Which conifers for an alpine slide to choose - photos and descriptions of the best species. The choice of conifers for an alpine hill Dwarf junipers for an alpine hill

In alpine landscapes, plants of bizarre shapes and shapes are often found. Special place among them are occupied by coniferous plants. For an impromptu mountain landscape, any dwarf conifers are suitable - miniature pines, firs and spruces, as well as creeping, pillow-shaped arborvitae and junipers.

Emphasis on form

On an alpine hill, it is not necessary to plant coniferous plants too close to each other, otherwise the individuality of their forms is lost. There are two ways to arrange plants in groups:

1) by contrast of shape or color;

2) by transitional forms, which, as it were, continue each other, creating dynamics of growth or decrease in composition.

Agricultural technology for growing conifers on an alpine hill

Prepare substrate for planting coniferous plants on an alpine hill you need according to them biological features. In addition, the time of planting in open ground various coniferous species may also differ. Not all representatives of conifers prefer sunny places and put up with excessive soil moisture. Many of them prefer shelter for the winter, which is also important to consider when planning an alpine slide.

JUNIPER

Juniper is planted on an alpine hill in early spring or September. Contrary to the recommendations of using container plants for planting in the ground at any time of the year, during the off-season, it is better to place juniper in a container on an alpine hill. So root system will remain undamaged, and in the fall the plant can be transplanted to permanent place. The distance between junipers and neighboring plants, depending on the form of growth, is from 0.5 to 1 m. The depth of planting depends on the clod of earth and the root system; for junipers, they usually prepare a planting hole 0.7 m deep and pour the earth to the desired volume.

soil mixture for juniper - sod land, peat and river sand (2: 1: 1).

Fertilizer for juniper is applied in the spring - nitroammofoska - 30 - 40 g / m2.

Locations on the hill are open sunny places, green coniferous species are planted on any exposure of the hill, golden and variegated species prefer the western and southern ones, gray ones prefer the northern and eastern ones.

Juniper care includes 2 - 3 times watering per season, and spraying in evening time once a week, mulching the soil with peat.

Juniper in rock garden

FIR

Dwarf firs are planted in a permanent place in an alpine hill in April before the shoots begin to grow or in September after the formation of apical buds. The recommended distance to a neighboring plant is 0.5 m. The depth of the planting hole should be such that the root is straight in the hole, and root collar- at ground level.

falls asleep landing pit soil mixture - leafy earth, peat and sand (3: 1: 1).

If the plant is planted in the spring, then top dressing with complex fertilizer is necessary.

Locations on the hill - penumbra, northern or eastern exposure.

Fir care includes regular watering, providing air humidity, and mulching the soil with peat. In winter, it requires shelter not so much from frost damage as from burns from the winter sun.

Korean fir "Cis"

SPRUCE

Soil mixture for spruce - leafy soil, acid peat and river sand (3:2:1).

When planting, complex fertilizer is applied.

Locations on the hill - sun, partial shade, any exposure.

Spruce care includes watering once a week, 10-12 liters per plant, soil mulching with peat. In winter, it requires shelter from sunburn.

Gray spruce "Nana"

PINE

They are planted in a permanent place in March, the planting depth is 0.8 m. The root neck remains at ground level. In no case should the root be bent during planting.

Soil mixture for pine - sod land and river sand (2: 1). If necessary, add 250 g of lime to the pit.

Locations on the hill - the sun, any exposure.

Pine care includes watering 2 - 3 times per season in the amount of 15 liters per tree. You can slow down the growth of shoots and increase the density of the crown by pinching the buds.

Assortment of conifers for alpine hills

The height of coniferous plants for an alpine hill should not exceed 0.5 - 0.7 m for small stony areas (5 - 6 m2), 1.5 m for large ones (more than 40 m2). Therefore, when selecting coniferous assortment for alpine slides, the estimated height of an adult plant must be taken into account. Below is a list decorative forms that do not exceed 1.5 m.

Dwarf forms of thuja western

"Danica" - crown shape - spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.8 m; diameter - 0.8 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Little Dorrit" - crown shape - spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.8 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green. Winter-hardy variety.

"Hoseri" - crown shape - spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.5 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green. Winter-hardy variety.

Dwarf forms of mountain pine

"Mughus" - crown shape - shrubby, spreading, sometimes creeping; height of an adult plant - 1.5 m; diameter - 0.6 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Gnom" - crown shape - shrubby, dense, spherical; height of an adult plant - 1.5 m; diameter - 1.5 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Mors" - crown shape - shrubby, spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.5 m; diameter - 0.5 m; the color of the needles is greenish-blue.

"Winter gold" - crown shape - shrubby, spherical; height of an adult plant - 0.5 m; diameter - 1.0 m; color of needles - in summer - bright green, in winter - golden yellow. Winter-hardy variety.

Dwarf forms of Norway spruce

"Little Gem" - crown shape - spherical-flattened; height of an adult plant - 0.5 m; diameter - 0.5 - 0.7 m; color of needles - light green.

"Nidiformis" - crown shape - nest-like, with a deepened middle; height of an adult plant - 0.5 - 1.0 m; diameter - 0.8 - 2.0 m; the color of the needles is dark green.

"Will" s Zwerg "- crown shape - narrow-conical, dense; height of an adult plant - 1.0 - 1.2 m; diameter - 0.4 m; needle color - young - pale green, old - dark green.

"Echiniformis" - crown shape - cushion-shaped, compact; height - 0.2 - 0.6 m; diameter - 0.4 - 0.8 m; the color of the needles is green.

An alpine hill is an artificial or natural mound of earth, a hill where growing evergreens, herbaceous plants and shrubs are formed with stone elements.

This element of garden design got its name due to the fact that alpine plants are planted here, which in their natural state grow in mountainous and foothill areas.
Read a detailed illustrated article on how to make an alpine slide with your own hands.

To learn how to make a palm tree from plastic bottles, read .

Basic rules for plant selection

A flower garden with a rocky garden is increasingly common on modern garden plots. It is not difficult to create an alpine hill or rock garden, it is enough to know the main plants that can be planted on a hill, as well as the principles of their placement.

In addition, the rock garden is easy to care for. The stone composition looks beautiful and original if you add several types of alpine plants to it.

We offer you the basic rules for selecting plants to create a decorative rock garden:

1. When creating a composition, it is worth Special attention give to low-growing plants. It is important that in size they correspond to the size of the slide, look harmonious.

2. Choose plants that will tolerate the local climate well. If the hill will be created in a sunny area, then light-loving plants should be planted, and vice versa.

3. The intensity of tillering and growth of green spaces should also be taken into account. If you plant plants that grow well next to short, small plants that love light, you will deprive them of the opportunity to grow and be pleasing to the eye. For example, beautiful and unpretentious soapwort, yaskolka, obrietta, rezuha will negatively affect plants in the neighborhood.

4. Plants on the hill should be combined with each other in appearance, growing conditions, development and growth rates, flowering period.

Types of plants to create an alpine slide

Alpine slide is created on long time. When choosing plants for an alpine slide, give preference to cinquefoil, spirea, conifers, which grow rather slowly, but create a dense layer.

Tall herbaceous and woody plants look best next to large stones, and experienced gardeners are advised to avoid symmetry when planting such plants.

To eliminate the gaps between perennials, which at first cannot fill the entire space of the rock garden, such places should be planted with annual flowering plants: gazania, large-flowered purslane, marigolds, gypsophila, marine lobularia and others. These plants love the sun and are unpretentious to the constant receipt of moisture, so they will fit perfectly into general form slides.

A properly created alpine slide will turn any site into a small natural wonder.

Each gardener must answer for himself the question: in what colors does he want to see an alpine hill? It is also important to create a slide plan on paper - schematically draw the shape of the slide, mark the location of the stones in the figure, and also paint over the rock garden sections with different colors to see the whole picture.

Dwarf coniferous plants look beautiful on the alpine hill, which will favorably highlight your hill all year round. Popular dwarf spruces can have several shades and favorably emphasize the element of landscape design. The same group includes juniper - an unpretentious plant in care, cypress - a coniferous plant with a golden top, as well as thuja.

Preferring deciduous plants on an alpine hill, exclude species with falling leaves, which will only spoil the overall look. Among the evergreen deciduous plants for the alpine slide, Iberis is often used - a plant with white, purple or pink flowers in umbellate racemes.

The dryad looks beautiful due to white catchy flowers, as well as horizontal cotoneaster, which begins to blush in autumn and stands out favorably among other inhabitants of the alpine hill.

To make the alpine hill look harmonious and beautiful, it is worth planting shrubs and conifers one at a time, and filling the gaps between them with undersized plants.

Between the stones, along with coniferous plants, carpet plants should be planted, which in a few years will braid the hill with a beautiful canvas. These include rocky beetroot, which is distinguished by gray-green leaves that retain their color all year round. Burachok blooms with small bright yellow flowers in panicle inflorescences.

You can give preference to a short-stemmed carnation, which blooms richly with bright beautiful flowers. Saxifrageforming dense rosettes from their rosettes beautiful pillows, are a mandatory attribute of the alpine slide. Various types of saxifrage can bloom both in the shade and in the sun.

If you want your rock garden already in early spring began to please the eye, and until late autumn retained color, tuber-bulbous and bulbous plants.

Early color will provide blueberries, snowdrops, chionodoxes. But until late autumn, their flowering will please the eye autumn crocuses, late tulips, avian, colchicum.

The Alpine hill will be perfectly complemented by a small "mountain" waterfall

The principle of tiered planting

To make the alpine slide a real decoration of your garden, you should follow the rules for planting plants, depending on the tiers. So, let's start with the top tier.

top of the hill

The top of your garden decoration is more open to the sun's rays, so it is advisable to place light-loving plants here. In addition, there is practically no moisture left at the top, so the top of the rock garden should be framed by plants that require the least moisture.

To ensure that the top of the alpine hill blooms all year round, choose ground cover plants that will bloom one after another. Browse through various plants for an alpine slide, photos and names of which will help you make your choice.

For example, in May-June, the top of the hill will be covered with fluffy iberis, and throughout the summer and autumn, the upper tier will delight you with the flowering of cushion-like bushes of perennial carnations that live in mountainous areas.

If you want butterflies and bees to always hover over the top of the rock garden, you should plant plants with a pleasant honey aroma, for example, creeping thyme, which forms a carpet on the surface.

Alpine edelweiss is one of the main elements of the top of the hill. This plant loves the sun very much, and in its natural environment it lives on rocky slopes high mountains, however, for excellent plant growth, it will be necessary to prepare the soil mixture.

If you want to grow unpretentious plants on top of an alpine hill, then the best choice will be young.

We form the middle tier

In the middle of the hill should be plants that love the sun, but at the same time tolerate the shade well. In this place of the hill, the soil is more humid, so there will be a lot of variations for planting.

To ensure lush flowering in May, plant styloid phlox, blooming in blue, pink and white flowers. As a background plant for such bright colors, anfalis three-veined, woolly chistets, Schmidt's wormwood can act.

If you prefer to decorate the middle tier of the slide not only with flowers, but also with green foliage, then Aubrieta will be a universal choice. This plant not only blooms beautifully from the end of May, but also has decorative foliage.

In our latitudes, geyhers, alpine aster, armeria bushes, bulbous plants, primroses are perfect for the middle tier.

To learn how to properly lay turf, click .

Create the foot of the hill

The lower tier of the slide serves as its foot, a logical conclusion. This is where the slide should connect with the rest of the garden.

The lower tier of the rock garden should be filled with moisture-loving plants that feel calm in the shade. Shrubs and tree-like plants are well suited for this, which will be an excellent accent.

To make the foot of the hill bright, you can plant lyatris with spike-shaped flowers, as well as saxifrage in the form of bushes. Having planted rhododendrons at the foot of the hill and dwarf conifers you will be satisfied with the result.

On the choice of plants for the alpine slide, see the video:

Examples of creating an alpine slide

Consider some examples of simple alpine slides.

A small alpine slide, consisting of fragrant plants, looks good.

Plant an oregano at the top to attract insects. middle tier decorate with beautifully growing hyssola, monard and sage. And decorate the lower tier of alipinaria with thyme, basil and nasturtium.

This combination of plants will create beauty in your area, and the combination of fragrant herbs will improve your mood.

Alpine slide scheme will help create beauty on your site

For lovers of a wide variety of plants suitable option alpine hill, on top of which coniferous plants are planted, for example, thuja. Near it, the coniferous ensemble can be supplemented with mountain pine and prickly spruce.

Lately in landscape design the so-called alpine hills or rock gardens are very popular - a rocky design site, as close as possible in appearance to a mountain one and planted with mountain slow-growing (no more than 2 cm per year) representatives of vegetation.

There are several types of rock gardens, defining its shape (horizontal, located on a slope or resembling a small mountain or hill), style and choice of vegetation:

1. IN Japanese style the main attention is paid to the beauty of the stones (usually rounded), while the vegetation itself fades into the background and occupies the minimum possible space.
2. TO English style include alpine slides, consisting of sharp stones and slowly growing plants, mainly wormwood, coniferous and cereal species.
3. To compositions European style include the types of landscapes closest to us, where primacy is given to flowering slow-growing plants. They are selected in such a way as to ensure flowering in rock gardens throughout the garden season, constantly replacing each other and maintaining its unique appearance.
4. Recently, it has become very popular Czech rolling pins, which are also called "layered" or "slotted" rock gardens. Their appearance is closest to natural and is perfectly used in the design of large gardens and estates. This type of design is unmistakable as it uses flat stones of varying sizes and thicknesses with nearly parallel surfaces that are placed under different angles to the ground and to each other, and in between they grow various alpine plants.

Plants belonging to the alpine flora are quite rare in garden plots and therefore are of particular interest to connoisseurs of garden art. Such types are practically not used for curbs or lawn plantings because they require a special position and rarely take root in the wrong place.

It is very important to create exactly the right composition that will allow alpine plants feel comfortable and pleasing to the eye for many years.

Alpine slides are placed, usually focusing on south side and on most sunny areas taking into account the long-term prospect of no shadow in the future. Types of masonry can be quite varied and depend on the type chosen, but the most commonly used vertical installation flat stones maximally rotated by the larger surface to the south.

With this placement, the stones store heat and the plants have minimal competition for root development and sunlight. The disadvantage of this type of flower garden is a large consumption of stones and the need to use stone mulch to retain moisture and better development underground parts of plants, as well as to prevent the germination of weeds.

The range of colors for stone slides is very wide and allows you to combine alpine and subalpine species with their counterparts from forests and steppes, for example, bulbous, low coniferous and fern. In this case, special attention must be paid harmonious ratio their size and speed of growth, placing accordingly.

For example, such mountain species as antennaria, obrieta, awl-shaped phlox, grains are preferably cultivated on top tiers, having the name "plateau", and the slopes are well planted with a variety of sedums, stonecrops and ground cover species flora (zhivuchka, yaskolka, cloves, ground cover phlox), contributing to the preservation of the shape of the hill from erosion.

The foot of the hill you can beautifully decorate with ephemeroid bulbs - muscari, quinodox, crocuses, tulips. Low shrub and wood species (Japanese quince, creeping cotoneaster, junipers and dwarf varieties of pines) are perfect as background species.

For northeastern parts of the rock garden usually shade-tolerant and shade-loving types are used, such as shade saxifrage, ferns, anemones and corydalis.

For top part sun-loving drought-tolerant plants are best suited. Bathing suit flowers can become a real decoration of the slide.

The rock garden will always look great if you correctly coordinate the timing of the flowering of the plants planted in it, allowing you to admire the change of colors and shades throughout the warm season, starting in spring, when the Carpathian bluebell, excellent tulip, saxifrage, narcissus, blueberry, Japanese quince, stonecrop bloom , snowdrop, and until late autumn (gentian, cinquefoil, small-petal and yarrow).

The basic law of creating a slide in this case is the inadmissibility of landing large plants next to small ones, in order to avoid drowning and shading some species by others and hiding the beauty of stones under their lush foliage.

In a general sense, a rock garden is a collection of undersized and graceful species growing in a flower garden among a well-visible stone composition, and this must be taken into account when planning it.

In order to choose the right culture for your rock garden, there are several rules which will help in choosing the most successful solutions.

Design harmoniously

For the harmonious design of the slide are best suited:

• various types of l tuber and tuber crops(galanthus, crocuses, scillas, irises);
• rosette crops(rejuvenated, cuffs, orostachis);
• bud cover flowers(cloves, thyme, sedums, daisies, bluebells, periwinkle, St. John's wort);
• low and creeping coniferous plants(junipers, boxwood, mountain pine).

Consider the external features of plants

When choosing the type of rock garden and flower crops it needs to be taken into account color scheme, flowering time and texture of plants and combine them with selected stones, their shape, location and shades.

Pay attention to climate change

It is necessary to take into account the climatic features of the region and the soil, and select plants in accordance with these conditions, however, visually reminiscent of a mountain landscape.

Consider the size of plants and rock garden

The size of the plants should be proportional to the created rock garden. That is, it is necessary to choose low, compact plant species. For example, herbaceous flowers and low shrubs such as heather, gentian, cereals are perfectly used for a small stone hill. tall thuja, dwarf pines and juniper look great when creating large alpine compositions, which most often have a tiered structure.

The structure of the rock garden

Usually alpine slides are conventionally divided into 3 main zones: top, middle and bottom. Each of them has its own design features and various conditions flower growth:

1. Microclimate the top of the stone hill characterized by an abundance of sun, the highest temperature and low moisture content, so for this part it is better to select light-loving, drought-resistant species that do not require special care. Ideal in this case can be a snow-white carpet of iberis, or a colorful masterpiece of perennial cushion carnations that will fill your garden with a gentle pleasant smell throughout the summer. They will also give an irresistible look to the top of the hill, rocky beetroot, young, thyme and edelweiss, which can go without watering for a long time and love the abundance of the sun.
2. The middle part of the hill receives less heat and light, but at the same time it is more moistened and it is best to use ramonda, phlox, lobelia erinus, crocuses and daffodils for its design.
3. The lower tier of the rock garden usually highly humid and least sunlit. Light coolness and partial shade reign here, therefore, to decorate the foot of a stone hill, it is best to choose shade-tolerant plants that love abundant watering, such as ferns, bathing suits, shady saxifrages, corydalis. Often, for greater resemblance to the Alpine mountains, the lower part of the hill is planted with coniferous plants.

What plants to choose?

Coniferous cultures for a stone slide

Evergreen conifers always give the rock garden some naturalness, imitating the forests at the foot of the Alpine mountains, surrounding it with lush greenery and emphasizing the beauty of flowering species. Alpine hill with coniferous plants looks harmonious and beautiful. At the same time, trees and shrubs retain the attractiveness and style of the slide even in cold season, making it a green island against the backdrop of a deserted garden. Thus, the design lower part of rock garden low-growing coniferous crops are always very advantageous.

In rock gardens, almost never use deciduous plants, because the foliage falling in autumn pollutes the hill, and it is almost impossible to clean it from the space between the stones. Moreover, this situation contributes to the processes of decay and the development of various diseases in a humid microclimate at the bottom of the hill, which will lead to the death of other "inhabitants" of the rock garden. Based on this, coniferous crops are always in priority, also receiving favorable growing conditions.

Today there is a huge variety of different coniferous plants, for any size and illumination of a rock garden from dwarf sun-loving pines, spruces, larches and junipers to shade-loving fir, cypress and thuja. And for very shaded places, you can choose hemlock and yew.

Another important feature of evergreen conifers is the variety of various forms of the crown, its color and appearance. They can be in the form of narrow pyramids or balls, they can spread along the ground, have an arrow-shaped or candle-like shape, and color shades from dark green to blue and yellow provide the landscape designer with a huge field for a creative flight of fancy.

In rock gardens use undersized and dwarf species of conifers, often with curved trunks, close to the species growing in the natural Alps:

• Juniper medium- the owner of a dense light green sprawling (up to 0.8 m) crown, slightly "gilded" at the ends. Depending on the season, juniper changes color from lemon in spring to lime in summer. loves sunny areas. Perfectly refreshes dark layered stones.
• Thuja western– winter-hardy shade plant with an irregular narrow crown, which can take on a spiral shape, be in the form of a pyramid or column. Often has multiple tops. It loves loamy soil and grows about 5 cm a year.
• Pseudotsuga Menzies- in appearance it is very similar to prickly spruce. However, due to the wax coating, it has a bluish tint and softer needles are somewhat randomly arranged, which gives the plant a unique “shaggy” look. Grows well in both sunny and shady areas. He loves loamy soils and grows by 4-6 cm per year. It requires regular prevention from fungal diseases.
• Also good for rock garden decoration spruce varieties(Serbian, Oriental, prickly, common), mountain pine, dwarf pine, Korean fir, larches, microbiota, hemlock, tuevik and many others.

Creeping and ground cover species

Creeping and ground cover plants are excellent decorators for alpine slides, perfectly decorating the gaps between the stones, giving the slide an unimaginably picturesque look. Another plus in favor of these low, but surprisingly beautiful plants is the protection of the composition from drying out and weeds.

These cultures include:

• Zvezdovka- decorative beautiful plant with bright jagged leaves and umbrella-shaped small flowers forming a yellow-green carpet. Each flower is framed by an asterisk of five green leaves, which gives the plant a surprisingly attractive appearance.
• Dryad- the most beautiful alpine woody plant. It has small (2-3 cm) dark green leathery leaves on top and covered with light gray villi on the bottom leaves on low petioles, which gives it a particularly decorative look. The stems of the dryad are creeping, and this allows her to penetrate into the most inaccessible places and decorate them with her presence.
• diascia- a magnificent creeping plant, which is very popular among gardeners due to its green foliage, creating a dense juicy carpet decorated with an abundance of arcuately drooping bright orange open small flowers collected in inflorescences.

The variety of creeping and ground cover plants for rock gardens is so great that it would take several volumes just to list them. Among them are such plants as brunner, rezuha (arabis), succession, daisy, tenacious, cat's foot (antennaria), anafalis, cuff, etionema (winged stalk), arundinaria (bamboo), acena, bergenia, periwinkle, euonymus, budra (glechoma ), buharnik (cholkus), viola, pansies, gentian, gentian, ramonda, saxifrage, yaskolka, soapwort, subulate phlox, iberis and many others.

Perennial plants for rock gardens

In rock gardens, perennials are most often grown, which makes it easier to care for them and makes it possible to enjoy the beautiful alpine landscape almost all year round, and bloom from early spring to late autumn.

The choice of perennials is very large. You can note such masterpieces of nature as:

• ramonda- incredibly similar to violet. Delicate and delicately smelling, it will perfectly enliven any rock garden. It is very unpretentious, loves slightly shaded areas, therefore it is preferable on the northwestern slopes, painting them from May to early July in a light lilac color.
• Alyssum (rocky alyssum)- during the flowering period, fills the air with a sweet honey smell and turns the place of its growth into a bright yellow carpet. It goes well with other colors and allows you to create picturesque paintings in rock gardens.
• Orieta- an evergreen perennial blooming with magnificent flowers of lilac, purple and pale pink. This is a rather capricious culture and requires special treatment and care for it. He likes a temperate hot climate and fertile land.

Among the perennials for the rock garden, you can also list spring adonis, aquilegia (catchment), armeria, alpine aster, prostrate veronica, thyme-leaved veronica, wolfberry, or daphne, carnations, Dalmatian and Dalmatian geraniums, creeping gypsophila, gentian, dwarf iris, saxifrage, bluebells, cat's paw, cotoneaster, cypress, crocuses, euphorbia, forget-me-not, different kinds ferns, wormwood, primrose, and many others.

Thus, properly selected flowers planted in rock gardens will bring a feeling of special comfort, peace and beauty to your garden.

Alpine Hill - a reduced copy of the highlands. Usually, in the central part of such a flower bed, a cobblestone or several cobblestones are installed, which are a symbol of a mountain peak. Terraces are created on the slopes, on which low-growing vegetation is planted.

In the natural environment, such areas are formed in the place where natural fractures of rocks appear. Under the influence of the environment, a fertile layer appears on them, on which plants subsequently grow. To recreate such a mountain landscape in your backyard or dacha, you need certain knowledge.

For such a large-scale structure as a rocky flower bed is suitable spacious plot. When building an alpine slide with your own hands, you should strive to ensure that the composition of vegetation and cobblestones looks naturally.

Video. Alpine slide device

Creating an alpine slide with your own hands

Alpine slide, made by hand, will decorate the entire local area. To decide on the design of your future rocky garden, you can study photographs of alpine slides. In order to create such a composition, it is necessary to adhere to certain rules and a certain order of work.

Step-by-step instructions for creating an alpine slide with your own hands

First, determine the location. In order to do this, you need to pay attention to lighting. For a rock garden, a site is suitable that is illuminated as long as possible. sun. Also, the composition should be clearly visible from all sides.

1. Designation base contour(soles) slides and removal of the upper fertile layer to a depth of about 30 cm.
2. Device drainage system . The bottom layer can be made from small gravel, pieces of brick, or, in extreme cases, from construction debris. After that, a layer of sand about five centimeters thick is laid. A fertile layer of earth is laid on top of the sand. You can do without a drainage system if a slope with not too dense soil is chosen for arranging an alpine hill.
3. At this stage, start placement of stones And core erection slides. Of all the stones, the largest and most beautiful cobblestone is chosen. He will be the main one in the lower tier. The stone must be stable. To do this, you can add soil or gravel. The classic alpine slide in the country house consists of an odd number of tiers. Between these tiers, moist soil is laid, which must be well compacted.
   Tip: when laying stones, symmetry should be avoided. Between the stones, you can leave places for planting plants or group stones next to each other. It is also necessary to immediately determine the supporting stones on which it will be possible to stand when caring for vegetation. They should be sealed and fixed.
4. plant vegetation.

Alpine slide plants - selection rules

Building an alpine slide with your own hands requires knowledge and certain skills. This is especially true for the choice of vegetation. The first step is to decide on the color palette of the rock garden. After that, you should draw a sketch of the future rocky garden. To trace the color scheme, you need to decorate the sections of the slide with the appropriate colors. Only after that you can start choosing a plant for an alpine hill to the country.

Alpine slide with your own hands. A photo

look good low coniferous plants. You can also use small shrubs that bloom in spring and bear fruit in autumn.

Coniferous plants that are suitable for landscaping an alpine slide with their own hands

• dwarf spruce. This plant tolerates drought well;
• juniper. This unpretentious plant grows in its shape resembles a cone. Foliage - green;
• thuja grows in the form of a bush. In good light, it acquires a reddish-brown color;
• cypress- a plant with a golden apex and a dark green base.

Deciduous plants for an alpine slide

For landscaping an alpine slide with your own hands, you should not choose deciduous plant species. Since fallen leaves must be cleaned regularly so as not to harm other vegetation. For slides choose the following plants:

• cotoneaster horizontal. This shrub with a dense crown has dark green foliage in the warm season, and acquires a reddish tint by autumn. The plant blooms with small flowers;
• iberis. Semi-shrub that does not lose its attractiveness throughout the season. The flowers, collected in an umbrella-shaped brush, are painted in white, pink or purple. Later, in their place, fruits appear in the form of pods;
• dryad. A miniature shrub with large white flowers. The flowering period falls on July-August. Later, fruits appear in their place. unusual shape. They look like fluffy balls.

Flowers for the Alpine slide

For the construction of a classic alpine slide with their own hands, low, creeping, "carpet" plants are used. It is best to give preference to perennials. The following flowers can be used for landscaping:

• carnation short stem. This low-growing, rich-flowering plant with narrow gray-blue-green leaves is unpretentious. Suitable for landscaping open sunny areas;
• beetroot rocky- perennial, the leaves of which are painted in a gray-green color. A feature of this plant is that its leaves remain green even in winter. In multi-flowered inflorescences-panicles are small bright yellow leaves;
• young- perennial with a wide color palette of leaves. They can be green, silvery, yellowish, pink, burgundy;
• saxifrage- traditional inhabitants of rock gardens. Flowering period - May-August. Five-petal flowers are painted in white, pink or yellow.

In order for the alpine hill in the country to please with its beauty every year, bulbous and bulbous flowers should be planted. To create a contrasting background, long-flowering crops are suitable. Also, a well-groomed lawn will be an ideal frame.

What to do if the alpine hill settles in the spring?

Sometimes an alpine slide, made in violation of the construction technology, can settle. There may be several reasons for this.

• Poorly matched plot or lack drainage. It is better to equip a rock garden on a natural hill or on a site with a slope. If the slide is located on loamy or clay soils, then it is necessary to make a drainage layer. For these purposes, gravel or stones can be used.
  Tip: not recommended for drainage construction garbage. It is better to give preference to small pebbles or specialized drainage stones.
• Wrongly matched substrate, vegetation And cobblestones. For an alpine slide with your own hands, it is better to choose the following mixture of earth: compost, sand and peat in equal proportions.

How to avoid flower bed shrinkage

• take into account the slope of the site and the type of soil;
• make a drainage layer and let the earth sag in time;
• for planting, choose vegetation with powerful rhizomes;
• correctly select vegetation, cobblestones and soil substrate;
• remove fallen leaves in time, dig up wilted plants, weed weeds.

Alpine hill of conifers

To create rock gardens, not only traditional "Alpines", but also coniferous plants can be used. For these purposes, pines, thuja, shooting juniper, barberry, gray or Japanese spirea, conic spruce are ideal. In the classic version, only shrubs and trees should not be present. They should grow there in small numbers.

Stones for alpine slides

For such rocky gardens, natural flat cobblestones of various sizes and original shapes are suitable. You should also give preference to stones with a heterogeneous surface, with all kinds of "inclusions", recesses in which you can plant moss or a small plant. Limestones, boulders, sandstones, granite, slates look good.

Decorating an alpine slide with your own hands

Stones and vegetation are used to decorate the alpine slide. In order to properly arrange them, you must follow some recommendations, namely:

• laying stones begins from the bottom row, moving up;
• for the top of the composition, you must choose the most beautiful cobblestone;
• for each large stone, it is necessary to make a “foundation” of one to three flat stones;
• stones should be laid in such a way that their tops are parallel to each other;
• several stones should be stacked so that they can be walked on;
• after laying each row, a layer of earth is laid, which is well compacted and spilled with water;
• at the top of the hill they set the most beautiful cobblestone.

Rock garden and rockery: differences and similarities

Rock garden and rockery are two different ways of arranging a flower bed. Rockery is a flower bed of stones, most of which is occupied by stones of the same breed. Cobblestones are stacked parallel to each other or in random order. Randomly arranged stones imitate natural environment. Vegetation is also present in rockeries, but in the form of a background that plays a secondary role. In an alpine hill, bright vegetation comes to the fore.

Alpine slide with your own hands. Video instructions

Video. Do-it-yourself Alpine slide

Alpine slide with your own hands. Video

Alpine hill with a waterfall. Video instruction

Creating an alpine slide is a fascinating process that requires not only imagination, but also attentiveness. Even one incorrectly selected plant can spoil the whole impression, breaking the harmony between the other inhabitants of the rocky garden. Therefore, you need to do right choice from an extensive list of plants suitable for composing an alpine slide.

To make the alpine slide look attractive throughout the season, you should select a place for planting plants, taking into account their flowering time and the principle of layering:

1. The top of the hill. It is more open to the sun's rays than the tiers below; therefore, it is rational to plant plants here that love sunlight and do not need a lot of moisture.
2. middle tier- a place for plants that feel good in partial shade. Here, the average soil moisture, so the middle of the alpine hill can be called universal: milking most flowers here ideal conditions which gives you a wide range of choices.
3. The foot of the hill- logical ending landscape composition. The plants planted here should be combined with the rest of the rock garden and choose those that love moisture and tolerate shade. After all, most of the sun's rays will go to the neighbors from above.

To ensure continuous flowering from early spring to late autumn, flowering plants should be selected according to the principle of rotation. Evergreen shrubs and dwarf trees will look great in winter, looking out from under the snow.

Creating an alpine slide is a fascinating process that requires not only imagination, but also attentiveness

Plant layouts in rock gardens

Before you start creating an alpine slide, you need to create a graphic scheme. It will reflect the general idea of ​​​​the composition, help to generate new ideas and even before planting the plants to find possible errors.

First of all, stones are designated. The largest should be at the base, and the rest should create a gentle slope so that there is room for soil and plant roots. You can experiment by coming up with terraces, sharp cliffs, a pond and other interesting solutions.

Here are a couple of examples of circuits:

1. spicy hill, on which fragrant flowers are located: oregano will occupy the top, heather, hyssop, monarda and medicinal sage will feel good on the middle tier, and basil, bright nasturtium and fragrant thyme will sit at the very base.
2. Coniferous hill: thuja, planted at the top, looks great in the environment creeping juniper middle tier (you can use different types) and weeping cypress. The rock garden is completed by dwarf spruces or pines, the soil under which is disguised by a saxifrage carpet.

Each site owner has the opportunity to create a unique landscape slide design. After drawing up the scheme, you can start laying stones and soil, and then planting plants.

Gallery: plants for the alpine slide (25 photos)

What plants are suitable for an alpine slide (video)

Names and descriptions of perennial flowers for alpine hills

Perennials form the basis of the alpine slide. Therefore, their choice must be approached responsibly: it depends on which plants will be chosen. appearance compositions. You can introduce new colors and accents annually by planting annual plants.

Armeria maritime

A compact plant whose bushes form fluffy green cushions of narrow leaves. Above them rise numerous inflorescences (about 10), which are lilac balls. Outwardly, the armeria looks like a decorative bow. hardy plant, poorly responsive to high soil moisture. Therefore, the armeria will feel good at the top of the hill or on the slope of the middle tier.

Dicentra exceptional

This plant is popularly called the "broken heart" for the original shape of the flowers. Usually dicentres are a large bush, but the Exceptional does not exceed 25 cm in height. It goes well with coniferous and creeping plants, so it will be an excellent highlight of the rock garden. The green-gray foliage of the dicentra is exceptionally similar to the leaves of a fern, and flowers in the form of disconnected halves of the heart can be white or pink.

Dicentra exceptional

gypsophila

The plant belongs to the clove family. It has an erect or creeping stem with a small number of small lanceolate leaves, crowned with panicle inflorescences with small white (rarely pink) flowers.

bulbous flowers

These are crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops and blueberries. They appear immediately after the descent of the tender cover, reviving the landscape in a spring way. For variety, you can plant varietal Greig tulips with beautifully shaped flowers reaching 30 cm in height, and Kaufman tulips.

gypsophila

rejuvenated

stone rose, as it is also called young, is distinguished by excellent endurance. At the same time, the plant is very beautiful: its fleshy angular leaves are collected in rosettes. They can be both quite miniature and up to 10 cm in diameter. The color of the leaves varies from gray-green to burgundy. A stone rose is suitable for decorating the slopes of an alpine hill. Looks spectacular young, growing in the cracks between the boulders.

Primrose

Primrose (popular name of primrose) is a perennial herbaceous plant. Its advantages: early flowering, variety of shapes and colors of flowers, pleasant smell. Primula is undersized (height 10–30 cm), when planted alone, it forms a small bush with leathery leaves and bright inflorescences that attract bees. If you plant primroses close to each other, you get a motley carpet.

Edelweiss

In the people, the plant is also called the mountaineer. It loves the sun and grows wild on the well-lit sides of mountains. Therefore, it will adequately take a central place on the hill - its top. In summer, edelweiss will surprise you with beautiful star-shaped flowers.

How to make an alpine slide with your own hands (video)

Creeping and ground cover plants for an alpine slide

Ground cover plants are an integral component of the alpine landscape on the site. They decorate the soil and make the slopes of the hill truly alive.

For example, this:

1. Antennaria(). undersized plant, whose peduncles do not rise above 15 cm. It has small leaves with a silvery tint and pubescence create a dense carpet on the ground up to 5 cm thick. Basket inflorescences white color, so the cat's paw cannot be called a bright plant that attracts glances. But it is very durable!
2. periwinkle. Forms an evergreen rug that blooms from May to September with delicate blue flowers scattered among leathery small leaves. Suitable for growing under the sun and on a shady slope: the plant is unpretentious to light.
3. Alpine dwarf low plant, forming a decorative turf, which does not exceed a height of 3 cm. In May and June, inflorescences up to 15 cm appear on it, which are brushes with numerous white flowers.
4. Saxifrage. One of the most popular ground cover plants. The time of their flowering falls on the middle of summer, and the color of different species varies: from snow-white to maroon. He loves light, so you need to plant on the western or southern slope of the alpine hill or closer to its top.
5. Aubrieta. Covers the ground with a lush carpet. It blooms profusely throughout the spring, and during this period it is covered with pink and purple flowers. It loves sun and loamy soils, although it grows well in any soil.
6. Awl-shaped phlox. A plant 15–17 cm tall, named for its narrow and pointed leaves at the ends. The shoots are densely covered with numerous inflorescences of pink, white or lilac color. Flowering begins in May-June, and it continues in early September.

On the same hill, several types of ground cover plants coexist if they are in harmony with each other. Given their flowering time, you can make sure that the soil is covered with a bright carpet from spring to autumn.

Ground cover plants are an integral component of the alpine landscape on the site

Shrubs for alpine slides

It is not recommended to use deciduous shrubs in landscaping alpine slides, because their leaves, stuck in the cracks between the stones, are difficult to remove, and the composition will look untidy. It is better to opt for small evergreen bushes.

For example, cotoneaster horizontal whose branches grow parallel to the ground. They are decorated with small leathery leaves, which acquire a crimson color with the onset of autumn. After flowering, small red berries appear, remaining on the branches all winter and giving the cotoneaster a special charm.

An interesting solution would be to use boxwood barberry. Its bush grows no higher than 50 cm, it represents a spreading crown of numerous branches. A very unpretentious plant that tolerates frost and drought well. Loves the light, but when grown in the shade retains its decorative properties.

In landscaping alpine slides, it is better to opt for small evergreen bushes

Dwarf plants for rock garden

Alpine hill is a repetition of a mountain landscape in miniature, so for naturalness you need to use small plants. Large bushes will take up half of the composition and divert attention from other inhabitants of the rocky garden.

You can use dwarf varieties herbaceous plants (for example, annual marigolds or alpine aster). It is desirable that their height does not exceed 30 cm. And, of course, dwarf conifers are the regulars of rock gardens: spruce, pine, etc. Thanks to them, the hill really looks like a reduced copy of the alpine relief.

Ephedra for alpine hills

To create an alpine landscape, use undersized species and varieties of conifers:

1. dwarf firs, whose height does not exceed 60 cm. They lend themselves well to shaping and require almost no maintenance. The shape of the crown different varieties may be sprawling or pyramidal.
2. Juniper. Species look spectacular, the branches of which grow parallel to the ground. The needles of the plant often have yellow tint, and the branches are decorated with small cones. Juniper in the wild can be seen on the slopes of the mountains, therefore it is undemanding to the soil and grows well on stones.
3. thuja- a shrub or tree of a pyramidal shape, less often it is cut in the form of a ball.
4. Mountain pine "Pug" grows very slowly and by the age of 10 has a crown with a diameter of up to 50 cm, which allows planting a tree on an alpine hill. Green needles have a pleasant blue tint.
5. cypress: its decorative dwarf varieties will effectively decorate the rock garden slope. You can choose a bush with golden, silver or traditional dark green needles. And the Philifera cypress has hanging branches, which looks like a coniferous cascade.