it. Impressive constructions of huge stones are no longer erected, but in recent years they have again begun to build artificial rocks in connection with the general revival of interest in Japanese stone gardens. The most popular form of rocks in Japan is called "Three Buddha Stone".This is a triangle, the top of which forms a high and straight, like a column, a stone, and on the sides lie two rounded ones.
"Three Buddha stones" can decorate a lawn or patio, at their base, they can plant low-growing and creeping plants.