Alpine slides

Original alpine slides in the country or near the cottage always attract attention. When creating them, designers are inspired by the pictures of the bright Scandinavian spring, when among the boulders, witnesses of the Ice Age, islands of piercingly bright northern colors make their way.

On the other hand, rock magnetism underlies the Japanese practice of admiring the rock garden. Stone boulders, witnesses of millennia, the embodiment of eternity - even they are not able to resist the impact of elusive water and weightless wind, turning them into sand. The medial effect of the Japanese rock garden is mysterious and inaccessible to most Europeans. Our worldview is closer to the paradoxical unity of boulders and breaking fragile vegetation. The picturesqueness of an alpine hill in a country house or in a park, the touchingness of flowers and decorative greenery against the background of mossy boulders delivers real pleasure, soothes, and disposes to unhurried thoughts.

Admiration for the quaint harmony of the rock garden is often replaced by bewilderment - how is it possible that hats of magnificent flowers grow so magnificently among lifeless stones? And what should be the care of landings? But doubts recede before a simple and effective engine of progress - “I want!”

Fortunately, everyone can create an alpine slide in their own country house. Those who say that it's easy will be dishonest. It will take careful preparation and hard work, but your efforts will be rewarded. For many years you will be able to admire the beautiful rocky garden that has transformed the landscape of the site. A nice bonus - if everything is done correctly, you will find that planting care will be minimal.

Types of Alpine slides

Two types of alpine slides that can be arranged in the country:

• Rockery, or rock garden. There are very few plants here, or they may be absent altogether. The rockery is usually not very high, the stones either protrude slightly above the surface of the site, or make up a composition that rises by 0.5-1 meter. The construction technology is simple, but to achieve expressiveness is a task that a professional designer or a person with artistic taste can handle.
• The rock garden is a picturesque neighborhood of stone and ornamental vegetation, imitating a wild corner of nature. The main focus is on plants. Its size is larger than that of rockeries - sometimes it exceeds 3 meters in height, if it is created on a steep slope, the area can also be significant. The technology of creating a rock garden is more complicated and is mainly aimed at creating favorable conditions for the development of plants.

In the country, an island of nature, which we appreciate for the riot of colors and aromas, the rock garden will look livelier and more organic.

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How did you manage without rock garden?

Are you still undecided whether or not to create an alpine slide in the country? Get acquainted with the arguments that justify the upcoming chores.

1. The awkward slopes on the site, which prevent the completion of its improvement, will turn into a picturesque composition, pleasing with colors from spring to autumn.
2. A corner that cannot be cultivated (rocky, clayey, too dry) will become the decoration of the dacha - an elegant alpine hill with exotic succulents.
3. If you have a flower garden that takes all your strength, because it is chosen by malicious weeds, arrange a rock garden in its place, and care will be reduced to infrequent watering and weeding twice a season.
4. Rock garden - an ideal place to showcase the quiet, sophisticated beauty of small, delicate, fragile flowers that cannot compete in the flower bed, where they are oppressed by stronger species.

The hard work of creating an alpine slide in your country house will pay off handsomely - after finishing the work, just take a step back and enjoy the beautiful wild corner of nature, a source of harmony and peace.

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Rules for creating a stone garden

It is enough to know a few effective methods of erecting an alpine hill in the country house so that the result of the first experience exceeds expectations: at low operating costs, a stone garden will amaze the imagination with a riot of vegetation among mossy boulders for many years.

The rock garden should evoke the feeling that Mother Nature herself gave this amazingly beautiful garden, allowing you to admire it right at your home.

To begin with, consider the rules that it is undesirable to violate those who first create an alpine slide in the country:

1. The larger the rock garden, the larger the stones should be. Choose boulders, considering that in addition to the largest, medium and possibly even river pebbles will be required.
2. When planning a rock garden, don't stick to a rigid plan. Follow the natural shape of the stone, avoid even a hint of symmetry. The goal is to create a natural free landscape, avoiding both excessive chaos and excessive order.
3. Usually in nature there are placers of stone of the same breed. Use stones of different breeds only if you are completely confident in your project.
4. Create three to six tiers.
5. The stones should not be placed too close to each other. After adding the soil, there should be enough space for the development of the root system of plants.
6. An alpine hill successfully erected in the country looks impressive even without flowers.

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How to make an alpine slide in the country

Step 1: Choosing a Location

Choose a corner that is visible from several points that have already become favorite vacation spots. Well, if it has a natural slope - this will facilitate the formation of tiers. The most striking will be the rock garden, well lit by the sun, so the southern side of the slope is ideal for an alpine hill in the country.

Draw the outline of the future rock garden on the site, evaluate how interesting it will look from different points, make adjustments if necessary.

Step 2: Delivery of stones

Bring boulders. You will need 1-3 very large, medium and smaller.

Step 3: Preparing the base. Drainage device

The magnificent island of the mountain landscape that attracts our eyes is like the tip of an iceberg. This is the visible part of the rock garden - boulders peeking out from under the ground, lush vegetation. But most of it is not visible to us - drainage, the buried part of the boulders, sand and a layer of fertile soil, which creates ideal conditions for the nutrition of plant roots and prevents the growth of weeds. If, when creating an alpine hill in the country, you do not take care of drainage, the soil from under the hill will be washed out, and the stones will begin to sag.

The order of the drainage system:

1. Prepare a pit, the depth of which depends on the area of ​​the rock garden.For an area of ​​​​2.5 X 2.5 meters, the required depth is about 1 meter.
2. Pour drainage material at the bottom - crushed stone, shards, construction debris about 1/3 of the depth. Wood shavings and chips must not be used.
3. Sand on top, 1/3 deep.
4. Then add soil, 1/3 of the depth.
5. Tamp.

Step 4: Installing the boulders

If the alpine slide breaks on a flat area of ​​​​the cottage, then the largest boulders are located in the middle, slightly shifted from the center. This allows you to create a natural hill, "slide". Next, the rest of the boulders are arranged radially, approximately focusing on reducing the size, but in some places violating this algorithm - so as not to get an artificially ordered, inexpressive relief.

If the rock garden is arranged on a slope, then the largest stones are set at the base, the rest above them according to the algorithm described above - approximately from large ones at the bottom to small ones at the top. Don't forget to add an element of randomness to their placement.

In nature, the most expressive are not fresh stone screes, but ancient, deeply buried boulders that barely protrude to the surface. Have you tried digging rocks? This is not easy to do, even medium-sized boulders go into the soil by 2/3 - 7/8 of their height.

When laying stones, it is necessary to ensure that they are sufficiently deep into the base, not less than 1/3 of the height of the stone itself - this will ensure the stability of the structure and give the alpine hill erected in the country a natural look. Start the installation with the largest stones, using a crowbar and a shovel (it's hard to do without an assistant here). Somewhere you will have to dig the foundation for deepening the boulder, somewhere you will need to use stone supports to fix the desired position.

As you install the stones, add soil between them. Rocks should not be placed too tightly, otherwise plants planted in small soil pockets will not have enough room to develop a healthy root system.

Step 5: Plant Selection

Choose plants that will be comfortable in your climate and under given lighting and irrigation conditions. Preference is given to undersized, unpretentious plants that retain their decorative effect after they fade.

Alpine hill in the country is created for a long time. In its design, as a rule, perennials are used. A rare rock garden is not complete without these three groups of plants:

• ground covers
• Socket
• Bulbous (tuberous).
• Evergreen shrubs.

Ground cover (carpet) plants spread over the surface, forming a large number of long horizontal shoots. A green carpet picturesquely covers the boulders, creating the illusion that plants grow right on the rocks. These include thyme, St. John's wort, veronica, tenacity, daisy, sedum, alpine strawberries and others.

In rosette plants, horizontal growth is limited, they do not develop as intensively as cover plants. The most beautiful of them are quite capricious in their care - levisia, orostachis, many types of gentian.

You can’t do without bulbs if you want the alpine hill in the country to be covered with flowers in early spring (crocuses, galanthus, white flowers bloom before everyone else). In addition, they serve as a barrier between actively growing ground cover and weak rosette plants.

Pay attention to the most popular plants for rock garden:

• Young - photophilous, drought-resistant, beautiful juicy leaves and pale purple flowers.
• Stonecrop - drought-resistant, unpretentious carpet flowers.
• Saxifrage - shade-loving, small-leaved rugs bloom in early spring.
• Gubastic - shade-tolerant, blooms in autumn, height up to 22 cm, growth up to a diameter of 20 cm.
• Edelweiss - winter-hardy, height 15 cm, "rug" diameter up to 20 cm, blooms in June-July.
• Backache - photophilous, flowering from mid-spring.

Evergreen shrubs, which many people like to plant in the country, can act as the dominant element of the alpine slide - boxwood, juniper, yucca.

Step 6: Planting the plants.

When planting plants, their compatibility, decorative effect and care features are taken into account.

Usually, the horizontal growth of shoots of ground covers (thyme, arabis, sapling, aubret) has to be limited by cutting them along the contour with scissors. Ground cover plants of different species compete with each other, they are not planted in one spot. They cause damage to delicate rosette species, so they are located at a considerable distance from them. They are well compatible with bulbs, with the exception of sedum and saxifrage - they release toxic substances into the soil that are detrimental to bulbs.

When planting delicate rosette flowers on an alpine hill in the country, make sure that they do not coexist with ground cover. If this cannot be avoided, you will have to regularly limit the growth of fast-growing lashes so that they do not crowd out the rosette ones. Cover the soil around rosette flowers with non-woven material, protecting them from weeds, pour a layer of small pebbles on top.

When placing bulbs, consider different flowering times. After the early small bulbs, the baton is picked up by daffodils, tulips, muscari and blueberries. Birds bloom in summer, crocuses in autumn. Bulbs need pruning after flowering so that the place is not empty, plant several species in one pocket that bloom at different times. Take advantage of the fact that bulbs of many species are planted at different depths. To keep the bulbs from spreading over time (and they tend to "travel" in the soil), plant them inside a limiter, such as an old bucket or jar without a bottom. For crocuses, the limiter should be with a bottom - this is the only way to protect their bulbs from mice.

Step 7: Installing the steps

As a final touch, check to see if it's possible to walk over the rocks to each care plant. If not, create additional steps from stones, providing a reliable support for each of them.

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Rock garden irrigation systems

It is possible to offer three options for irrigating an alpine hill being built in a country house:

1. When preparing the base, install a vertical pipe with holes in the center, the upper edge of which, masked by stones, will protrude above the surface of the hill. Bring the hose to the upper edge, also hiding it under stones and soil. Water will enter the soil through holes in the pipe.
2. Connect the hose to the sprayer that provides fountain irrigation.
3. Create a channel from pebbles for water flow from the hose to the foot of the hill, encircling the rock garden and feeding the plants with water. This complex structure can become a key decorative element of the slide.

Now it remains to bring water and watch how your rock garden comes to life, covered with lush vegetation, the care of which will be reduced only to the formation of growing stems and pruning of flower stalks. The efforts and difficulties that you encountered during the construction of an alpine slide in the country will be forgotten, and the rock garden itself will become a decoration of the site for many years, an object of admiration and pride.

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