Rockery Ideas

[pinksalamander]

I'm trying to tidy up our garden. Its a complete mess anyway. We can't afford any major landscaping (we had a new patio and shed built at the end of the garden last summer to the tune of £1000, which has made a nice addition but the rest is still a mess!).

I've taken up the task of doing it up. I'm still in the process of digging out an old overgrown flowerbed in the courtyard bit, so i can move the rabbit hutches into that bit to make more space in our patio area. I've decided to save myself two trips, so when i go to Homebase soon i will get some stuff to clean up our rockery.

We live on a hill, so our garden has steep steps from the courtyard to the majority of the garden...

The 'courtyard' with rabbit hutches. You can see where i am in the process of digging out the flowerbed, which will be re concreted soon.

The rest of the garden. The bit you can't see behind the house is exactly the same as this side. Its pretty much symetrical.

Big question, but does anyone have any ideas of what to do with the rockery? Its a real mess, i want to replant it with some nice plants and a few new rocks but A) i don't know what to plant and B) i don't have much money so i want something low budget.

Does anyone have any ideas what to do? Obviously it will be cleared out. What plants do you think i could plant? Does anyone have an 'inventive' ideas? My Mum hates the whole rockery thing but we don't have enough money to do anything major. Because of the weight of earth held behind those walls is so great no landscapers will touch it for less than a couple of thousand, which we really don't have.

Any ideas? I just want to make it special for my Mum because she hates it so much and i thought it would be a good project. We never have BBQs or anything because the garden is such a big ole mess!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[pinksalamander]

Forgot to add the photos :headsmack

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[NZminilops]

I've only just started getting into gardening recently, so I'm not much help :?, but what sort of a look are you going after? Country garden? Modern chic? Succulents and easy care plants?

If that was my garden, I'd probably go for the more English garden look, with lavender, ivy for trailing over any ugly fences or buildings (which I think I can see some growing a bit crazy in one pic, lol), roses (which the buns can eat the flowers of I'm pretty sure), etc etc....not sure really :?. My garden is a total messy hodge-podge of mis-matching stuff. Some of it's more easy-care, with yuccas, little succulents, grasses, palm trees, then in between all that is lavender, camellias and other flowery things, it all looks so weird .

In that little step/rockery area, you might like to lay down some little white stone ships and find some cute little plants to stand out against the white, not sure?

 

[mouse_chalk]

Well, I am certainly no gardening expert, so this advice may not be the best lol, but I'll try!

You could maybe plant some herbs there? Some of the 'harder' herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano etc would grow quite well, and you could cover the soil around them with a bit of gravel to make it look neater. Plus, you'd have fresh herbs on hand whenever you wanted lol (if you use them that is!) I grow herbs myself, and provided they get some water every now and then, they're fairly easy to take care of, and you can buy them for about £1.50-£2 each usually... Other hardy plants are things like Lavander maybe?

Hope that helps! And also, may I say, such a nice thing to do for your mum!

Jen xx

 

[pinksalamander]

Yeah, my neighbours crazy ivy is taking over! I'll probably trim that back but keep it.

I'm looking for the cluttered country garden look i think. I think i am going to get some more rocks from Homebase to dig into that bit. Its just plants. I want things that flower nicely. I will plant some daff bulbs in the ground and home that next spring they will spring up. I like the crazy purple plant too, so i will get most of it back but leave a bit. I can't think of any other flowering plants. I want things that stay low to the ground (so not roses), things like that purple plant. Its just making it neat and looking like its been cared for whilst still going for that cluttered country garden bursting with colour idea.

The worst bit is the other side of the steps. Its a rockery just the same but its about 3 times longer and it gets little sunlight which means nothing but hardy weeds grow there. Do things like evergreen bushes grow well in bad light? Its also very steep which makes it difficult to water and care for.

I've still got alot to do. Once we concrete over the flowerbed i'm going to make some nice pot plants and tubs up to collect around the backdoor. We have the kitchen drain that comes out there so i want to disguise it with lots of plants!

I really like this:

 

[seniorcats]

I think what you have looks pretty. here is a good site for rock gardening http://www.nargs.org/gardening/rockgardening.html

I my own garden,I try for a mix of annuals and perrinials plus things that bloom at different times from spring through fall. To save money, I'll start a lot of plants from seed. Thompsom and Morgan is a seed co. in the UK that has a huge catalog. I've ordered from themand they ship very quickly to the US.

Also, I check out neighbors' gardens and am bold enough to ask for cuttings or seeds from their plants. Also,I offer to exchange some of my plants for theirs. There are about 4 of us who trade plants all the way from seeds to home grown vegy's and fruits.

 

[BSAR]

The rockery idea sounds pretty cool. I love rocks and in gardens they look awesome! Those stone steps of yours are pretty cool!

 

[PepnFluff]

I was thinking for the rockery you could put some nice flaxes in there, but then I saw you were wanting a country look, what about some small lavender shrubs or theres this really nice chocolate smelling small purple flower i've forgotten what its called though lol. I think your garden looks great already nice and country cosy looking.

 

[pinksalamander]

Thanks for your ideas.

I think a few of the plants you are talking about are actually already in there but have been swamped! I'm thinking of mainly going for herbs. If i plant alot of nice plants and also plant some bulbs (which won't come out until spring) then hopefully that purple plant will spread out and sort of 'take over' all the gaps inbetween other plants and keep it looking covered.

Also, once the flowerbed is filled in the rabbith hutches will move there. I'm then going to see if i can get an old garden bench of Freecycle and put it where the current hutches are. It won't be for sitting on, as that area gets no direct sunlight and we already have chairs and tables, but i will cover it in all different sized and shaped pots with pretty flowers growing in them. The area is already really messy and i thought that would look nice.

Also going to clear out the flowerbed on both sides (the one you can't see is actually clear, i'm dumping all the earth im digging out over there and raking it out and growing grass on it). I'm going to plant some nice bushes along there too and maybe put a trellis on the shed. I think we are going to grow a hedge at the end by the shed because at the moment we have to peer into our neighbours garden!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[pinksalamander]

OK so I went to the garden centre today to have a look round! I also treated myslf to a gorgeous pair of pink and brown leather gardening gloves and a new spade .

I've decided to plant herbs in the rockery (thanks Mouse_Chalk!) I found medium sized herb plants for £1.50 at B&Q and the more grown ones are around £4 which is good. I'm going to grow Thyme (my FAVOURITE!), Rosemary and Sage (am i going to Scarborough Fair? ) plus lavender and anything else herby i can get my hands on!

Then in the rockery on the OTHER side i'm going to grow some 'architectural' plants, like long grasses etc because they are more hardy. Also, because this bed seems to be prime weed growing land (i don't really know why) i might cover it with a bit of light coloured gravel/stone.

Then i've decided to put a fan trellis up on the shed with a really nice climbing rose. I'm also going to replant those pots infront of the shed with some nice flowery plants.

THEN i'm going to dig everything out of the main borders and put log borders along the edge, and plants some really nice big bushes and things, let them do their own thing.

THEN i'm going to plant some hedging plants along the back, which probably won't look good for a few years but once the hedge is all made it will really make a difference.

THEN i'm going to post up on Freecycle to see if i can get any free plant pots. I know alot of people have big terracota and allsorts in the back garden so it is worth asking. These i will fill with flowery plants like busy lizzies and geraniums. Maybe a large patio rose.

Also going to try to get a rose climbing round the corner. Something deep red i think will look great contrasted against the white brick, but that will probably take a few years before it looks really good!

Slowly but surely! My Mum said that she will give me all the money for the pot plants because i need to plant them in the next few weeks so they flower ASAP. Everything else will come in dribs and drabs.

I better get going! No use knocking about here all day, i need to be out in the garden!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[NZminilops]

Sounds lovely , I just stole some rosemary from someones front garden this morning to dry and grow some cuttings (sssshhhhh ). I know that song too, haha! I have the queesryche version, much better than the old fuddy duddy ones.

 

[pinksalamander]

I just need some parsley to top it all off!

I think its a medieval song, i'm not sure though. I'd love to know who wrote that or where it originated!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[pinksalamander]

Sorry to keep boring everyone with this but i started on clearing the rockery! I still haven't finished digging the flowerbed (a few more hours, i was deflated after having a battle with a big root and losing, i needed to vent my anger elsewhere by pulling flowers out of the ground). I've cleared the majority of it. The rest i will rake over and i'm then going to dig it up and turnt he soil over, add some compost so i can start planting herbs! Oh, and demolish that annoying ivy!

 

[mouse_chalk]

It looks good! Well done!

I'm glad you liked my herb idea too! Thyme is my favourite too, I could smell it all day I reckon!

Just another thing, although you probably already know, so sorry, but I'm pretty sure that purple flower is a weed of some sort... Just can't remember the name! If you wanna keep it, fair enough, but just bear in mind it'll probably grow back fast so you'll have to keep pulling it back!

 

[pinksalamander]

Yeah i knew it was a weed. What i was thinking is that i can pull it and turn the earth, plant the herbs, and hopefully tha purple plant will kind of fill in the gaps. I just hope it doesn't go overboard again. I will just have to keep it under control. At least its a pretty weed!

Also i saw in Poundstretcher these little brown picket fences, about 6 inches high by about a foot long, they have little stakes that go into the ground. They are £1.50 each so i'm hoping to get some of them to put around the edges to make it a bit tidier, although those bricks are all wonky so i'm not sure how it will look!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[pinksalamander]

An update on this! I went to B&Q today and bought some lovely pots and flowers! We can't afford all the plants for the rockery yet but i am moving the rabbit hutches over tonight and planting the pots tomorrow when i am home from school. I was going to do the pots tonight, but i went outside and decided to start making up this little plastic shelving unit we got for the shed yesterday. When i took it up to the shed i wanted to put everything on it, but our shed was so full of junk i ended up tidying up the entire thing. Procrastination!

I will post pics of the pots when they are done although they won't look very interesting until they have flowered!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[missyscove]

pinksalamander wrote:

I just need some parsley to top it all off!

I think its a medieval song, i'm not sure though. I'd love to know who wrote that or where it originated!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

We sang a version of "Scarborough Fair" in my choir last year.
There's some great info about in on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair

 

[pinksalamander]

The new pots:

I really want some more. We had 3 i found in the garden (the biggest round one, the smallest one, and the shorter square one). The others we bought. Soil, plants and 4 pots cost £37.. not bad for real terracotta.

Going to B&Q again tonight to buy herbs to plant in the rockery. I am hoping for (if they have it) sage, rosemary, thyme, lavender, lemon balm and marjoram. I may buy some parsley and chives to grow in the house if they have any. I have also roped in a friend to help me garden tomorrow. She is coming over at some point and we are going to dig out the rockery and add topsoil, and then plant in the herbs. I am only planting herbs which rabbits can eat, free rabbit treats!

It is taking an AGE to dig out the flowerbed, especially as i am not used to the heat yet. I've dug out about a 50cmx50cm square which took me 25 minutes... I really do need a friend to help!

Also trying to locate some little stone rabbits to hide in amongst the herbs, i think that would be so cute, but all the ones i keep finding are these painted 'life-like' cartoony ones which i think looks a bit cheap and tacky.

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[pinksalamander]

Went to the garden centre, its like a second home now! Got about 34 different plants to plant!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny