A raised bed is an extremely practical thing, and not just for people with back problems. It makes caring for the garden a lot easier because you no longer have to bend over when planting, weeding and other maintenance work. Instead, you will find your garden at a comfortable working height. Of course, the desired rock garden can also be created in a raised bed - or you can integrate it into an appropriately designed landscape.
How can you create and plant a rock garden raised bed?
A rock garden raised bed can be easily created by designing the border with gabions or dry stone walls and filling it with lean rock garden soil. Small plants such as cushion phlox or Mediterranean herbs are ideal for planting.
Building a raised bed
Building a raised bed is actually not that complicated: all you need is a border of the desired height, which is filled with shredded twigs, compost and, on top, lean rock garden soil. The raised bed box is usually made of wooden slats, but can also be made of other materials.
Gabion with rubble stones as a border
Visually appealing, especially for a planned rock garden, is a gabion filled with rubble stones (€92.00 on Amazon). This refers to baskets of different lengths and widths that are filled with stones and thus form a stone wall that is quite easy to design. These are ideal for a rock garden simply because any moisture that enters can drain away easily, thus preventing waterlogging. Alternatively, a dry stone wall is also very suitable for edging a raised bed.
Raised bed embedded in a rock garden
You can of course set up the raised bed individually, for example as a highlight on the lawn or next to the terrace. In addition, this can also be implemented as an integral part of a larger drywall, for example a slope-supporting drywall. There are many design options, and a raised bed can be set up even if there is little space. It can look very distinctive within an existing rock garden, for example, if the raised bed with particularly rare mountain plants is integrated as a micro landscape within the larger one.
Planting a raised bed as a rock garden
Basically, the same rules apply to planting the rock garden raised bed as to planting a regular rock garden. With one exception: Due to the limited space available, it is best to choose plants that remain small, although cushion plants can also easily grow beyond the border and hang down on the walls. For example, upholstered phlox, one of the typical rock garden cushions, is very suitable for this purpose. There are also small species here that are ideal for a raised bed.
Tip
Mediterranean herbs and various types of grass with their interesting leaf colors also look very good in raised bed rock gardens.