Secrets and recommendations for arranging an alpine slide in your garden
A well-thought-out 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
An alpine slide in the country is becoming an increasingly popular element of decoration even for small-sized personal plots. After all, beautiful stone elevations look impressive, 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, size, features of the slides depend directly on the taste and creative idea of the creator. Probably, even if you use step-by-step photos to create an alpine slide with your own hands, two different designers will get different final options.
The foundation alpine slide - a rock. But not all piles of stones with vegetation making their way among them are called alpine hills. There should be aesthetic appeal and harmony. Rock gardens are of several types:
- Rocky cliffs - the device of the alpine slide mainly includes stones. There is little vegetation, it is hidden in "pockets" and "niches". At the same time, herbs and flowers cannot be called invisible.
- The mountain slope is distinguished by the height and heap of stones of different sizes and shapes. There is enough vegetation, but mainly low-growing and creeping plants are used.
- Valley in the mountains - consists of large stones, which are surrounded by a variety of plants. When creating such a slide, preference is given to bright flowering plants.
- The gorge is a good option for the design of natural hollows. Created from large boulders and rocky plants.
DIY 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 a photo, alpine slides in landscape design with their own hands are created quickly and easily. The creation process is usually preceded by careful preparation, which includes several stages:
- We select a place for placement. The selection can fall on an uneven surface or a flat area if there are no natural unevenness. The size of the rock garden depends on the size of the site. But it is better if you can find 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 materials you need to create the 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 place for the location of the future rock garden, try to choose favorable angles. Such beauty cannot be hidden from everyone, it is important to show it off!
Choosing stones and plants for a rock garden
Any alpine slide in the country with your own hands is created from several basic elements:
- Stones - they should have dimensions proportional to the slide, because large boulders on a small hill will look funny and not aesthetically pleasing. Designers recommend choosing stones of different sizes in order to lay the largest ones at the base of the slide, and then install smaller elements.
- Plants - choose options with different flowering intervals. It is desirable that the rock garden be decorated with plants with flowering periods from early spring to late autumn. This will allow you to enjoy the bright colors of the composition for a long time. In addition, plants should be short and undemanding. After all, they will have to survive among stones, even if artificially piled up.
- Shrubs or trees - they are used to create the center of the composition, to decorate the top of the hill. They choose small trees, dwarf shrubs.
How to make an alpine slide yourself?
So, everything is ready to create a beautiful rock garden. The most difficult thing remains - doing the slide on your own. In order for the result to soon please with its beauty, you need to follow simple recommendations:
- The creation of the slide begins with the marking of the territory allotted for it. The marking is carried out using a cord or contrasting material, with which the necessary lines are drawn. Thanks to the markings, it is possible to make some adjustments to its location even before the creation of the alpine slide. Indeed, thanks to the created lines, it is already possible to evaluate the placement of the rock garden from the side.
- Soil preparation. If there is clay or black soil on the site, it will have to be drained. In this case, the soil is taken out 30 cm, the resulting space is filled with materials of large fractions, they are carefully tamped and ground is again sprinkled on top. If the soil is sandy, such preparation is not carried out.
- The largest boulders are first placed on the site, which it is desirable to slightly bury into the ground for a more realistic look. The space between the boulders is filled with earth, which will be the basis for the next tier.
- Another row of boulders is laid out on the earthen embankment. Usually, smaller stones are chosen for this row. After the required number of tiers has been created, a summit is created from one large or several medium boulders.
When placing large boulders, remember to leave some space between them, as the planted plants will need room for root development.
It is best to start creating an alpine slide with your own hands in the fall. During the winter, the earth will settle down, so in the spring it will be possible to fill up the voids that have arisen and plant the plants. A competent approach will allow you to create a beautiful alpine slide on your personal plot.
Master class on creating an alpine slide - video
Secrets of Successfully Creating an Alpine Slide
Each landscape designer has certain secrets that help him create stylish, effective 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 a do-it-yourself alpine slide for beginners seems to be a simple and laconic structure. In fact, it consists of selected elements, their well-planned placement and several 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 the natural appearance of the slide.
- The size of the stones should correspond to the area of the rock garden. The larger the alpine slide, the larger the boulders can be used.
- When choosing plants, preference is given to evergreen and undersized species.In this case, the slide itself will not be lost in a few years behind the lush greenery of overgrown flowers and shrubs.
- Looks perfect among stones conifers, as well as cover and creeping species. It is better to choose flowering plants with small flowers that will not distract all 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 positioned so that they do not obstruct stone embankments.
Despite the fact that the grass and flowers should not block the stones, in the rock garden, vegetation is always in the foreground.
The choice of plants for creating 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 the combination of opposites. Alpine slides mimic rocky areas that are diverse in nature. The main thing is that the slide 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.