Beds of stones with their own hands. how to make flower beds

To make your garden original and unique, many gardeners have resorted to adding various handmade decorations. Usually these are figurines from any available materials or unusual flower beds. Very often you can find flowerbeds made of stone, because this material is the most durable and gives the landscape of the site a natural look.

Stone flowerbeds: a photo collection of original options

How to make a bed of stones?

Before proceeding to the design of the flower beds, you should carefully consider what stones, plants and accessories it will consist of. Choosing boulders, you need to take into account their composition, and whether it is suitable for the soil and plants that you are going to plant in a flower bed.

For example, granite significantly increases the acidity level of the soil, and limestone lowers it, so when building a stone fence, try to do with a minimum amount of granite stones. Garden plants prefer weak acidity. Slate, dolomite, basalt, tuff and limestone varieties are suitable for the garden.

You should also determine the style of the future composition. There are several types of stone flower design:

• Rockery The basis of the composition consists of massive stones, located in small groups. Small stones act as a supplement and give a flower bed shape. Usually, rockeries are built in an open, sunny place and have thermophilic plants in it.
• Alpine Hill - a small man-made hill. The main goal here is to achieve maximum naturalness, similarity with the present mountain slope. When creating an alpine slide can not do without mountain plants and small shrubs.
• The terrace-slope is a multi-level composition consisting of high rapids on which bright flowers and thick grass are placed. For construction they use crushed stones, which eventually become more natural under the influence of weather conditions.
• Japanese garden. Behind a hedge or a thin fence this place gains a mood of solitude. Such compositions are often placed under the crowns of ornamental trees (thuja, dwarf pine, barberry, creeping willow). The basis is large stones covered with moss. Free space is filled with pebbles or rubble, plants for such a flower bed will require little.
• Flowerbed with stone curb. The easiest and most popular option, and at the same time very bright. It is suitable for both small cottages and a large garden. Such a flower bed can be built from any stones and flowers of different varieties.

Before you start building, be responsible for choosing the place where your creation will be located. If you do not want the bed to get in the way, place it along the fence or on the corner of the plot. More attention will be drawn to itself, broken in the center of the site, especially if it is of considerable size. Pre-mark the location of the walls and the height with the help of threads and hammered pegs.

In the process of building a stone flower bed, you must follow the harmony of size, color and unity of style. The walls of the flower beds should not close the flowers, but too high stems will not work. Roses, lilies, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, hosts, gladioli and astilbees will look impressive. For a rock garden and rock aria, the Carpathian bell, crocuses, crested hen, roses and wild strawberries are not bad.

It is better if the flower garden is made up of different types of plants, then each stone will be able to pick a flower that is suitable in height and color. For example, high grass is usually placed near a large stone, and, conversely, plants with bright buds will look more beneficial near dark stones, and faded flowers will complement pebbles well.

It is more convenient to work with boulders of the same size, it is recommended to make single-layer structures from stones of different sizes. When planting flowers, make sure that there is a distance between the stone and the roots to ensure the air exchange of the soil, the health of the plants depends on it. The exception is sandstones, as they are well breathable. Plants that tolerate dry weather can be planted in the gaps between the boulders. For the construction of flower beds, especially single-tier, it is not necessary to choose the boulders of the 1st species and to observe strict geometric shapes. Stones can be placed not only at the edges, but also in the center of the flower bed as an element of decor.

High beds of stone: features

Starting the construction of a high flower bed, you should consider a number of features:

1. To begin, you have to take care of the reliability and durability of the stone structure, because the fallen stone can not only damage the plants planted near, but also lead to the collapse of the part or even the whole "stone tower".
2. It is important to remember that for a high bed you need to choose angular stones of the same shape, for greater stability. To insure against destruction, gardeners lay out a concrete foundation under a flowerbed and apply a solution from inside. Do not forget to leave drainage holes in the bottom of the walls for water drainage. Make sure that the solution is not visible from the outside, if necessary, it can be closed with small pebbles or fragments.
3. Before pouring the soil onto the foundation, it is recommended to place geotextiles, it will ensure the durability of the base structure. If you plan to build a bed no higher than 50 cm in height, you can do without a solution. To do this, you should put the largest stones below and place boulders on top, smaller in size, joining them as tightly as possible.
4. Make sure that the flowers will be visible because of the stone hill. The "waterfall" of climbing stems will look beautiful here, but watch out for their density, otherwise they will close the stone base. Liana, for example, lemongrass, clematis, actinidia and wisteria can become a real gem of a high flowerbed and the whole garden. For these plants will require additional support, keeping them upright.
5. Lighting plays an important role. The center of the flower bed is well lit, there will be better to grow flowers that require a lot of sun. Large stones can create shade, so shade-loving plants should be planted nearby.

There are many stone flower bed designs. To make your flower garden bright and inimitable, you have to show maximum creativity and approach its construction with the greatest accuracy, having thought through even the smallest sides of the design.