An Alpine Garden

Alpine rockeries are a great way to add definition and structure to your garden. Whether you position your rockery in a shady corner or on the fringes of a water feature, this garden style enables you to provide a specialist environment for alpine plants.

Rockeries are often built to imitate mountainous growing conditions with sunspots and shadowy nooks meaning they can be a home to a wide variety of plants. If you’re looking for a winter scheme to tide you over the colder months then this is a good project to get stuck into as you can build the base landscape and plant it up later in the year.

The Best Base
Build the foundation layer of your rockery garden using reclaimed bricks or rubble and cover over with soil.

Given its name choosing the right rockery to dress your garden is obviously crucial to achieving this look. Local stone will always be a natural fit with your surroundings for example if you’re located in towards Wales or Cumbria slate rockery might be a strong choice. Alternatively pick rockery which will complement your plant choice or colour palette.

Compost for Alpines
Rockeries need free draining soil which isn’t too rich so mix Eco or Pink horticultural grit into your planting compost. Alpines flourish in in shallow soil which replicate their wild, rockery origins and are used to growing in cracks and crevices. Spread the compost around the rockery pieces to create planting pockets.