A Step-by-Step Guide on Building Your Own Rockery Garden
A garden rockery is a wonderful way to add a natural focal point to your outdoor space. And with so many different elements to choose, such as the type of stone, position, size, and which plants to use, you can easily make your rockery unique.
However, building a rockery doesn’t have to be complicated. That’s why we’ve put together a simple step-by-step guide to help bring your rockery ideas to life.
Overview of our step-by-step guide to building your own garden rockery:
Step 1: Planning Your Rockery: Choosing the Right Location
Step 2: Finding the Perfect Rockery Stones
Step 3: Preparing the Site: Clearing, Levelling, and Soil Preparation
Step 4: Placing and Positioning the Rocks
Step 5: Selecting Suitable Plants
Below are more details of each of the steps and some aftercare tips for your rockery.
Step 1: Planning Your Rockery: Choosing the Right Location
When planning to build a rockery, one of the main points to consider is the location. It’s important to find somewhere in your garden where alpine plants will thrive. They generally require several hours of solid light exposure, so when thinking of where to place your rockery, make sure the area isn’t overshadowed by trees or shrubs or fences and buildings.
If you have a sloping garden, a rockery can work just as well as it would on level ground thanks to their versatility.
Think about what will be in the surroundings of your rockery, too. Ideally, it needs to look as natural as possible but as it settles and plants grow, it will look more established over time.
Rockeries can also work really well next to running water, so if you already have a pond in your garden this might be a way to create an idyllic calming oasis.
Step 2: Finding the Perfect Rockery Stones
At Stone Warehouse, we offer many different types of high quality rockery stone to suit every outdoor space.
To create a natural looking rockery, choosing the right stones is essential. You’ll need a lot of rockery stones in different sizes, and probably a lot more than you think! Bear in mind that you’ll need enough larger stones to cover the area as well as enough smaller stones to cover the surface.
Choose your colour scheme: Your rockery doesnt have to be all one colour! Get creative by mixing a selection of coloured rocks together and experiment with your colour pallet.
Step 3: Preparing the Site: Clearing, Levelling, and Soil Preparation
Before you begin building your rockery, it’s important to take a few simple steps to ensure the ground is fully prepared.
Firstly, remove any weeds from the site as they can destabilise the rockery as time goes on. You might need to use weed killer if you have a lot of weeds, or if they are particularly tough.
Once the weeds are taken care of, you can move on to building your rockery by applying a layer of MOT Type 1 to help with drainage and also to support the rockery stones.
If you’re happy with the shape and size of your rockery foundation, cover it with a landscape fabric such as the Groundtex - Polypropylene Weed Membrane. Be sure to weigh it down with small stones until you’re ready to add your first layer of rockery stones. Adding a landscape fabric will prevent weeds from growing and will also help to keep the soil in place.
Step 4: Placing and Positioning the Rocks
With a strong foundation in place, you’re now ready to start adding your rockery stones.
It’s best to begin by adding the biggest stones first, which are also known as ‘keystones’. Make sure that you face them in different directions for a more organic look. This will also help to create a microclimate to keep your rockery plants happy and healthy.
Once you’re happy with the position of your keystones, bed them in with a combination of soil and smaller stones. To add extra definition to your rockery, arrange some stones to create an outer wall. These don’t need to be placed in a uniform pattern as you would expect with bricks, but simply to add structure to your design. Bed these rocks in with soil, and also fill any gaps with smaller rocks. Leave some space for planting pockets to create beds for plants and flowers to grow in.
Step 5: Selecting Suitable Plants
Alpine plants are often used for rockeries due to their hardy and versatile nature. They are used to thriving in extreme conditions, but can also do very well in gardens too.
A simple way to make sure you’re getting the placement of your plants right is to have a test run. Position your plants in pots across the rockery, taking time to step back and make sure you’re happy with your arrangement. Generally, plants which thrive in cooler conditions should face north, and more sun-loving plants should point south.
Once you’ve finalised your plant placement, next you need to loosen the planting pockets and half-fill them with suitable compost. If you are using plants that like free-draining conditions, it may benefit them to add some horticultural grit to the compost mix too.
Finally, firm the plants down into the compost and fill in the space around them before watering and allowing them to get established. Hide the soil beneath the plant's foliage or with a handful of gravel.
Tips for Keeping Your Rockery Healthy
Once your rockery is established it will be a low-maintenance feature in your garden that doesn’t require feeding or pruning and also needs very little watering.
It is important to keep checking for weed growth though and taking a few minutes to remove them as soon as they appear. Make sure you also keep up with deadheading any spent alpine flowers and add them to the compost heap if you have one.
It’s also worth cutting back any overgrown plants that might overshadow the rockery, and in Autumn, remove any leaves that have fallen from nearby trees to keep it looking tidy.
If you have any questions on how to build a rockery, get in touch. Our experts are always happy to help. You can also browse our beautiful range of rockery stones and boulders here, so take a look and start planning your next project.
