Do-it-yourself Alpine slide: step by step photo instruction

An alpine hill in the country is not only a fashionable element of landscape design, but also an effective option for creating a flower garden that does not require special and careful care. Indeed, for the rock garden, unpretentious perennial slow-growing plants are selected that feel fine on poor soils and without regular watering.

The alpine slide is a piece of wild nature created by one's own hands, a decoration of the garden, which is an accent spot in its design. For her, you need to choose a place that is well visible from all sides. But do not forget that sunlight is of great importance for plants. It is better to opt for a site located at a distance from buildings and trees with a voluminous crown. If it is difficult to find such a place, then preference should be given to the south side, illuminated by the sun at the most suitable time of the day.

When is it better to start creating an alpine slide with your own hands

You can engage in the arrangement of rock garden at any convenient time of the year. But the best option is early autumn. At this time, gardeners have some free time between harvesting and preparing plants for winter. Therefore, you can calmly and slowly begin to be creative, creating something unusual, amazing and original in the garden. After all, at first glance, it seems that the stones are scattered randomly, and the plants are planted where necessary. A rock garden is a great way not only to test your design abilities, but also to polish your spatial vision, imagination, and make sure, thanks to the opinions of others, that everything is in order with its creator’s sense of beauty.

The rock garden, created in the fall, will give a natural draft over the winter, settle in its place as it suits him, taking into account all the nuances invisible to the eye. And in the spring, before planting, shortcomings will become visible, which will not be too late to correct. Therefore, if an autumn planting is planned, then the creation of an alpine slide in the country with your own hands (photo) should be started a few months before.

Basic rules for arranging an alpine slide

Professional designers have long developed typical schemes for arranging an alpine hill, taking into account all the smallest nuances associated with its location and the desire to plant certain plants:

If the rock garden is located in the center of the site, it can be viewed from all sides, then its shape should resemble a pyramid with the highest point in the center of the composition. Not necessarily this design has the same sides and the highest point in the middle of the rock garden. The less symmetry is maintained, the more interesting the composition is;

A rock garden on a slope can be either single-level, parallel to the slope surface, or multi-level, reducing the height of elements and plants from a further point down;

The smaller the size of the horizontal elements, the more original the visual perception of the slide, the more interesting it is to consider it, each time coming across a completely new view, just changing the viewing angle. A properly equipped alpine slide (photo) should resemble a wild forest, constantly surprising with new discoveries.

Its height depends on the area occupied by the slide. In the classic version, there should be about 20 cm of height above the ground per meter of approximate diameter at the base.

How to make an alpine slide in the country

Often, arranging an alpine slide in a country house with your own hands comes down to creating a certain composition of stones and planting plants between them. But it's not right. Over time, such a rock garden will lose its decorative effect and even its original shape. Therefore, before proceeding with the creation of this kind of work of art, one should scrupulously approach the preparatory work, which consists in the proper preparation of the site, the selection of soil and plants. And work should begin with a drainage device.

Drainage device

The drainage system under the alpine hill in the country (photo) is not only an opportunity to create the most suitable microclimate for plants, often very expensive, but also to put together the whole composition. After all, the earth will eventually sag under the weight of the stones, and the rigid drainage filling will be able to keep them in their original position.

Stones, crushed stone, broken bricks, any construction waste other than wood are suitable for drainage. The depth of the drainage pit depends on the size of the future rock garden. In this case, it is better to do it deeper than shallower - with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe future mini-garden of 7-8 meters, it is enough to dig a pit to a depth of three bayonets of a shovel, which is about a meter.

Selection of stones

Limestone, sandstone, tuff, granite are suitable for an alpine slide. A few recommendations that will help create a more embossed and interesting composition:

• It is better to choose stones of different sizes. Approximately the same will look boring.
• The fewer smooth sides and straight lines on the surface of the stones, the more natural and beautiful they look.
• The created rock composition should be as asymmetrical as possible.

The only strict requirement is that you need to choose stones of only one type, mixes are unacceptable. They give the impression of clutter and landfill. The choice of stones also depends on the size of the rock garden itself - the smaller its area, the more modest the boulders should be. For a very small alpine slide, flagstone is suitable, used for laying decorative coatings, paths, and playgrounds. This is a fairly inexpensive material that can be cut with a grinder.

Several typical stone layouts:

• Large ones closer to the ground, smaller ones on top;
• Large stones throughout the area, between them a small scattering;
• The most beautiful and structural boulder is placed on top of the composition.

When installing large stones, care should be taken to ensure their solid location. In some cases, you can dig an edge or fix it with concrete in invisible places. To simulate the natural outcropping of rocks from the ground, large boulders can be deepened by half or a third.

Soil preparation

There are no strict rules in creating a soil mixture for rock garden plants. After all, the planting material that is least demanding on the composition and nutritional value of the soil is initially selected. You can take ordinary land from the site, having previously cleared it of weeds and foreign debris, mixed with peat and sand in equal parts. Pour the finished soil mixture in a slide on the drainage, after laying the stones, fill the voids between them.

Popular plants for alpine slides, photos and names

The choice of plants for the alpine is the most enjoyable of the entire preparatory stage. Of course, you can use ready-made schemes and recommendations from experienced landscapers. But it is so interesting to independently choose the future inhabitants of the rock garden, studying their features:

• Decorative shrubs.

The leading place is occupied by cotoneaster - a small ground cover shrub that does not lose its decorative effect even in winter thanks to its rich red berries. There are deciduous and evergreen species that do not lose their dark green shiny foliage even after frost. The plant is slow-growing, tolerates molding pruning well, is not demanding on soil and the amount of moisture.