Do you dream of creating a rockery of succulents in your garden? Discover all our tips for making it happen.
Where to install a rockery of succulents?
Rockery plants like dry soil and open spaces, flooded with sunlight. It is therefore better that they can benefit from a South-East or South-West exposure, with a maximum of hours of sunshine per day.
Another important point, an isolated rockery in the middle of a lawn can seem quite incongruous. On the contrary, to enhance your dry garden, integrate it into a planted ensemble:
- With a green background all year round, a hedge of evergreen shrubs as a backdrop for example.
- Or by creating the rockery in the heart of a flower bed that will highlight the riprap.
Surface occupied by the rockery
Depending on its means, a mini-rockery can easily be created in a large stone trough or in a corner of a bed, just as the whole garden can be laid out as a rockery!
Everything is ultimately a question of the time to devote to this project, of motivation and, of course, of financial means, because the basic materials to be transported (rocks, stones, sand, topsoil) can be very expensive!
What materials to use to make a rockery?
To make a beautiful rockery, you need:
- Rocks and stones of all sizes : some large and others of medium size. They should be reminiscent of the gardens in your area; contact local careers.
- A large amount of gravel (fine gravel), gravel and sand that will form the bedrock of the rock garden, which will save land and improve water drainage.
- Topsoil : spread only over the 20 cm thickness of the upper layer of each level of the rock garden.
How to arrange the stones in a rockery?
The ideal is to start from an inspiring drawing or photo. As in the mountains, the rock garden must show a natural effect with regular curves or strata and differences in level.
Start building your rockery from the bottom
- Install rocks and larger stones at the very bottom.
- Above, use the medium and smaller stones but in greater numbers.
- Finish at the top with lots of gravel and dirt.
Use the graveline to model the slope and to block the largest elements. The set must not exceed 1.20 m to 1.50 m in height.
Which succulents to choose?
In cold regions, only succulents and hardy cacti are suitable: agave americana , yucca, trichocereus, dasylirion , prickly pear , houseleeks… resist down to -10°C.
Near the Mediterranean coast, many other succulents can be added to this list: Jade tree (Crassula ovata), tree aloe, swan neck agave, black aeonium, euphorbia des garrigues …
Install the tallest plants on the upper part of the rockery: they will accentuate the height effect of the composition.
Ground cover plants such as ficoids (Lampranthus), houseleeks, echeverias tolimensis, witches’ claws, various sedums (Sedum acre, Sedum palmeri or the Kamtchatka stonecrop especially) are rather arranged in the lower part, at the above a large rock.
Some pitfalls to avoid
To obtain a beautiful visual appearance, it is imperative to:
- Do not lay a few standing stones while the rest is laid flat. The whole must follow the same movement.
- Take the time to choose the stones and don’t hesitate to turn them and turn them over until you find their best side!
- Stabilize all stones. Just think that you are going to have to walk on it to maintain the rock garden.
To stabilize them, you can lay them horizontally, but with a slight inclination towards the back. Dig a shallow hole to bury this back part.
Spread a layer of gravel until you get the desired slope; put your stone on it and fill with gravel on the sides then sand and earth to finish wedging it.