Flower beds are a simple but exquisite decoration of your garden, imitating natural mountain landscapes. To successfully create a flower bed of stones with your own hands, you need to know the basic rules of choosing and stowing a stone. In the article we will consider these rules and some variants, how to make a flower bed of stones and how to decorate a flower bed with stones.
Which stones are best for making flowerbeds?
Flower beds from natural stones look very good. Such as:
- Sandstone - many shades, but short-lived.
- Limestone - can be of different colors, used for planting moss, algae and plants directly on the surface of the stone. Often uses such a limestone type as travertine (tuff).
- Slate (gneiss) - flat plates of violet, green or blue color.
- Granite - is used rarely, only to transfer the desired color.
- Basalt or volcanic tuff - well suited for strengthening the slopes and creating terraces.
In addition to the main large stone and several smaller stones, the following are used to decorate the flower beds:
- for drainage - large gravel, gravel and sand;
- for mulching the soil: small gravel, peat or bark of trees;
- for decorating: marble chips and pebbles of different types.
The main condition - the stones should be of different sizes and shapes. The more different stones will be used, the better. It is very important to select the accompanying materials to the main stone so that they match and match the basic style.
At the first independent works on the breakdown of the flowerbed, follow these simple rules:
- choosing a place under a flower bed, consider that it should be well seen and be comfortable for plants, it is better to choose a sunny place without strong wind and drafts;
- Choose simple shapes for the flowerbed;
- one large flower bed is made easier than a few small ones.
How to decorate a bed with stones?
The easiest way to make a beautiful flower bed is to simply garnish it with a stone around the perimeter, slightly pressing it into the ground to fix it. As a result, we get the flower bed of the sizes we need in a short period of time.
If you want to make a more solid and reliable flowerbed, you should lay the stone in several rows, forming a flower bed at the correct height. For this we do this:
1. Foundation:
- along the perimeter to dig a trench with a depth of 30 cm, a width equal to the size of the stones used
- cover the surface of the indentation with a ruberoid or polyethylene
- concrete.
- wait until the foundation dries and gets stronger.
Concrete foundation is not necessary, especially if the height of the flower bed is small. It's just possible to fill it with sand by one third and put the biggest stones on it, and fill the gaps with earth and tamp it well.
2. Masonry:
You can use a dry masonry (up to 60 cm) or mortar with a solution.
Dry masonry is when the stones are stacked on top of each other without a mortar or other bonding agent, voids formed between the stones are covered with earth, it is important to pick up the stones so that these slits are very small.
With the help of cement mortar - with this kind of laying of stone it is necessary to fulfill the following conditions:
- in the lower layer make holes for the drain of excess water;
- The solution should only be applied to the inner surface of the stones to create the impression of dry masonry.
- After cementing the cement, it is desirable to apply a special sealant from the garden sprayer, preventing the formation of cracks in the joints.
About a week later, when the cement slurry becomes sufficiently strong, you can fall asleep in the resulting land bed and plant plants, perennial or annual, or make a continuously flowering flower bed .