Underhill's Rockery Garden Ideas

The use of rockery in the garden can add natural ambience. A mixture of rockery stones and a variety of attractive shrubs and flowers is sometimes the best way to deal with that slope in your back yard.

Slopes present an opportunity for a number of different landscaping ideas that would not be suitable elsewhere. The first concern to deal with is stopping the garden soils from washing down to the bottom of the slope after a heavy rain or during spring thaw. This can be accomplished with three things. First, we strategically place rockery stones throughout the slope. The soil pockets created behind the rocks are much more level and will reduce erosion. Secondly, we plant a variety of evergreens, deciduous shrubs, perennials and ground covers. As these plants begin to root in and cover the soils, erosion is reduced even more. Finally, we can cover the soils with decorative mulch or bark nuggets. Not only will this mulching provide final step in erosion control, your de-weeding maintenance chores will be almost eliminated. Not to mention the benefits your plants will enjoy with cooler soil with more moisture.

There are so many different types of rockery. Each will display a color, density, texture and shape characteristic of the region where is has been obtained from. Accordingly, most stone styles are named with the general pit region attached (Example: Wiarton Ledgerock, Pennsylvania Flagstone, Credit Valley Drywall, Frontenac Rockery etc…) The objective is to chose a style of stone which will compliment your home and landscape layout.

Rockery is a rather broad, general term indicating the use of rocks in the landscape. There are effective, attractive ways to use stone for slope retention, retaining walls, steps, planters, traffic barriers, signage, seating, water features, color themes, or just plain garden accents. Did I mention rockery is maintenance free! Let your imagination run free when considering the use of rockery for your garden.