On Wed, 11 Jun 2003 15:43:07 +0100, Pam Morris wrote:

I am thinking of creating a rockery in my garden mainly so I can hide the
lumps of chalk dug out when creating my now finished horizontal-plant bed.

Hi Pam,

Last year I made myself a "rockery" using stones found when digging up the
garden from the previous year's leveling work.

I had avaialable approx. 8 large (as in I could only just carry them)
stones/boulders that the previous owner had failed to make a decent
rockery from - and of a different stone to the common native, plus all the
large and small stones I had dug out of my vegetable garden when leveling
it into terraces - these varied from common garden stones to fairly large
lumps, and mostly in one type of grey stone, with flints etc. mixed in.

Having a small rectangular area to fill that was never ever going to look
natural, and no massive boulders to work with, I went for something like
what is termed a "scree bed" if you have a look in a couple of books about
making rock gardens (See the Expert Gardener series - water and rock
gardens book - very useful).

Working with my rectangular bed (it is actually raised), I lowered the
level of earth somewhat, planted my 8 large boulders so that they looked
pleasing to the eye from the main viewing point, and then packed some of
the earth back in round them to hold them all steady, and to give the
plants something to root into. I then placed all the biggest stones that
I had dug up all round these, adding a bit of earth here and there, and
then topped the lot off with all the small stones I had dug up. I then
added about 10 alpine plants, and it looks absolutely smashing - although
it will never look like a natural rock garden.

I hope this helps Pam, as I certainly seem to have been on a similar
journey in my garden (leveling ground, nbuilding terraces and then a rock
garden!) albeit a year or 2 ahead of you.

I can send you a few photos of the finished articles if you like.

Regards,

Sarah