A Good Rock Garden Design Requires Careful Planning

A rock garden design is a great choice for beauty and elegance simply because rocks are wonderful to look at. We enjoy rock and stone in nature, so why not bring that beauty into your own yard with a stunning rock garden design. However, if you are thinking seriously about this, then I strongly urge you to read a book or two on the topic, look over this site for information, and plan very carefully before you proceed with your project. Why is that, you ask? Because rock gardens are difficult to redesign once they are in place. Rocks are heavy making any structural changes highly undesirable. Most gardeners who implement a rock garden design rarely change it. The design will remain as it is for many years.

One tip to help in designing your garden is to first think about what you like to plant. Don't think about the rocks at first. Think about what you enjoy growing and what you have time to grow. Do you like shade plants, or ones that thrive in sunlight? Do you enjoy shrubs or flowers? After you are clear about what you will plant in your garden, then you can start to consider a suitable rock garden design. For example, if you enjoy shade-loving plants, you are going to want to leave the shady spots available for growing while the portions where you place the rocks will be where the sun shines. The safest rock garden design will leave soil open in both shady and sunny areas. You don't want to expend great effort in designing a garden with no shady spots for growing only to find in a couple years that you want to experiment with shade-loving plants. Leave yourself some options in the rock garden design you choose because most likely your rock garden design will be permanent.

Another thing to strongly consider in the planning of your rock garden design is the location of paths. Paths should not be something you throw in after you've thought of all the other aspects of your rock garden design. Paths should be put in to the design from the beginning. When thinking about where the paths are going to go, you need to think about where the sunlight is going to be through out the day. Do you want your paths in the sun, in the shade, or both? This is also important when thinking about what you will plant along the edges of the paths. Many rock garden designs begin with the paths first and proceed from them, adding in the rock and plant placement afterwards.

A rock garden design can be a practical time-saving and elegant choice for your garden in the long term as long as you take special care in planning it out before execution. The rock garden design will last for years to come and require very little effort in maintaining. Most of your time in this kind of garden will depend on the variety of plants and shrubs you decide to populate it with.