You can study how to create a rock garden with the placement of water features, but the most experience comes with actually creating the garden. With time and patience, a willing student can learn the student can learn the mechanical, cultural, and aesthetic principles to creating a home for mountain plants. It is good for the gardener to learn the habits and identities of the different rock plants, as the more you add, the longer your task will be as for normal garden plants.
Even if you understand the plants, the task of placing them into the pockets and planning the combination of plants is another matter. It is normal to have more failures then successes at first, from poor methodology and poor grouping combinations. It is through these failures that we learn what combinations are pleasing and thrive, creating a wonderful joy for years to come.
When planning out the staging of the plants, the considerations are far more numerous than gthose for a formal garden or hardy border. The things to be kept in mind may be stated first as general principles and then their application to a particular plan may be shown, with the proviso that details can be completed only on the ground at the time of actual planting. Scale is a measure you must apply in every placing, in relation of plant to size of whole area, to the nearer rocks, and the nearest plants, as to height, character of foliage, and mass of bloom.
It is best to place plants of more ordinary growth and quantity into the larger pockets near bulky rocks. , tiny plants in smaller quantities need to go into the smaller pockets. There is always the chance that too much of the surface will be covered in forceful foliage growth. If you have a bold piece of rock, you wish to stand on, plant only dwarf and slow-growing herbs here.
If you plant according to these directions this will bring out the grandeur of the ledge, keeping variation in heights, and emphasizing the stunning irregularity of your scene. Over-vegetation, besides covering your rocks, can smother all the details of your landscape. This can also lead to smothering out other plants, part of your rock garden care is to make sure you remove weedy and crowding plants and care for those plants that are weaker.
Plants like Cerastium, a robust creeper, should be penned in by the walls of the pocket and have plenty of room to hang over the ledge. These four groups of plants are best kept to themselves: the erect, tufted, creeping and drooping. Try not to make the separation too obvious however, allowing some erect plants to grow among the drooping, and place bulbs among the creeping kinds. Tufted plant prefer isolation, and usually work best on the highest spots of your garden.
