Rock gardens require little work because hardly any weeds grow on them and they require little watering. Visually they appear modern and elegant. Below you will find out how to create a stone bed step by step that requires little work and will last for years. You will also receive ideas for designing with stones and plants.
How do I create a stone bed?
To create a stone bed, you should prepare the ground, set a bed border, insert suitable plants, place weed fleece and cover it with pebbles and mulch. This results in an easy-care garden area with a modern and elegant appearance.
Planning the stone bed
Before you start working, you should plan the stone bed to be designed. To do this, first measure it and roughly sketch it on a piece of paper. Then it's time to research: look at pebbles and plants for stone beds online or in a garden store and make a choice. Consider:
- The stone bed lives from solitary plants. Plant only a few, effective plants.
- Plan borders or borders of individual plants with larger stones.
- Choose different colored gravel to create beautiful patterns.
The plant selection
Rock gardens are usually planted with grasses and trees. These require little work, can handle little water and are hardy and often wintergreen. Think about how high you want your grasses or trees to grow and combine different growth heights as desired. You can find a selection of the most beautiful, hardy plants for your stone bed here.
A stone bed can also bloom! If you would like to create a flowering stone bed, choose flowering, drought-tolerant cushion plants or flowering shrubs such as rhodedendron.
How to properly create a stone bed step by step
To create a bed with stones you need:
- a spade (€29.00 at Amazon)
- a rake
- lots of pebbles
- Fieldstones for boundaries
- Plants
- Weed fleece
- possibly compost
- possibly sand
- Mulch
1. Preparing the soil
Professional gardeners would dig and level the soil to a depth of about 10cm before planting and then reapply the soil mixed with sand and possibly compost in spots. This takes a lot of work and is not absolutely necessary.
It is enough if you dig the holes for the plants and prepare the soil according to the plants' requirements. This has the advantage that you can individually meet the special requirements of each plant, e.g. sandy soil for giant feather grass or special soil for rhododendron bushes. So mix and fill the soil specifically for each planting hole So do it.
2. Bed border
Now place the bed border. This can be a hedge of low-growing trees or a row of field stones or similar.
3. Plant plants
Now plant your plants. Remember that a few centimeters of mulch is applied to the surface.
4. Place weed control fabric
Now cover the entire area with weed fleece. Cut holes in the fleece where plants are located. Make sure that the panels overlap slightly.
5. Distribute gravel
Now spread a layer of pebbles one to several centimeters thick onto the stone bed. Leave out the area around the plants in a circle.
6. Mulching
Now cover the area around the plants with a different colored gravel or mulch such as bark mulch.
