Not every summer resident likes to tinker with a garden or a garden. There are owners of suburban areas, and there are many of them who like to spend their free time in the lap of nature, not cultivating it, but enjoying the beauty that is available. They can be advised to arrange rockeries, which can even be done by hand, at their dacha or country plot. However, we must understand that rockeries are not arbitrarily sketched up a pile of stones, it must take its rightful place and play its role in landscape design.
Difference of a rock aria from the Alpine hill
Rockery, like an alpine slide, is a composition created from stones and plants, but there is still a gap between them. a number of differences:
- The relief of rock arias does not require an indispensable elevation or slope; it can also be equipped in a gentle place.
- A rock garden consists of light-loving plants, while rockeries can be shaded.
- The Alpine hill requires large stones to decorate and support longlines on a hill, rockeries can be of various sizes, up to fine gravel.
- The accent of rock garden - plants framed with stones, with rock aquarium, on the contrary - the plants emphasize their beauty.
- The presence of conifers of small size is allowed in the design of rock arias, their use in rock gardens is excluded.
- For registration rockery used a wider range of plants, and not only alpine.
Rockaria styles
When planning to make rockeries with your own hands, you must first decide which style of design is more appropriate in a particular case. You can create it based on the rules of one of the styles: English, European or Japanese. One way or another it makes the choice of plants, framing stones.
English
A distinctive feature of the English style are the plants, selected in discreet colors, riot and variegation of colors are excluded. Cereal and coniferous plants are the best suited for it. Perennials and evergreens allow you to decorate the landscape with a composition that can exist for many years and even decades, delighting the eye with greenery. 
European
European-style rock aria is characterized by planting plants growing in middle lane. These are ordinary plants: flowers, shrubs and conifers. For its design requires a minimum of effort - using local boulders and vegetation, corresponding to climatic conditions and landscape. 
Japanese
Japanese style is dominated by stone component using rare plant accents. Preference is given to the correct placement of natural stones of various shapes and sizes. Japanese stone gardens are famous all over the world, this is a philosophical concept that has its fans not only among the Japanese. 
Good planning
Those who want to arrange such an object should study the information and understand what rockeries are, what style should be preferred, where to place it, what elements to choose for this landscape technique.
Find out all the subtleties of creating on the site of a difficult flower bed - mixborder.
Choosing a place to compose
Having decided on the style, you need to choose the right place that meets all the requirements and conditions.
The first step is to study the site: its size, available landscape features and topography. For example, in a small area, the pompous heap of boulders will look somewhat unnatural. And vice versa, a small cozy oasis can easily be lost in the vast expanses of a large plot or under the shadow of spreading trees.
Of the features offered by the landscape, it is better to give preference to ravines, terraces and other irregularities. You can beat them with great imagination, turning it into interesting corners of nature.
If we talk about the cottage, it is unlikely to find a gully, a pond or a terrace on it, usually such areas represent a flat surface. In this case, do not be upset - rockeries are good because looks great on any surface. 
It is necessary to take into account the illumination of the selected area and, if possible, prefer solar because the selection of plants is very limited in the shady area.
Important! The place should be chosen so that the rockeries were visible and pleased with their appearance, and not bashfully lost in the backyard.
For beginners, it is advisable to start from a small area, honing the newly acquired skills of a landscape designer, since large areas are often not affordable for non-professionals. In addition, care for a small garden is easier than for a large rock aquarium.
It is better to avoid placing rock arias near buildings or fences, but if this cannot be avoided, it is better to curl them with climbing plants.
Did you know? It should be remembered that the human psyche perceives asymmetrical proportions as something disturbing, inharmonious. Conversely, symmetrical compositions soothe. Designers, including landscape ones, have many techniques for creating the desired mood.
Selection of stones
Filling rockeries, you need to start with stones. They form composition concept. It is advisable to select "related", painted in one color and consisting of one material: granite, sandstone, quartzite, and so on. The composition should look harmonious.
Did you know? It is desirable to avoid sharp corners and chips on stones, they cause subconscious anxiety and discomfort.
You should not choose the same boulders in size and texture, so that rockeries do not look like a bunch of loaded building materials. Each stone has its own place and aesthetic role, well, if it is provided with unique irregularities and differs in size and shape from its neighbors, being, however, in a harmonious combination with them. 
Identical large stones combined into a composition will have a more advantageous appearance than small ones. It is better to stay on the sandstone, limestone or granite fragments.
Some practical tips:
- the base should be a two-three large stones, a larger number will cause a feeling of piling up;
- gray granite is easily lost among greenery; it is better to use stones of several shades;
- the foundation under the largest specimens is recommended to be concreted in order to prevent them from going deeper into the soil;
- there are opposing opinions about stones of different habitats: some designers recommend using the same type of stones, others - to create various combinations without fear of combining, for example, black granite and orange slate. In fact, the truth is in the middle, and the multiplicity of variations can be limited only by the taste of the designer and his preferences.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with such a technique in landscape design as a dry stream.
Plant selection
Having decided on the stones, it is time to move on to choosing the plant component of rock arias. 
The most commonly used representatives of the flora, conditionally divided into 4 types:
- Conifers. Mostly dwarf trees. For example, thuja, juniper, spruce and pine.
- Shrubs. Mostly stunted and compact. For example, cotoneaster, honeysuckle or potentilla.
- Perennial flowers. For example, a combination of herbaceous (geranium, primrose) and bulbous (narcissus, tulip, crocus, hyacinth).
- Ground covers. For example, cat's foot or phlox.
Important! Vegetation can not be motley and catchy, the main idea of rockeries is the beauty of stones, representatives of the flora only emphasize it.
First of all, you should take care of evergreen vegetation, in particular this is important when choosing the English style.
The ephedra should:
- grow a small size;
- grow slowly;
- be comfortable for trimming.
Designers prefer:
- mini cypresses;
- dwarf tuyam;
- juniper
If you have doubts about whether the shrub will take root, you can use the option with a plant in a tub. 
Rhododendrons - perennials, often used in the design of rockeries, especially Japanese, where they emphasize the conciseness of the style.
Did you know? Interestingly, in the framework of rockeries it is possible to build a composition that includes plants that are never found in natural conditions.
After the shrubs and trees are determined for permanent residence, it's time to start picking flowers. It is important to ensure the effect of continuous flowering: some bloom, others bloom. Flowers for rockeries use a variety of, depending on the concept and environmental conditions, their names and photos can be easily found on thematic resources and in special literature.
Here are some of them:
- crocuses;
- hyacinths;
- tulips are short;
- violet wild.
Then they plant them with ground cover plants: mosses, sedums, phloxes, saxifrage and others. In addition to the picturesque, they perform quite an applied function to strengthen the upper layer of soil, preventing erosion of the slopes in the springtime.In the absence of slopes in rockeries, it is recommended to resort to the services of moisture-loving plants: primrose, astilbe.
In flat rockeries, the use of cereals is popular, giving them some refined carelessness.
Step by Step process of creation
Having got hold of stones, seeds and seedlings, you can start building rockeries with your own hands, below is a step by step guide.
By this time, the site and style have already been chosen, in which the stone composition will be solved. It's time to implement a specific project. It is advisable to think over, and better, to draw a schematic arrangement of all the elements: stones and vegetation by grades.
That your garden was not only beautiful, but also cozy, build in it an arbor, a pergola or just a bench, and also decorate with hand-made articles.
Rockeries are:
- stable - planned for many years, but there is a danger that they will get bored;
- changeable - always new flowers around a certain group of perennials, there are both constant and variable components;
- temporary - picturesquely located stones among the planted seedlings, as they grow, stones move or are removed.
Will consider step by step instructionshow to make rockeries. First of all, it is worthwhile to acquire patience, since this matter does not tolerate haste, and the mistakes made because of haste entail punishment.
It should start in late autumn, if not managed - in the spring.
- Draw on the ground the boundaries of the future rockeries.
- Remove by 20 centimeters and free the top sod layer from the weed roots.
- Cover territory with nonwoven fabric.
- Lay a layer of drainage: broken brick, crushed stone, pebbles, and compacted with sand, the layer should turn out the height of the same 20 centimeters.
- If you do not take care of the drainage layer, plants that do not like stagnant moisture can be seriously affected.
- Leave the plot alone for a period of 2 months to shrink. After a specified time, you can proceed to further work.
- Set large stones on the sand, which is already quite compacted and ready to take them.
Important! Beginners always want to do better, and they can overdo it with stones. It should be remembered that the size, shape, color, texture of each stone, standing in its place, has its own meaning and plays its own role.
- The remaining space is filled with the substrate in which the plants will be planted. It should not be particularly fertile, but the main thing in rockery is stones, and flowers should not overshadow them. However, the substrate must be well permeable to moisture and air.
- At the same time, it is necessary to check and correct the stability of the stones, if they are swaying, it is necessary to reinforce it with soil, rubble or even cement mortar.
- Watering the substrate with water, you need to make sure that it is not washed away, otherwise you will have to redo it. He must soak up the water and stay in the same place.
- After the time necessary for its subsidence, it is possible to start planting plants, depending on the concept and the preconceived scheme.
- First planted conifers, deepening them into the soil through the circle cut in the film. Next to them are shrubs, then flowers. Having finished with this, the film must be sprinkled with earth.
- In conclusion, the composition is made with small stones and dumping.
The size of the stones should be related to the size of the plants: the smaller they are, the smaller the rocky appearance.
Did you know? If you remember the "golden section", the principle inherent in the human eye, the proportions that are optimal for perception are the ratio of the height and width of rockeries will be 5: 8 for high compositions and 3: 8 for low ones.
Stony garden care
Already in early spring, rockeries should pay attention to:
- remove dry fragments;
- prune shoots of ground covers that have grown in the wrong direction;
- inspect the safety of plants after winter and plant new ones in return for the frozen ones;
- check the strength of the occurrence of stones and, if necessary, fix them;
- sow annuals in early May, and plant seedlings in the middle;
- do not overdo it with this case, remembering the dominant role of stones;
- weed and grind the soil;
- start watering after the soil dries to a depth of 7-8 centimeters;
- who needs to be fed, without being too zealous, because plants should not grow;
- to regularly remove obsolete: faded flowers, dried stems and the like, as well as cut and thin out;
- in the event of a pest or disease attack, take appropriate measures;
- shelter rockery for the winter can save flowers from freezing, and protect the stones from pollution.
Important! Bulbs of bulbous plants need to be dug out every three years and sorted, planted back.
As can be understood from the above, it is not at all difficult to create rockeries on their own land, everybody is able to do this if there is a desire.
Such a corner will always bring joy, and care it requires a minimum. Depending on mood or changing preferences, you can change its appearance, add something or remove unnecessary, with time it can be expanded if the landscape allows and the concept, which is not difficult to change.
Feeling like a landscape designer, really build and equip a wonderful corner, which will bring joy, peace and aesthetic pleasure.
