The natural beauty of stones has been used in landscape design since ancient times. By arranging the landscape near your home or dacha, you can create original, spectacular compositions. With a competent approach to the selection and installation of boulders and small chips, you can achieve an amazing effect. Here's what a TDA forum user writes:
TDA
Seriously - stones are an excellent material for everything: fences, flower beds, gazebos, houses, paths...
And one cannot but agree with this statement. The range of options for using stones in landscape design is huge. It is important to take into account the general design style of the site and the preferences of the owners in order to achieve a stunning effect. Forum user pavel levchenko writes the following:
pavel levchenko
Friends made a gift - they brought 6 large pink boulder stones to the site with the confidence that I would use them to decorate my virgin landscaping. If anyone has options for using them, please share. Thanks in advance.
We would like to offer several approaches to choosing the design of a personal plot using natural materials.
Stones suitable for creating flower beds
In landscape design, it is popular not only to create small architectural forms, but also to decorate flower beds with stones. Various materials are suitable for this purpose. These are both natural rocks and artificial analogues.
The most popular are:
- Small pebbles;
- Natural pebbles with beautiful appearance;
- All kinds of debris, elements specially created for decoration.
Stone decor can be an excellent complement to a piece of vegetation. Sometimes stones are given the main roles. This decor looks bright and unusual.
It goes well with natural paths, paving, and other elements of landscape decor.
Decorative paths
By filling the paths with pebbles, you can decorate the space with minimal effort. You can use plain or colored pebbles. Sometimes crushed stone is selected according to shape, size, texture, and color.
The paths can be used for their intended purpose or can be used only for decorative stripes. A dry stream is decorated in a similar way.
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Popular types of flower beds with stones
When you mention beautiful flower beds with stones, an alpine slide and rock garden immediately come to mind. These are the most popular types of flower beds containing rocks. Third place in popularity goes to a typical flower bed decorated with stones.
Alpine slide
The most popular is the alpine slide. This is a miniature imitating a mountain slope. The stones here are a natural complement to the typical painting.
The main focus is on plants characteristic of the mountain landscape. The Alpine slide looks natural and unusual at the same time, which attracts a massive number of admirers.
Main types of flower beds with stones
Simply scattering stones around the flower beds at the dacha is not enough to achieve the right design result. It is necessary to carefully study the rules for forming the chosen type of flower garden.
The following types of flower beds are often made using stones:
- Plains. Small pebbles are used for decoration. It can complement flowers and greenery or replace them in some parts of the ensemble.
- Elevated. The flower garden is located on a hill. The structure is surrounded on all sides by a parapet. The height of the “finishing” strip can be of different levels.
- Multi-level. The body of the flower bed is located on several tiers. Each stage can have its own design, which does not contradict the formation of a holistic overall picture.
Gabions can be classified as a separate group. These are peculiar sculptures made of stones. To form them, a wire or mesh frame is used, which is filled with the selected type of elements.
Processing the tree trunk circle
In order for the tree trunk circle to fully cope with its task, it must be processed in a timely manner. First of all, it is important to create a circle of the correct size, which will allow you to properly care for the trees. For young trees (up to 3 years old), it is enough for the diameter of the circle to be 2 meters, after which it needs to be increased to three meters. In the fall (October-November), the area around the tree needs to be carefully dug up, which will get rid of pests overwintering in the ground.
It is worth remembering that the procedure must be carried out extremely carefully so as not to harm the roots. To do this, the shovel must be immersed shallowly (up to 10 centimeters near the tree), increasing the depth as it moves away from the tree (up to 20 centimeters). It is worth remembering that to minimize damage to the roots, the shovel should be held with its edge towards the tree. When working with light soil, you can get by with a pitchfork, loosening the soil near the tree. Before whitening a tree, the tree trunk circle is covered with film, which prevents the soil from being damaged by harmful microbes.
Configurations of stone flower beds
For flower beds made of stones there are no restrictions on the choice of configuration. It's easy to create different compositions. Popular:
- Triangular raised or multi-tiered models;
- Classic circles, ovals;
- Regular squares, rectangles.
There are original ensembles in the form of spirals and figures of atypical shapes. Often, with the help of stones, they try to add zest to the structure. Even a simple option can look interesting and solid.
What is a trunk circle?
Before moving on to creating and decorating the tree trunk circle, it is important to understand what it is and where it is located. The trunk circle of a tree is a piece of land around the plant, the radius of which is commensurate with the crowns. It is used for easy tree care; in addition, it can be used to decorate the garden. The tree trunk circle is not a whim, but a necessity, because it contributes to the proper development of the tree, “delivering” fertilizers, oxygen and water to the roots of the plants.
Purpose of flower beds with stones
In most cases, stone flower beds are built to give the landscape a stylish look. Such compositions are now in fashion. This is important for many territory owners.
The presence of flower beds with stones creates an unusual impression of the garden. Often such compositions have exclusively aesthetic and artistic value.
Sometimes, with the help of rocky ensembles, they try to change the relief and achieve other functional values. For example, a multi-tiered flower bed with stones or a gabion can be made in a lowland, where not every plant can take root.
Techniques of domestic designers add variety
The Japanese, known for their sophisticated laconicism and minimalism, came up with rock gardens, where they used the technique of creating ponds, paths, and lawns from stone.
Water bodies, for example, are made of homogeneous, identical stones similar in color to water. The lawns emit stones painted in emerald shades.
Domestic designers added a small and valuable nuance to this. They proposed planting living plants among these smooth stone placers. This technique allowed them to build the simplest and most affordable stone flowerbed. Working on such a find will not cause any difficulties even for a novice flower lover.
Choosing a location
You can place a stone flowerbed anywhere in the garden.
- Be sure to take into account the conditions necessary for the plants that are supposed to be planted there.
- Such a flower bed will definitely become an accent element of the design.
- A flower bed with stones will not require much attention.
Thinking through the idea of a composition
You can create a beautiful flower bed in different variations. Be sure to determine the type and type of flower garden. Perform composition planning. To do this, they create drawings, think through the content and layout. It is easier to carry out work on the ground according to a ready-made plan.
Arabesque
This type of stone flower beds is used quite rarely. This is due to the fact that the design of this flower bed is quite formal and suitable for decorating any government buildings.
The arabesque itself looks like a large canvas on which flowers are located. In addition, you can use your imagination and plant flowers so that they are arranged in a pattern.
Let us remind you that this method is one of the most expensive, since the canvas itself is quite large and you will have to plant a lot of flowers.
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In addition to the fact that planting flowers will take a lot of money, they are also very difficult to care for. They only need to be watered using a special hose with a special spray nozzle.
Considering that this method has quite a lot of inconveniences, it also has a plus. The main advantage of this method is that it looks incredibly beautiful and large-scale.
To summarize, this method of laying flower beds is only suitable if you have a fairly large dacha and have a lot of time and money.
But, if you have a rather small dacha area, then it is better to pay attention to other types of stone flower beds.
Search, preparation of stones
Different stones are suitable for making a flower bed. The easiest way is to walk along rivers and other natural areas. There will definitely be examples that will satisfy your needs.
Suitable material can be specially purchased or made with your own hands from cement or construction waste. Natural stones must be washed and dried. It may be necessary to level the base, perform grinding, and other interventions.
The process of laying elements
The laying method depends on the type of material used. It is permissible to simply scatter small pebbles onto the base.
- Larger stones are placed in a hole half filled with sand.
- If the stones are heavy and stand up unstable, then it is recommended to additionally strengthen them with cement mortar.
- The surface of the stones can be treated with a special hydrophobic impregnation, which will prevent contamination and also make the appearance more impressive.
Planting plants in a flower bed
If a flower bed of stones suggests the presence of plants, then they are planted last.
Follow the plan drawn up in advance. Some specimens will be able to overwinter, while others will have to be replanted every season.
Making a flower bed out of stones is a good solution. It's interesting, fashionable and beautiful. To achieve a successful result, it is important to study the topic in more detail, and also not to forget about the advice that designers give.
Artificial pond
Stones are an excellent basis for a pond. Dense material perfectly strengthens the banks. The pond will not lose its boundaries over time. You can line the bottom with pebbles and decorate the banks.
Using 1 or several large specimens, you can really simulate the presence of mountains and make an artificial waterfall. The results are always amazing.
