The Care and Feeding of Rock Gardens

Rock gardens are a great landscaping choice, especially for environments that don't get a lot of rain and consequently can't support the convential lawn without wasteful water usage. They are also a great component of xeriscaping, planting a lawn with plants that don't require extra water. A rock garden is virtually maintenance free, which is one reason they are so popular.

Visualize the site and size of your rock garden. It is helpful, when visiting a nursery or hunting for rocks at a local river, to have an idea of the kind of garden you want. Putting together a blueprint of your future garden can aid you immeasurably in buying materials to create your garden.

Rock gardens can be planted with ground cover plants around the bottom edge of the 'rockery' so that it blends in with the lawn. Or, if you prefer, the lawn can be sharply edged around the rockery to give it more definition. There are many uses for rocks in a decorative scheme and many plants that will provide whatever color scheme you wish.

One component of a rock garden that should not be neglected is proper drainage for the plants and choosing plants that will thrive happily in your soil. Your local nursery or native plant society will probably have the answers to most of your questions about how to pick the best site, create good drainage (if you don't already have it) and what plants will live happily within your property boundaries.

If you are buying rocks, as opposed to searching for them in countryside and coast, you will be able to pick up many colored rocks, which will give plenty of interest to your rockery. However, there are many beautiful arrangements that can be made with rocks that you pick up in river beds or that just happen to catch your eye (don't take rocks or anything else from protected spaces, though!)

For a special touch, you can set up a self-circulating pebble pond either on the top of your rockery, or slightly lower and to one side. This will require a bowl which will be hidden by lots of stones, the type of stones you find at the beach. Pebble pools work by an electric pump squirting water up into the air about twelve inches; the water drops down vertically and falls over the pebbles. This water drains through the pebbles and into the bowl where it is collected into the circulating flow. An eco-friendly way to do this is to buy a solar-powered pump and keep a rain barrel, with which you can periodically refresh the water in the pond.

Once rock gardens are established, especially if they feature xeriscaping, they require very little maintenance to keep them looking good and lending some character to your property. For people who maintain their own property, but want as little maintenance as possible, they are one of the best choices in landscaping.

For information on Holiday Isle real estate, contact Michael Taylor, your Destin real estate expert, at DestinRealEstateSales.com