Increasingly, when designing suburban areas, classic green lawns and flower beds are being abandoned in favor of modern compositions. For example, a gravel garden in our open spaces appeared relatively recently, but has already managed to gain popularity among summer residents. First of all, it attracts with its interesting, spectacular and neat appearance. Another important fact is that such a garden can be easily created with your own hands.
History of gravel gardens
In Eastern countries, dry gardens or rock gardens originate from the Muromachi period (1336-1573). It was then that it became popular to decorate the courts with gravel and place a decorative object in the center in the form of a fountain, a plant in a flowerpot or a sculpture.
The gravel garden is a kind of offshoot from the well-known dry gardens, which has a specific creator. The author of this idea is Beatrice Chatto. She, taking oriental landscapes as a basis, created her first garden withgravel in the 70s of the 20th century.
Since then, the style has undergone some changes, which were made not only by Beth herself, but also by her followers.
Advantages of gravel composition
- Decorative. This garden looks spectacular throughout the year. He is not afraid of the vagaries of nature, from which ordinary flower beds can become unusable (for example, drought, cold, heavy rains). It is also easy to disguise elements of the irrigation system and site lighting under gravel.
- Economy. Gravel is a relatively inexpensive material. In addition, you can combine it with various stones that are already on the site.
- Easy care. Most of all, it takes effort at the time of creating a gravel garden with your own hands. Then all work is reduced to a minimum, because plants for such a design are selected unpretentious, foliage cleaning is not required, and the coating itself almost does not need care.
- Versatility. A gravel garden is ideal for all types of landscaping, especially for very problematic areas where it is extremely difficult to grow ornamental plants and emerald lawn. For example, a good solution is to set up a stone flower garden in a shady place.
- Sustainability. Properly laid gravel can keep the soil cool and optimally moist, thus maintaining good conditions for the development of the root system of trees and other plants. In addition, a layer of pebbles reduces temperature fluctuations and protects the soil from frost in winter and from frost in summer.overheating.
How to make a gravel garden?
Ease of creation is one of the advantages of decorating the landscape with gravel. Anyone can make it at a minimum cost.
DIY gravel garden step by step:
- Choice of location. It is not necessary to strew the entire garden with small pebbles. You can thus arrange only a small part of it, making a kind of flower bed. The recommended minimum area on which a gravel garden will look impressive is 1-1.5 square meters. m.
- Creating a site plan on paper or electronically.
- Calculation of materials and their preparation. It is very important to calculate the required amount of gravel. For example, 12 sq. meters of territory need about one ton of stones.
- Preparation of the site. At this stage, a whole range of works is being carried out: cleaning the site, tilling the soil, digging the soil, and so on.
- Backing up gravel and creating dividing curbs.
- Planting plants.
- Landscape work to decorate the garden.
Creating a sketch
This is the most creative stage, during which the landscape design of the garden plot is fully thought out:
- the relief and drawing of the territory are being invented;
- plants are selected and grouped;
- gravel cover is selected;
- are defined with various decorative items and so on.
The first step in the development of the project is to think over the terrain of the site. It can be a flat surface, a site with a slight slopeor terrain with more complex transitions in the form of mounds. Here it is necessary to start not so much from personal wishes, but from the existing features of the garden and the gravel cover itself. For example, so that the pebbles do not crumble, the maximum allowable slope should not exceed 10 degrees. When laying out a garden on a steeper slope, it is better to resort to creating terraces.
Simultaneously with the determination of the surface relief, the selection of stones and the pattern of the coating takes place. For example, you can combine different materials and create patterns using them, as in the photo above. The simplest, but no less effective design is the use of multi-colored fine and coarse gravel.
Selection of stones
To create a garden, it is recommended to use gravel of different shades and fractions. This allows you to create more interesting compositions. Also, stone chips, multi-colored crushed stone are suitable as bulk material.
One of the most successful garden solutions is sea pebbles. It has a nice smooth surface and shimmers beautifully in the sun. Pebbles are laid on top of the main coating in a small layer.
Selection of plants
Plants for the garden are selected based on the characteristics of the site and the possibility of caring for them. For example, there are drought-resistant unpretentious crops that do not require much attention. Other important rules for the selection of plants are the decorativeness of crops and their compatibility with each other. in gravelperennials look great in the garden with an interesting crown shape and graceful leaves, bright flowers and fruits.
Plants should also be selected based on their flowering cycle. It is so beautiful when in spring, summer and autumn the garden is decorated with bright colors. Therefore, it is worth grouping spring-flowering crops with perennials that delight the eye from summer to late autumn.
Among trees and shrubs, low-growing plants are usually preferred: dwarf thujas, junipers, weeping willow, willow, barberry, cotoneaster, Japanese spirea and others. The most popular herbaceous perennials for a gravel garden are poppies, crocuses, alpine edelweiss, carnations, primroses, violets, as well as ornamental grasses (evergreen oats, thin-leaved feather grass, euphorbia). All ground cover crops and cushion plants look spectacular among the pebbles.
In fact, you can pick up a lot of different flowers and shrubs. But when creating a gravel garden, it is extremely important to adhere to one of the basic rules - do not plant a large number of plants. Otherwise, instead of the original idea of creating an elegant rocky garden, something completely different will turn out.
Site preparation
The most optimal soil for setting up a garden is sandy. It is loose, loose, well passes water. If the soil is not the same at the chosen place, you need to make a drainage layer. To do this, remove 10-15 cm of soil. All weeds, roots and possible debris are removed. After that, the area should be moistened and left for a week. This time is enough for the emergence of newweeds, the roots of which remained in the ground. If weeds still appear, they must be removed completely.
A week later, the area under the garden is dug up along with a mixture of expanded clay and coarse sand, as well as vermiculite. The last component can be replaced with expanded clay, brick or granite chips. Thus, it will be possible to create the necessary layer to remove excess moisture. If necessary, organic fertilizers (such as peat) can be added to the soil.
Finally, the soil should be slightly compacted and covered with black geotextile, which prevents the appearance of weeds and subsidence of the gravel layer.
Backfilling the territory
Gravel placement is usually done before planting in the garden. However, you can plant all the crops first, and then backfill.
When using geotextiles, the thickness of the gravel layer is only 5-10 cm. This is quite enough to cover the soil tightly with pebbles and create a beautiful site. Without the use of a special cloth, the gravel layer should be significantly larger - about 25 cm. After filling the pebbles, it is recommended to carefully pour the coating with water.
At the borders of the site and decorative zones, it is imperative to install dividing borders. They will help prevent the gravel from spilling outside the area, and will also block the growth of other plants that are outside the composition. You can make dividing borders from metal, plastic, ordinary boards or bricks. True, the last two materials have a significant drawback. Woodover time, under the influence of moisture, it collapses, and the brick is needed in large quantities, because the curb must be dug around the entire perimeter of the site that is planned to be ennobled, to a depth of 20-25 cm.
Planting plants
Plants for a gravel garden are planted in several stages. First of all, it is necessary to arrange the cultures directly in the containers in the places provided for according to the project sketch. Thus, all the shortcomings that were made on paper can be easily corrected. For example, it may turn out that some plants do not fit together well, or they need to be placed differently. Planting is started when the appearance of the gravel garden is completely satisfactory to the owner.
Trees and shrubs should be planted first. When they take root, you can start planting perennials and carpet plants. They are followed by a series of bulb crops and flowers.
The planting technology for all types is the same:
- A gravel layer is removed in the right place, or a hole is made in it.
- A cross-shaped cut is made in the geotextile.
- Dig a hole of suitable size.
- The plant is lowered into the hole along with the earthy clod.
- The culture is carefully dug in, the soil around is compacted.
- At the end, the plant is watered abundantly.
In order for plants to take root, it is recommended to choose crops with a he althy root system, and plant early in the morning, in the evening or on cloudy days.
It is noteworthy that in the gravel gardennot necessarily all crops should be planted in open ground. Plants in beautiful tubs and flowerpots look no less impressive. But then care becomes a little more complicated, since such perennials need to be covered or transferred for the winter. Otherwise, they may freeze.
Garden decoration
Garden gravel is a unique material that allows you to experiment with color and fraction, creating unique patterns and changing the relief of the site. To create accents, you can supplement the coating with interspersed sandstone, jadeite, marble, dolomite, quartzite, diabase, shell rock, jasper.
Natural wood flooring looks very nice in a gravel garden, which can serve not only as a decorative element, but also perform a practical function. Of these, you can make a path passing through the composition. It would also be nice to equip small recreation areas on such platforms.
You can use as decorative elements of the garden:
- garden lamps (such as stone lanterns);
- coarse gravel and boulders;
- small ponds;
- interesting garden sculptures.
Tip: If you plan to install lights in a gravel garden, then this should be planned in advance so that you can lay the necessary cables even at the stage of soil preparation. But this applies only to electric lamps. Solar lights can be placed at any time.
You can see the design ideas for gravel gardens in the photos above. For example, a round flower garden looks spectacular, the center of which is decorated with a small obelisk and large stones. Low-growing plants in this case "spread" from the center to the edges of the flower bed.
Another interesting solution would be to decorate the gravel garden with cacti and succulents. True, in our latitudes, these plants will not survive the winter, so they should not be dug into the ground, but arranged in pots.
Significantly simplify the task of decorating a garden with a simple, but no less attractive geometric design. To do this, it is enough to leave a few squares among the gravel, in which plants will then be planted. By the way, this idea is suitable for a stylish design of the garden.
Further maintenance of the landscape
In most cases, gravel garden maintenance is minimal and comes down to following these guidelines:
- At first planted plants need regular soil moisture for good rooting. After the crops have taken root, watering is carried out according to their requirements, given that the gravel retains moisture for a long time.
- Even with full compliance with the technology of landscaping, weeds will appear on the site, as their seeds are carried by the wind. It is quite difficult to remove such cultures from stones. It's best to weed them out.
- Trash can be as much of a problem as weeds. Therefore, it must be removed in time with a rake or a stiff brush. These tools are easy to work withdense coating. If the backfill is loose, then it is better to remove the garbage with your hands.
- It is recommended to renew gravel every two years by adding fresh stones.
- If necessary, fertilize the plants from time to time.
- Withered crops must be removed and new ones planted in their place.
Such simple actions will help keep the gravel composition clean and maintain its spectacular appearance.
If you haven't decided on a full rock garden yet, try making gravel garden paths flanked with hardy plants.
