If you want to create a beautiful garden, there’s one style you might have overlooked: a rock garden.
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A rock garden is a garden that has been filled with or created around natural rocks. As well as featuring rocks, they’re low-maintenance, sustainable, and simple in design.
Luke Baldwin, landscape architect and co-founder of Formed Gardens, has plenty of experience working with rock gardens, including this pool and garden upgrade at a Curl Curl, Sydney property.
“The plan was to excavate the pool carefully around existing rock formations to expose the rock further and create a feature of the garden,” says Luke.
Luke adds, “The result embraces the sandstone cliff location, sits comfortably within its natural surroundings, and offers plenty of goodness around that with a generously sized pool, huge lawn, play spaces and landscaped beauty.”
There was one issue, though.
Access was difficult because the house and backyard sit perched on top of a cliff 20m above the street.
“Anything going up or down had to be craned,” This meant that had to think about what they were bringing in and taking out of the garden.
Why a rock garden is a good idea
As well as being a low-maintenance way to bring some creativity to your garden.
In Luke’s experience, plants associated with sandstone cliffs in Sydney are fairly drought-tolerant, tough and low maintenance.
Another huge plus is showing off the natural landscape found in many backyards.
“We feel integrating a design that highlights/heroes the existing rock is a great way to feature the natural landscape,” says Luke.
“It is also much more sustainable to work with the rock in your garden, enhance it, rather than remove it.
“The more you can protect, the more chance you have of creating/improving those natural microclimates for native plants and wildlife to adapt and evolve.”
What plants work well with rock gardens?
The type of plants you can plant in and around your rock garden depends on the conditions.
When choosing plants, Luke says: “Generally, these are exposed coastal conditions, so it is best to stick to local natives and/or hardy plants that are wind, salt tolerant and low water use.
“We look at what is growing successfully in similar conditions in the surrounding landscape and replicate that.”
Rock garden styles
If you want to create a rock garden, the first step is deciding what type suits your style.
Non-specific rock garden
In his book Rock Gardening, Joseph Tychonievich describes a classic rock garden as a “mound of soil (or sand or gravel or whatever medium you decide to grow in) often supported around the edges with a larger rock to form an informal raised bed, with more rocks scattered around in an aesthetically pleasing manner.”
Scree garden
Joseph says: “Scree is a technical geological term, referring to a place where erosion or a landslide has resulted in coarse rocks and gravel mounded at the base of a slope. Natural scree will therefore, be a mound of different sizes of rocks, gravel, and possibly some soil as well.”
Alpine rock garden
Another option is the alpine rock garden, designed to mimic high mountain landscapes with large upright slabs, coarse gravel, and low, drought-tolerant plants – perfect for modern, prairie-style houses.
Once you’ve chosen your style, source your rocks, gravel, and stones from local landscaping companies or nurseries, ensuring they match your landscape’s existing colours and textures.
What soil is best for a rock garden?
Consider soil conditions, as many alpine and arid plants thrive in rocky or sandy soils. Tailor your soil’s fertility, composition, and topography to your chosen rock garden style and plant selections.
Happy rock gardening!
You might also like:
How to make a wicking garden bed
How to make wicking beds with old wine barrels
How to fill a raised garden bed, cheap
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