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Well-groomed neat flower beds and alpine slides immediately attract attention and give the cottage a special class. From the outside, it may seem that making flower beds from stones is too difficult, and only a real master should undertake this. In fact, with careful observance of the instructions, any summer resident can create such a landscape decoration with his own hands.
Choosing a stone
The first important decision when thinking about how to make a bed of stones is the choice of the actual stone. It is unlimited by anything, you can use both the simplest sandstone and limestone, as well as expensive granite, and bricks, ordinary or decorative. The color of the stone is chosen depending on whether the focus will be on the borders or on the plants. In the first case, you can use bright materials – blue or purple gneiss, yellow sandstone, creamy limestone, dark red granite, greenish-black basalt, and so on. Plants in this case, you need to choose medium-sized and undersized, so that they fully shade the beauty of the stone.
If it is flowers that solo in this landscape design with their own hands, then this place can be overlaid with simple sandstone or limestone. It is important to remember that some stones are extremely hygroscopic and therefore need to be treated with a water repellent treatment. You can do this with your own hands, but before you start decorating the flower bed.
Large stones – limestone, granite, tuff, as well as brick, are well suited for raised structures. In order to highlight paths or curbs, you can take ordinary pebbles or crumbs. You can also distinguish more expensive varieties of stone and cheaper ones. Or those that are easier or harder to handle with your own hands.
The latter include hard granite and basalt. But these are durable stones, with high frost resistance and resistance to precipitation. This means that your flower bed will look neat and tidy in bad weather, and in winter, it will undoubtedly show that you are a landscape designer. It is allowed to use different types of stone, as long as it corresponds to the general aesthetic concept and does not affect the quality of the masonry. In addition, the arrangement of flower beds with the help of a construction mesh filled with stone has recently been gaining popularity. These are the so-called gabions. A flowerbed made of mesh and stones gives the site an original look in an industrial style, especially since the mesh can be given any shape.
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What materials will be required
When you have chosen a stone and decided on the design, you will need to pick up tools and additional materials. You will almost certainly need a tape measure, a shovel, a mallet and spatulas. It is most convenient to fix stones with cement. If desired, the masonry can be treated with a water-repellent wipe or varnish.
We make a beautiful flower bed
The Internet is a great help in finding a drawing of almost any flower garden made of stones, as well as seeing a master class on its construction. On the technical side, the creation of such a flower garden in the country is identical to the arrangement of a greenhouse, with the only difference being that the flower bed brings impractical benefits, but aesthetic pleasure. You will have to work hard with your own hands in any case.
Registration begins with markup. It is advisable to arrange a flower bed either in the foreground, not far from the entrance to the site, or in front of the house, or in the center of the site. In any case, it is necessary to consider whether predominantly light-loving or shade-loving plants will be planted and, in accordance with this, select a place. The next step after marking is to dig a ditch around the perimeter of the future flower garden. Usually enough depth of 20-25 centimeters and the same width. If a multi-tiered building is supposed, then the foundation can be made deeper and support reinforcement can be used. The ditch needs to be filled with concrete, and after a couple of days, when the foundation dries out, start laying stones.
The stones should first be sorted out, and the most beautiful and even ones selected, so that at the end of construction, the upper tier should be decorated. The rest, starting with the largest ones, are laid in rows on the foundation. The voids between the stones should be filled with cement mortar and earth with your own hands, tamping it tightly. A little tip – a slight inclination of the stones inward when laying will provide a higher strength class. In addition, it is worth avoiding cement streaks on the outside of the masonry, so the finished flower bed will be much more aesthetic. For better drainage, several gaps can be left between the stones of the stones in the bottom row.
The first layer, which will be filled with crushed stone, large pebbles, thick branches, that is, everything that can provide drainage. The higher the masonry is assembled (and the finished flower garden will be higher), the more drainage material may be needed. The next layer is leaves and peat, then the soil mixture is poured with their own hands. After that, you need to wait a few days for the soil to shrink, add the missing part and you can start planting flowers. By following these simple recommendations, you can easily arrange a beautiful flower bed in the country.
Possible difficulties
Possible mistakes that may lie in wait when building a flower garden of stones in the country:
- First, the wrong choice of location. Before you start decorating a decorative flower garden, you should make sure that it will not interfere in this place of the site, but at the same time it will be clearly visible, otherwise the meaning of all work is lost.
- Secondly, the wrong choice of stone. For example, granite greatly increases the acidity of the soil, and this limits the possibility of its use.
- Thirdly, haste and disregard for technological norms. The concrete at the base must dry completely, the masonry and soil inside should shrink, and only after that you can start decorating the flower bed.
Nevertheless, it is worth taking into account all the weaknesses and trying, because the beautiful flower beds in the country are pleasing to the eye, soothe and help you feel an advantage over your neighbors.
Decorating a finished flower bed
Depending on the size, both low-growing plants and shrubs or dwarf trees can be used in stone beds. The first class in floriculture is annual plants, and they are well suited for a flower bed just created with their own hands. At the very least, if problems with masonry suddenly appear, there will be no need to replant the plants. Seedlings are planted on the chosen one after the onset of heat.
Purslane is a popular annual plant. It is unpretentious to the soil, blooms from June to early autumn, but requires relatively high temperatures and a lot of light. It grows well on the south side of the plot. The flowers of the large-flowered purslane can be white, yellow, orange, red, cream and even terry, and therefore the flower bed will be quite bright and colorful even without companion plants.
The next popular plant is ageratum. It blooms from June to September, with beautiful double corollas in various shades of blue and purple. The plant is quite whimsical to heat, abundant watering, top dressing and timely pruning, but, nevertheless, it can live in the same flower bed with its neighbors – calendula, marigolds, snapdragons. This will allow you to create complex patterns in contrasting colors.
Of the several types of marigolds for flower beds, stunted ones are best suited. This is one of the most beloved and unpretentious garden plants. Being sun-loving, the flowers grow well in the shade, and delight the eye with all shades of yellow and orange. The flowers persist until the first frost, but the plant needs good drainage and regular loosening of the soil.
To add red hues, choose calceolaria (blooms in April – May) or nasturtium (blooms from June until the first frost). Saturated yellow will give calendula (May – September), bright blue will add lobelia (June – September). Alpine poppy blooms white (May – July) and Iberis (May – August), pink and purple – snapdragons (June – September). Until late autumn, aster will bloom in different shades. When arranging a flower bed of perennial plants, it is imperative to consider their protection in winter. On the flower beds, decorated with a stone border, different types of violets, daisies, forget-me-nots, saplings, saxifrage, carnations, creeping veronica, dwarf swimsuit, colchicum look beautiful.
To complete the design of the flower bed, it can be covered with decorative stone chips. In addition to an attractive appearance, this will also provide soil mulching. Sometimes you can not bother with planting plants. Choose a few large unusual stones, arrange them around the site, fill the space between them with ordinary or decorative pebbles and the rock garden is ready with your own hands. Great alternative to flower beds! A self-made flower bed made of stones will confirm better than anything else that you are a master of floriculture.
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