Suitable plants for a rock garden

Creating a rock garden is an excellent way to decorate the garden and make a special sense of natural landscape in our space.

The basic ingredients we need to create a rock garden are gravel, small and large stones, and of course soil.

The rock garden is usually formed on an elevated small hill, while in many cases the rock garden is combined with the wet element and the existence of small waterfalls and streams that offer a note of calm and relaxation.

We can use many more natural materials such as logs, clay jars and wooden barrels to enjoy an aesthetic effect in our rock garden.

The plants we choose for planting the rock garden must be properly adapted to dry conditions, resistant to drought and high temperatures, as they constantly receive direct sunlight.

For this reason, the most popular plants for a rock garden are cacti, succulents, aromatic plants and some species of shrubby ornamental plants that are quite hardy.

In addition, rock garden plants must have a strong root system that enables them to root through stones, cobbles and gravel, or have a small surface root system to root in the small amounts of soil available.

Essential to the ideal rock garden are ground cover plants, which spread out and cover the soil, especially on sloping sites that have higher erosion due to wind and rainfall. So let’s look in detail at the plants we choose for planting itβραχόκηπου.

1. Cacti and succulents. Let’s start with cacti and succulents which are an integral part of a rock garden as they have thick leathery parts to hold water, even in the most adverse drought conditions. There are many species to choose from in the available space we have in our rock garden. For example, we mention the crassula with its thick leathery leaves, the aloe with the beneficial small selections of the leaves and the euphoria, the well-known Christ’s thorn with its wonderful flowers.
2. Herbs Aromatic plants are an excellent choice for a rock garden, as they do not grow in dry and barren areas, and also have limited water and cultivation needs. The aromatic plants since the cosmetic value and the fragrance that we give away, we can also use them in our kitchen for a drink as well as in various cooking recipes. Tall plants for our rock garden are lavender and rosemary, they reach a height of about one meter. Especially resistant are mint, oregano, dictamom and sage, which have lower growth. It should be noted that a very special choice is the creeping variety with which we can cover sloping surfaces of the rock garden.
3. Ornamental shrubs In the rock garden we can plant various ornamental shrubs to give color and flowering. We prefer evergreen trees that do not lose their foliage and do not exceed 1-1.5 meters in height, such as the milkweed with its lovely purple flowers, the angelica with its green leathery leaves and compact form, the boxwood with its dense foliage . which forms into a ball, the popular geranium and its cousin the geranium. We can also plant low deciduous shrubs such as the dwarf variety of bougainvillea and the impressive barberry with its characteristic red foliage.
4. Plants for ground cover. In order to cover in the rock gardens various points that are not easily accessible, we choose ground cover plants, several or perennial, with or without flowers, characterized by creeping or lateral vegetation and spread over the areas where we plant them. We choose plants of relatively low growth with beautiful flowers such as sedum, verbena, the creeping variety of dimorphothecia, calibrachoi, serfinia, mastic as well as the particularly hardy purslane.

And a secret about the rock garden plants

Rock garden plants are limited in care. Installing this drip irrigation and adding full fertilizer in early spring and early autumn ensures smooth growth of our plants and an impressive aesthetic result for us.

To maintain our rock garden, it is important to remove any overgrown individuals, prune and remove dead flowers and branches, as well as replenish the soil that is lost due to winds and rains that occur mainly during the winter season. .