Alpine slide in the apartment with your own hands. Decoration for a compact garden - a small alpine slide from affordable materials

Currently, there are many ways to decorate a summer cottage, making it unique. You can use curly trimmed bushes, rare plants, paths, originally lined with stone, flower beds with a variety of color combinations. All this has long been familiar to experienced gardeners. Nevertheless, there is an unbroken version of the landscape design of the dacha - an alpine hill.

Peculiarities

Alpine slide or rock garden is a landscape composition that recreates the landscape of mountains. In its center, at a certain height, a stone or several stones are installed, and along the slopes there are platforms (terraces) with specially selected plants and flowers, mainly from the Alpine mountains. This kind of object can become a "star" like big garden, and a small suburban area. The basis of this element is the combination of stones with mountain plants.

The rock garden today is the main competitor of gypsum sculptures and garden beds , rabatok and mixborders, with which you will not surprise anyone for a long time. Currently, rocky slides are extremely popular among owners. summer cottages. This is due both to their beauty and spectacular appearance, and the ability to create your own, unique in design and atmosphere, a corner that will delight the eye all year round.

The main difficulty in creating a mountain landscape on suburban area lies in the need to artificially reproduce natural natural immediacy. After all, where conditions for plant growth are formed at the site of rock breaks, there is no symmetry, and in order to repeat this in your garden, you need remarkable imagination and skill, as well as the artistic taste of the author of the composition.

At the same time, the rock garden should not stand out too much from the general landscape, but on the contrary, it should harmoniously fit into it.

Sometimes an alpine slide is mistakenly called a rockery., but it's not the same thing. Rockery is a construction made of stone, rubble and other materials (from English word rock - stone). There are two main differences between rock garden and rockery. Firstly, a rock garden is an imitation of a mountain landscape, while a rockery can be located both on a flat surface and on an inclined one - on any one that the master of landscape design invents and creates. Secondly, any plants can grow in rockeries, not just alpine ones (and only stones should be in Japanese rockeries), which is convenient in climatic conditions other than mountain ones.

Where to place?

When choosing the best place to place an alpine slide, you need to take into account a number of conditions.

Natural terrain. If there are slopes or small ravines on the site, you can use them to equip a rock garden, avoiding wasting time and effort.
The rock garden should be visible from any corner of the cottage, which means that it must be located in an open and not obstructed by trees place. The absence of trees will help to avoid the need to clear the hill from fallen leaves in the fall.
Lots of sun, as alpine plants love light. It is desirable that the sun illuminates the object in the morning. The more shadow will fall on the hill, the longer it will dry out after the rain. Although this problem can be solved - you need to plant fern species nearby.
Limited water and rocky ground. Excessive moisture is harmful to alpine plants.

Landscape designers recommend placing rock gardens on eastern or western slopes. because mountain plants feel best there. You can also place a hill on the northern slope, but then you need to use shade-loving and moisture-tolerant crops. It is also important to strike a balance between colors and stones. You can place a rock garden near the house, but not too close to the wall due to the possibility of snow from the roof, or you can - in the center of the site. It is not advisable to place a slide against the background of the fence. A different background is needed, for example, in the form of a hedge. Near big trees creating a rock garden is also not worth it, as the tree will overwhelm it with its size.

Of course, you do not need to place a slide next to greenhouses and beds. It will not look aesthetically pleasing, will not fit into the landscape. The rock garden is designed in that part of the site that is intended for recreation, where the owners can enjoy its attractive view and recuperate next to it.

A neat lawn can complement the foreground of the rock garden. It will also serve as a frame if located around the slide. A beautiful continuation of the hill can be a flower garden with the same plants or a rocky mound small size. It is effective when a pond is built at the foot of the hill, into which a small cascade or stream flows down from the slope.

True, to make it, it will take much more effort and money than for an ordinary slide, but the result will justify all the costs.

Training

Before you start doing something on the site, you need to imagine the future rock garden, regardless of whether a high hill with a waterfall or a small rocky garden is planned. To prevent common mistakes, you can use diagrams for beginners. In order to make a slide project with your own hands, you need to draw a drawing, draw up a rough plan.

It needs to take into account:

position on the site, placement of other objects near the hill;
form;
the size;
the presence of a reservoir, its type and boundaries;
the layout of stones, their size, shape, breed;
planting plants.

As the initial stage of work, it is necessary to prepare a site measuring 1.5x2.5 m. All weeds are removed at the selected site: for example, bindweed, thistle. The most suitable for arranging a slide is sandy soil. If the soil is clayey, drainage is not required, but if the soil is too wet, then no drainage is required. ground water not enough.

To do this, you need to dig a hole with a depth of 30 cm (depending on the planned height of the future rock garden). The more reliable the drainage, the more durable the slide will be. The first 10 cm should be covered with crushed brick or gravel. You can use expanded clay for this purpose. The next 5 cm is a layer of coarse sand that needs to be leveled. Each layer must be watered. Next, the earth that was previously dug is poured, and it is tightly compacted around the entire perimeter of the future rock garden.

In order to avoid intensive growth of weeds, it is recommended to pass the soil through a screen before falling asleep. Laying of stones begins only after the soil has settled, that is, after 14-20 days. There are several terraces in the rock garden, usually their number varies from 3 to 5. Each tier is laid out around the perimeter with large stones, after which the gaps are filled with soil, which is compacted. Then proceed to the design of the next terrace. In the event that the earth sags, it is necessary to fill the resulting voids with a substrate. If tracks are provided in the rock garden, they are laid out at the same time.

It is best to equip the slide in the fall, as natural shrinkage will occur in winter. It is also good to treat the soil with preparations for the destruction of weeds - subsequently it will be much easier to care for the plants. There is an opinion that the best solution for decorating a rocky garden is one that is carried out without any construction work.

Thus, it remains possible to painlessly make adjustments to the design if necessary.

Plants

To select the types of flora for arranging a rock garden, additional knowledge and skills will be required. Variants of shrubs, flowers are selected depending on the type of hill. If it is rocky, located in a sunny place, then light-loving, drought-resistant crops are needed. In order to create a classic alpine slide, both low species and perennials - herbs and flowers are required. In addition, you need to know that not all types of plants "get along" with stones and are suitable for placement on a hill.

When choosing your combination of crops for planting on rock garden terraces, it is better to give preference to those that meet the following criteria:

beautiful appearance;
low varieties of shrubs and trees;
undemanding care;
thermophilicity.

Carpet, small-bulbous, rosette, tuberous groups of plants are best suited for these purposes. The basis for the design of the slide are small trees, mostly conifers, such as pine, thuja, cypress, juniper. If speak about flowering shrubs, then lingonberries, blueberries, almonds, broom, rhododendron are perfect for decorating a rock garden.

It is impossible to imagine a rock garden in which there are no flowers. perennial plants with beautiful flowers will make any garden unique and stylish. Considering climatic features Russia, you should not be limited only to alpine high-mountain plants. In some cases, the presence of cultures living in the forest, steppe, or even on the sea coast will be appropriate on a rocky hill. There is even a Mexican version of the rock garden with cacti. Alpine edelweiss and awl-shaped phlox can decorate the rock garden, Carpathian bell and saxifrage and many other types of plants.

Along the edges and separate sections rock garden planted undersized and ground cover crops: primrose, ferns, periwinkle, lavender, bluebells.

As for deciduous plants, there are some difficulties with them. The main thing is to avoid planting deciduous species, because this can create unnecessary problems with flying around and subsequent cleaning of leaves. Moreover, fallen leaves not only spoil the aesthetic appearance of the slide, but can also harm other plants. Therefore, when choosing deciduous crops to design a rock garden, it is better to pay attention to evergreen representatives of this type, such as iberis, dryad or cotoneaster.

If you want the alpine hill to start pleasing to the eye in early spring and bloom everything summer months up to late autumn, you need to include bulbous species in its design: snowdrops, crocuses (regular and late), tulips, blueberries, pushkinia, colchicum. An expressive background for plants with a short flowering period will be created by their long-flowering "brothers": for example, Atlantic poppy or bluebell.

Choosing stones

There are many varieties of rocky gardens, and they all have one thing in common: they are an artificially created mini-copy of a mountain landscape. The stone embankment imitates a plateau, merging into a sequence of terraces, and above them are stones, designed to be mountain cliffs. It is best to equip a rock garden natural stones related to rocks: basalt, sandstone, limestone, granite, and other durable and low-porous rocks. It is undesirable to work with shell rock, tuff, dolomite. Since these rocks are porous, they quickly absorb moisture, as a result of which they are prone to rapid destruction.

It is important to consider what the appearance of the rocky garden will be. It is best to consider this point already at the stage of drafting the project. In addition to the site, the rock garden should be in harmony in style and with the house. If the house is made of wood, then the shape of the slide should be softer. A high-tech house will allow you to play with the form - for example, use it in decor geometric figures, such as cubes, prisms, balls. The most elegant alpine slide will look if there is a bright dominant element. It may be a large original stone, interesting tree, stream or unusual flower.

It should be clearly visible from any side, because it is thanks to him that the design looks complete, and the landscape looks like a single whole.

It is also possible that there is no main accent that attracts attention to itself in the rock garden. So, if you plan to plant bright flowers, then it is better to take stones in neutral tones so that they serve as a background. If the plants are inexpressive, then it makes sense to choose interesting, bright stones. In the case of combining heterogeneous stones, there is a high risk that the rock garden will look like a pile of randomly thrown stones, so it is better to take samples that are similar in color and shape.

Most often, the following rocks are used to build a slide:

white-green quartz;
marble chips white color;
milky quartz;
quartzite petrified wood;
both green and red jasper;
quartz "rainbow";
sandstone.

If limestone is used for the foundation of the rock garden, an alkaline reaction is possible in the soil between the stones. Such soil is not suitable for some types of plants and needs to be acidified. You can acidify the soil, for example, with sphagnum moss or leaf compost. In order to create a small rock garden about 2.5x1.5 m in size, you need about 2 tons of large, heavy stones. Each stone separately must weigh at least 12 kg. This is necessary for the stability of the structure. In some slides, even boulders weighing 100 kg can be used.

The color of the stones and their shape are extremely important. Too round or, conversely, acute-angled will not work. As for the stones different color, then they look proportional only in rock gardens of a certain type. At classic way decor of a rocky garden it is assumed that single-species stones are used different sizes. The largest of them are laid out along the perimeter of the slide, more often at the bottom - they are suitable for framing. For better adhesion to the ground, they are dug into the soil by about 60%.

The stones on the tiers of the slide must be positioned so that their faces, accessible to the eye, look perfect. Stones with defects are stacked in such a way as to hide the flaws. There must be intervals between boulders, which are subsequently filled with plants and flowers. It is necessary to lay stones, taking into account their size and weight, as naturally as possible, trying to recreate the natural randomness.

Stones laid out required amount tiers of the hill. In order to decorate the top, the most interesting stones in size and shape are selected. The terraced form will allow you to direct the flow of water from the hill in the right direction and prevent soil erosion, as well as break the hill into areas suitable for growth various kinds plants.

If the rock garden project provides for a stream or waterfall, then a hose or pipe should be fixed and masked at the top, and at the foot or in the reservoir itself - a pump that will regulate the pressure of the water supplied.

Landing patterns

When planting plants for a rock garden, it is important to carry out all the work in a certain sequence in strict accordance with the scheme. Then the arrangement of a rocky garden with your own hands will not take much time and effort. There is an opinion that with a well-thought-out plan, it is possible to make an alpine slide in just one day. First you need to select the green elements of the system. Alpine perennials are most often used as a basis: for example, fescue, lavender, geranium and others, which gradually grow over time, forming a green cover.

It looks extremely picturesque.

To achieve a visual effect, it would be correct to plant plants with different flowering periods on a hill, placing them in groups that have a shape close to round. Then the rock garden will delight the owners from early spring to late autumn. It is better to combine vegetation so that dim and low specimens of flora are grouped, and the most spectacular plants are located separately, attracting attention to themselves. On a hill with several terraces, plants are planted in tiers.

The most drought-resistant plants are planted on the upper tier of the rock garden. That's where it gets the most sunlight and moisture from the soil quickly evaporates. For this purpose, ground cover representatives of the flora are most suitable.

The middle part of the slide is best decorated with plants that love both the sun and moisture, easily tolerate shade. On the terraces of the rock garden, the soil moisture is higher, so the choice of species suitable for decorating this part of the composition is much wider. Plants are planted at the foot that easily tolerate shade and love soil saturated with moisture.
dwarf trees(both coniferous and deciduous) and shrubs should be planted in the first place, allocating the most large plots. It is not advisable to place them on the "sole" of the rock garden. The best place to plant upright dwarf plants in the composition - near large stones, installed at the edges of the hill at some distance from each other. After shrubs, herbaceous species are planted, and ground cover plants complete the planting.

It is also important to take into account the duration of flowering plants, climatic conditions in the region, the compatibility of plants with each other. If you correctly arrange annual and perennial plants on the rock garden area, then it will look attractive all the time, while the owner will be able to annually supplement the composition with new species.

There are seven types of rock gardens:

rock - a surface with natural breaks;
mountain slope, on which conifers and boulders of considerable size are located;
Czech rolling pin, main characteristic feature which is layered masonry;

a forest ravine in which a spring or an artificial waterfall flows;
slope with terraces;
rocky wall - a low hill with randomly thrown stones;
a gorge with groups of asymmetrically arranged stones;
alpine lawn, planted with wild crops growing mainly in the mountains.

Registration

It may seem that the location of rock gardens is only permissible in well-lit areas, but this is not so. If you choose the right flowers and shrubs, then it is quite possible to arrange a hill in the shade. Then the composition will imitate not the highlands, but the zone of the mountain forest. Any terrain is suitable for a shady garden: gentle, gorge, terraced, and tiered. Each of them can be beautifully beaten, creating a cozy corner on the site. You can decorate such a rock garden with large stones, natural snags. You can arrange a path of crushed stone, gravel or mulched bark.

To design a shady rocky garden, a larger selection of plants is provided. You can use not only alpine mountain crops, but also grown in traditional flower beds, such as lilac, hydrangea, elderberry, viburnum. Also, partial shading is well tolerated by phlox, peonies, mint, primrose, daylily. However, you still do not need to overdo it with flowerbed perennials. Firstly, they are much looser and larger than their mountain "brothers", and secondly, they grow too actively, covering stones and ground cover plant species. As a result, the composition ceases to look neat, loses its attractive appearance.

In case of maintaining a balance between mountain and flower bed species of flora shady garden can decorate the site, while being easy to care for, since the plants that fill it are less whimsical and demanding than heat-loving crops growing in the sun.

Important emphasis

In order for the rock garden to please the owners not only during the day, you can mount lighting around it. Then, with the onset of the evening, it will look even more spectacular. It is best to use flashlights for this purpose. solar panels, since their installation does not require cable laying, electricity. Throughout daylight hours the battery is charged, and at night illuminates the area. You can place light sources around the perimeter of the rock garden, or you can highlight the terraces. In this case, only the imagination of the garden owner can serve as a limiter.

If a pond is adjacent to the slide, then one or more waterproof battery models can be installed in it, depending on the size and shape of the reservoir.

A good idea for the area adjacent to the hill can be a bench located in the shade. It can be arranged as you like: made from a single piece of wood or buy a wicker garden. It is also appropriate to decorate the bench decorative pillows, place an additional source of lighting so that in the evening you can sit with a book. You can go further by building a platform next to the rock garden, on which sun loungers and a table will be placed, to make a gazebo. If there is space, you can even arrange sofas and organize a seating area. It all depends on the desire of the owner and the size of the site. The main thing is that the rock garden and the area next to it harmonize in size, colors and style, complementing each other.

If the size of the territory of the site allows, then next to the rocky hill, several flower beds can be laid out, and the same plants that decorate the hill will grow on them. This will give additional volume and scale to the composition. Such an ensemble will look especially successful on a large, spacious plot.

It is important to understand that each of the rock gardens made by yourself is unique. With a little effort, you can create a real "diamond" on personal plot. In addition, decorating the slide can be done by the whole family. So, in addition to an impressive result, you will get a lot of positive emotions from joint creative work.

Children of any age will be able to contribute to the arrangement of the rock garden, and parents will once again have the opportunity to be with their children.

A thoughtful and stylish landscaped plot with luxurious flower beds and rock gardens is the pride of the owner. The design of the territory is especially impressive if the alpine slide is made with your own hands. After all, most people are sure that only a professional designer can do such work. But in fact, with a small amount of time, desire, as well as plants and the necessary materials, you can create an interesting rock garden.

A piece of the Alps at their summer cottage

Alpine slide in the country is becoming an increasingly popular element of decor, even small ones household plots. After all, beautiful stone elevations look spectacular, fit perfectly into any stylistic design of the space. Any alpine slide is a unique design object. There are certain rules for its creation, but the style, dimensions, features of slides depend directly on the taste and creative idea of the creator. Probably even if you use it to create an alpine slide with your own hands step by step photos, two different designers different outcomes will be obtained.

The base is stone. But not all piles of stones with vegetation breaking through among them are called alpine hills. There should be aesthetic appeal and harmony. There are several types of rock gardens:

Do-it-yourself Alpine slides - where to start?

Before proceeding directly to the creation of a rock garden, you need to prepare for such work. After all, only from the photo of the alpine slides in landscape design do it yourself quickly and easily. The creation process is usually preceded by careful preparation, which includes several stages:

We select a place to stay. The selection may fall on an uneven surface or flat area if there are no natural irregularities. The size of the rock garden depends on the size of the site. But it is better if you can choose a spacious and bright place to create an element of landscape design.
Sketch a sketch of the future rock garden. To do this, you can use a photo of alpine slides in the country, created by yourself. The sketch will help in the end to get the result that was originally expected.
Purchase all the necessary materials to create a slide. It is better to prepare stones, earth, plants and other decorative elements immediately so that work does not stop due to a lack of one or another component.

When choosing a location for the location of the future rock garden, try to find favorable angles. Such beauty cannot be hidden from everyone, it is important to flaunt it!

Choosing stones and plants for rock garden

Any alpine slide in the country with your own hands is created from several basic elements:

How to make an alpine slide yourself?

So, everything is ready to create a beautiful rock garden. The most difficult thing remains - the implementation of the slide on their own. In order for the result to soon please with its beauty, you need to follow simple recommendations:

When placing large boulders, be sure to leave some space between them, as the planted plants will need space for the development of the root system.

It is best to start creating an alpine slide with your own hands in the fall. During the winter, the earth will settle, so in the spring it will be possible to fill in the voids that have arisen and plant the plants. A competent approach will allow you to create a beautiful alpine hill in your backyard.

Master class for creating an alpine slide - video

Secrets of the successful creation of an alpine slide

Everyone has it landscape designer there are certain secrets that help him create stylish, spectacular and unique elements when decorating a garden or park area. But all these nuances can be used by beginners. It is only in the photo that the do-it-yourself alpine slide for beginners seems to be a simple and concise structure. In fact, it consists of selected elements, well-planned placement of them and a few subtleties that help to achieve a stunning appearance.

To make the first do-it-yourself rock garden look great, we share a few secrets of its harmonious look:

To create a hill, it is better to choose stones of the same breed. Only in this case it is possible to achieve a natural appearance of the slide.
The size of the stones should correspond to the area of the rock garden. The larger the size of the alpine slide, the larger boulders can be used.
When choosing plants, preference is given to evergreen and undersized species. In this case, the hill itself will not be lost in a few years behind the lush greenery of overgrown flowers and shrubs.
Look ideal among stones, as well as integumentary and creeping species. flowering plants it is better to choose with small flowers that will not distract all the attention.
It is better to plant plants in small holes and cover them with earth with a small stone. This will help prevent weed growth.
Plants should be placed so that they do not block stone embankments.

Despite the fact that grass and flowers should not block the stones, vegetation is always in the foreground in rock gardens.

The choice of plants to create an alpine slide gives room for imagination, because this element of landscape design allows for a riot of colors, a variety of varieties, up to a combination of opposites. Alpine slides imitate rocky areas, which are diverse in nature. The main thing is that the hill has a realistic look, and how steep, rocky and flowering its slopes will be, depends only on the author's imagination. And it is precisely in this versatility that the very “highlight” that has made alpine slides in modern gardens so popular lies.

We create an alpine slide on our own - video

A popular alpine flower bed with randomly placed stones imitates a natural mountain landscape and enlivens any garden. The rock garden is attractive from early spring to autumn. To create it, rather unpretentious plants and inexpensive materials are required, so even a not very experienced gardener can handle the construction and subsequent care. Ideas can be taken from nature itself, and if you use perennial plants, then it will be easy to maintain order.

Types of alpine flower beds

A variety of alpine flower beds allows you to choose for a garden with any height difference and soil features the least laborious, but the most effective option. If there is a hill, then it is more logical to beat it than to create a new one. A flat surface can be transformed with a few stones and fantasy.

Alpine flower garden does not require frequent maintenance

This will result in one of the following:

alpine hill - a hill with one or two peaks made of large stones. If there is no natural hill, it can be created from the land taken nearby, at the same time digging a hole for a small reservoir;
terraced slope - a way to design a garden area in which there is a slope. Such flower beds look good, for example, near the stairs, smoothing out the height difference;
flower wall- retaining wall, made using dry masonry. Plants peeking out of the cracks look natural;
rockeries - an imitation of a rocky landscape, where the main role is given not to plants, but to stones.

A mini pond completes the composition

Flowering plants refresh the landscape

Stages of laying and building a flower rock garden

Stones and boulders, along with plants, - essential elements flower garden alpine hill. To achieve naturalness, you should use one type of stone, for example, limestone or sandstone. Indeed, in nature, on the mountain slopes, one breed of stone is found nearby.

decorative elements improve perception

Site selection and site preparation

Creating an alpine flower bed with your own hands begins with choosing a place. The main condition is good lighting. If the terrain is sloping, then the east slope is best suited. The site is prepared based on specific conditions. If it is overgrown with grass, then upper layer turf is removed. At the same time, if it is of high quality, then it can be carefully set aside, and then used.

A single boulder can become the center of the composition

After removing the top layer of the earth, drainage is laid (about 20 cm): pebbles, crushed stone, broken brick. He needs to withdraw excess water. Under heavy boulders, if they want to be placed on top, they make additional racks of bricks so that the structure does not sag. If you use such a stone as in the photo below for an alpine flower bed, then reinforcement will be needed.

Construction works

When the drainage is ready, a layer of soil mixed with sand and peat is laid on top of it, forming a hill. Boulders are buried in the ground by two-thirds. First, large stones are laid, then small ones. When laying make slots and pockets. This will allow planting nearby species with different requirements for growing conditions. In order for an alpine slide made by your own hands to look good, it must be beautiful even without plants.

Construction of a slide for an alpine flower bed with a pond

All work is best done in the fall, so that the earth has time to settle a little for the spring planting. Be sure to plan an approach to the flower garden, which facilitates the maintenance of the structure. You may need steps, then you need to take care of their safety. There are paths or stone "islands" around which you can walk to any area for watering or pruning.

Few plants but looks great

What to consider when choosing plants

Leafing through catalogs, it is important to adequately assess your gardening talents, because among alpine plants there are quite capricious ones. At the same time, there are views that will allow you to admire bright colors from spring to autumn, without applying special efforts for care. If everything is provided, then soon the alpine hill flower bed will look like in an advertising photo. The landing plan is drawn on paper, taking into account:

color scheme;
plant height;
time and duration of flowering;
ornamental plant in the period between flowering;
growth rate.

Planting scheme

Plants for rock garden and the basics of care

Spring in the rock garden begins with the flowering of bulbs: snowdrops and crocuses grow well, and bloom in April. Large bulbs are planted nearby. Bright primroses are indispensable in spring. One of the most attractive species for rock gardens are bellflowers. Another favorite is creeping or upright junipers. In small cracks, the saxifrage looks great. Stonecrop, planted once, forms beautiful carpet.

During the summer it is necessary to remove weeds and water the plantings. In winter, many species need to be sheltered from frost with spruce branches. It reliably protects landings, allows air to pass through, and if too large layer snow "springs" and does not put pressure on them. Foliage is used to protect some bulbs, others need to be dug up for the winter. As it grows, it is necessary to cut or seat some of the "neighbors" so that they do not interfere with each other.

The rock garden looks different every day

If you take a photo of a flower garden on an alpine hill every two weeks and compare the decorative effect, this will help you understand your mistakes in order to next spring add the missing flowers. But if you want to get the result faster, then you should entrust the arrangement of the slide to professionals in landscape design who have experience in creating rock gardens and know how to make an alpine slide beautiful all year round.

Alpine Hill - a reduced copy of the highlands. Usually, in the central part of such a flower bed, a cobblestone or several cobblestones are installed, which are a symbol mountain top. Terraces are created on the slopes, on which low-growing vegetation is planted.

In the natural environment, such areas are formed in the place where natural fractures of rocks appear. Under the influence environment a fertile layer appears on them, on which plants subsequently grow. To recreate such a mountain landscape in your backyard or dacha, you need certain knowledge.

For such a large-scale structure as a rocky flower bed is suitable spacious plot. When building an alpine slide with your own hands, you should strive to ensure that the composition of vegetation and cobblestones looks naturally.

Video. Alpine slide device

Creating an alpine slide with your own hands

Do-it-yourself Alpine slide will decorate the whole adjoining territory. To decide on the design of your future rocky garden, you can study photographs of alpine slides. In order to create such a composition, you must adhere to certain rules and a specific work order.

Step-by-step instructions for creating an alpine slide with your own hands

First, determine the location. In order to do this, you need to pay attention to lighting. For a rock garden, a site is suitable that is illuminated as long as possible. sun. Also, the composition should be clearly visible from all sides.

Designation base contour(soles) slides and removal of the upper fertile layer to a depth of about 30 cm.
Device drainage system. The bottom layer can be made from small gravel, pieces of brick, or, in extreme cases, from construction debris. After that, a layer of sand about five centimeters thick is laid. A fertile layer of earth is laid on top of the sand. You can do without a drainage system if a slope with not too dense soil is chosen for arranging an alpine hill.
At this stage, start placement of stones and core erection slides. Of all the stones, the largest and most beautiful cobblestone is chosen. It will be the main lower tier. The stone must be stable. To do this, you can add soil or gravel. The classic alpine slide in the country house consists of an odd number of tiers. Between these tiers, moist soil is laid, which must be well compacted.
Tip: when laying stones, symmetry should be avoided. Between the stones, you can leave places for planting plants or group stones next to each other. It is also necessary to immediately determine the supporting stones on which it will be possible to stand when caring for vegetation. They should be sealed and fixed.
plant vegetation.

Alpine slide plants - selection rules

Building an alpine slide with your own hands requires knowledge and certain skills. This is especially true for the choice of vegetation. First of all, you need to decide on color palette rock garden. After that, you should draw a sketch of the future rocky garden. To trace the color scheme, you need to decorate the sections of the slide with the appropriate colors. Only after that you can start choosing a plant for an alpine hill to the country.

Alpine slide with your own hands. A photo

look good low coniferous plants. You can also use small shrubs that bloom in spring and bear fruit in autumn.

Coniferous plants that are suitable for landscaping an alpine slide with their own hands

dwarf spruce. This plant tolerates drought well;
juniper. This is unpretentious plant grows in its shape resembles a cone. Foliage - green;
thuja grows in the form of a bush. In good light, it acquires a reddish-brown color;
cypress- a plant with a golden apex and a dark green base.

Deciduous plants for an alpine slide

For landscaping an alpine slide with your own hands, you should not choose deciduous plant species. Since fallen leaves must be cleaned regularly so as not to harm other vegetation. For slides choose the following plants:

cotoneaster horizontal. This shrub with a dense crown has dark green foliage in the warm season, and acquires a reddish tint by autumn. The plant blooms with small flowers;
iberis. Semi-shrub that does not lose its attractiveness throughout the season. The flowers, collected in an umbrella-shaped brush, are painted in white, pink or purple. Later, in their place, fruits appear in the form of pods;
dryad. A miniature shrub with large white flowers. The flowering period falls on July-August. Later, fruits appear in their place. unusual shape. They look like fluffy balls.

Flowers for the Alpine slide

For the construction of a classic alpine slide with their own hands, low, creeping, "carpet" plants are used. It is best to give preference to perennials. The following flowers can be used for landscaping:

carnation short stem. This low-growing, rich-flowering plant with narrow gray-blue-green leaves is unpretentious. Suitable for landscaping open sunny areas;
beetroot rocky- perennial, the leaves of which are painted in a gray-green color. A feature of this plant is that its leaves remain green even in winter. In multi-flowered inflorescences-panicles are small bright yellow leaves;
young- perennial with a wide color palette of leaves. They can be green, silvery, yellowish, pink, burgundy;
saxifrage- traditional inhabitants of rock gardens. Flowering period - May-August. Five-petal flowers are painted in white, pink or yellow.

In order for the alpine hill in the country to please with its beauty every year, bulbous and bulbous flowers should be planted. To create a contrasting background, long-flowering crops are suitable. Also, a well-groomed lawn will be an ideal frame.

What to do if the alpine hill settles in the spring?

Sometimes an alpine slide, made in violation of the construction technology, can settle. There may be several reasons for this.

Poorly matched plot or lack drainage. It is better to equip a rock garden on a natural hill or on a site with a slope. If the hill is located on loamy or clay soils, then it is necessary to do drainage layer. For these purposes, gravel or stones can be used.
Wrongly matched substrate, vegetation and cobblestones. For an alpine slide with your own hands, it is better to choose the following mixture of earth: compost, sand and peat in equal proportions.

How to avoid flower bed shrinkage

take into account the slope of the site and the type of soil;
make a drainage layer and let the earth sag in time;
for planting, choose vegetation with powerful rhizomes;
correctly select vegetation, cobblestones and soil substrate;
remove fallen leaves in time, dig up wilted plants, weed weeds.

Alpine hill of conifers

To create rock gardens, not only traditional "Alpines", but also coniferous plants can be used. For these purposes, pines, thuja, shooting juniper, barberry, gray or Japanese spirea, spruce horse. In the classic version, only shrubs and trees should not be present. They should grow there in small numbers.

Stones for alpine slides

For such rocky gardens, natural flat cobblestones of various sizes are suitable. original form. You should also give preference to stones with a heterogeneous surface, with all kinds of "inclusions", recesses in which you can plant moss or a small plant. Limestones, boulders, sandstones, granite, slates look good.

Decorating an alpine slide with your own hands

Stones and vegetation are used to decorate the alpine slide. In order to properly position them, you need to follow some recommendations, namely:

laying stones begins from the bottom row, moving up;
for the top of the composition, you must choose the most beautiful cobblestone;
for everybody large stone it is necessary to make a "foundation" of one or three flat stones;
stones should be laid in such a way that their tops are parallel to each other;
several stones should be stacked so that they can be walked on;
after laying each row, a layer of earth is laid, which is well compacted and spilled with water;
at the top of the hill they set the most beautiful cobblestone.

Rock garden and rockery: differences and similarities

Rock garden and rockery - two various ways flower bed devices. Rockery is a flower bed of stones, most of which is occupied by stones of the same breed. Cobblestones are stacked parallel to each other or in random order. Randomly placed stones imitate the natural environment. Vegetation is also present in rockeries, but in the form of a background that plays a secondary role. In an alpine hill, bright vegetation comes to the fore.

To design a personal plot in an original way and with a touch of individuality, an alpine slide created by oneself will help. Traditionally, it has the form of a small hill made of stones, a mountain slope or a ravine covered with various flowers. It is worth noting that such compositions of stones and flowers are quite simple to do on your own, choosing the shape of an alpine slide to your liking.

History of Alpine slides

The origins of rock gardens lead to Japan. It was there, several thousand years ago, that they began to appear lovely gardens on the stones. The Japanese, who have always felt the shortage of free territory very acutely, wanting to surround themselves with beautiful flowers, came up with the idea of planting them in any free areas. Also, the Japanese canons of beauty say that true beauty seen only in natural phenomena. Therefore, an amazing combination of a dead, cold stone and a delicate, living plant contributes to the creation of a true harmony of beauty.

In European countries, alpine slides began to appear only in the sixteenth century. At that time, they represented a certain territory, which was planted with wild flowers brought from the mountainous regions.

To date, the fashion for creating alpine slides has covered a large number of countries. And a lot of people are thinking about how to make an alpine slide with their own hands, on a personal plot.

Rock garden and rockery. Main similarities and differences

Quite often even experienced gardeners confuse the concepts of rock garden and rockery. And this is not surprising. With a sufficient number general characteristics, it is difficult not to confuse them.

Rock gardens, like rockeries, are a way to create a flower garden, which is based on the use of stones and flowers.

But at the same time, rockery - classic version garden on stones, in the creation of which only one stone is used. The stones are laid out in a chaotic manner or in parallel stripes. This approach contributes to the creation of a visual effect of wildlife. Rockeries are planted with a variety of flowers, only in this case they act as a secondary element, forming a natural floral background.

Rock garden - a type of rock garden in which flowers and plants play a major role. A variety of plant species, a riot of colors and unusual combinations colors amaze the imagination and make you admire the alpine slide for a long time.

Creation of an alpine slide

With a competent approach to planning and carrying out all activities, to create an alpine slide in the country with your own hands, the arrangement will take only one day. So that the created beauty does not have to be redone or even dismantled, it is very important to adhere to certain rules when creating alpine slides.

The whole process step by step creation do-it-yourself alpine slide can be divided into the following stages:

We select a place for the location of the rock garden.
Let's start creating a drainage system.
We select stones of the optimal size and proceed to laying them.
We prepare the soil for planting plants.
At the end, we plant plants and flowers.

Consider the main stages of creating an alpine slide with your own hands in more detail.

Location selection

When deciding to create an alpine slide with their own hands, a novice gardener should very carefully and very critically inspect the selected area. Of course, you can choose the right plants for any type of soil and location of the site. But it will be better if a spacious, well-lit area is chosen to create a future rock garden.

It is also very important to think in advance from what angle the alpine slide will be well viewed. After all, you will certainly want to show such beauty to friends and relatives.

When choosing a location for creating a rock garden, pay attention to the type of soil. Sandy soil is the least problematic option for creating an alpine slide on it. Clay or oily soil requires mandatory additional measures before planting. As a rule, they consist in the creation of a drainage system.

Creation of a drainage system

An indication for the creation of a drainage system is not only the type of soil. There are certain types of plants for which it is also not desirable for water to stagnate in the ground. For example, these include flowers that grow in the mountains. To prepare the soil and avoid the problems of stagnant water, experts recommend that you definitely lay a certain foundation.

To do this, remove the top layer of soil. Then the recess is covered with rubble, or as an economy option - with small construction waste or brick fragments. The backfill is covered with a layer of sand, and then with earth. After the last layer of earth is covered, everything is well spilled with water and left alone for a certain time to dry.

Advice ! For the best performance of the drainage system, it is good to use lime stones which have excellent air permeability.

Stone laying

After being created drainage system, the process of laying stones begins.

When choosing the size of stones, you need to remember that the more compact the future rock garden, the smaller size there should be stones. For an alpine hill large sizes boulders are perfect, and for a small rock garden - flagstone of small sizes.

In creating a rock garden, there is no specific scheme for laying stones. The only thing that the designer must adhere to is the principle of naturalness and natural location.

Attention ! You do not need to adhere to any schemes or drawings when creating a rock garden. Light negligence will make the alpine slide as close as possible to the natural wild look.

Another nuance that needs to be taken into account when selecting and laying stones is that you should not use several types of boulder rocks on one hill at once. As a rule, in nature, rock gardens consist of one rock. The advantage should be given only natural materials. The rock garden has, as a rule, several tiers. In order for the alpine slide to have really beautiful view, it should attract the eye even without flowers. It is these rock gardens that are created by real master professionals.

Granite has very rich colors and a bright pattern, so they need to be laid in such a way that there is no feeling that a granite memorial is being erected instead of a hill.

Sandstone is very easy to work with. Therefore, using this feature, you can independently give it the desired shape, according to your taste and idea.

When laying the tiers of an alpine hill, do not forget that live plants will soon be planted on it. Therefore, each tier must be covered with layers of moist, fertile soil. Stones should not be stacked too tightly.

Advice ! Naturalness and the greatest similarity with wildlife can be achieved if, when creating a rock garden, alternate large and small stones.

We select soil for plants

It is quite difficult to imagine an alpine hill without living plants. Therefore, for their landing, it is worth thoroughly preparing fertile soil. It is quite possible to do it yourself. The composition of the soil for rock garden plants includes: clean clay soil, peat and gravel. The ratio of clay soil to peat is 3:1.

The soil is laid only in the place where the flowers will be planted. As a rule, crevices and gaps between boulders are used for these purposes. Sometimes the soil is poured directly onto bare stones.

Advice ! Moss and lichen make the alpine slide closest in appearance to wild nature. Favorable environment for the growth of these types of vegetation is limestone.

Choosing plants for rock garden

Plants to create a rock garden are selected based on the following criteria:

Unpretentiousness. This feature gives a guarantee for the owner of the future rock garden that you do not have to constantly treat diseased plants and plant new ones. A flower garden on stones should look as close to the wild as possible, which means that the human factor in creating a rock garden should be minimized.
All plants should tolerate well not only sunny summers, but also cold winters.
Flowers are selected in such a way that they can freely grow next to each other.
For top point rock garden most suitable are small shrubs. As a rule, this deciduous trees or needles. In order for the alpine slide to please with its beauty all year round, it is advisable to use both shrubs.
Tip! From conifers juniper, thuja and mountain pine are most suitable. From hardwoods, you can choose cotoneaster.
With regards to flowers, their choice is similar to the selection of shrubs.

When planting vegetation, pay attention to their height. Doesn't need to be on top of a mountain tall shrubs. Also, do not plant tall plants among small stones. Stones generally should not be completely covered with plants.

The choice of an assortment of plants depends entirely on which rocks are used for the rock garden. For plants with light leaves, dark stones will be the best background, and for plants with dark green leaves, stones of light shades will be the best.

Types of Alpine slides

There are several types of alpine slides, in landscape design, created by their own hands, which are very similar to various sections mountainous area:

Rock cliff. This is a heap of smooth, rather large boulders, with a minimum of any flowers in niches and crevices.
Hillside . This is a rather complex composition, made of stones of various sizes, around which there are many small plants.
Mountain valley. This is a territory that is made up of stones protruding from the ground, surrounded by a large number of flowering plants.
Gorge. This is the most difficult to perform, but perhaps the most beautiful type of rock garden. It can be placed in a natural excavation, lining the slopes with stones and planting plants suitable for landscape design.

Conclusion

Never add artificial decor items when creating alpine slides. Thus, it is possible to destroy all that natural beauty, which is designed to create a combination of stone and a living plant. After all, the alpine hill is created precisely so that the unique atmosphere of the mountains is present on the plot.

When creating an alpine slide, one of the most important stages is the choice of plants. What plants are best used when creating an alpine slide, we will find out in the next video

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