Content
- The right care in the rock garden
- Fight weeds regularly
- Mulch open ground surfaces with rock chips
- Watering and fertilizing rock garden plants
- Cut rock garden plants
- When to cut back?
- Tips
Now and then the plants in the rock garden should be cut into shape
The right care in the rock garden
Usually, the rock garden is considered very easy to maintain. However, this is not always correct, because without any nurturing work, the rock garden does not come off - whose nature and extent also depend on the selected plant species. Uncomplicated plants of course mean less effort than more complicated to cultivate alpine plants. The concrete care of your rock garden depends therefore primarily on the needs of your plants.
Fight weeds regularly
Most of the maintenance work is made up of weeding. Both seed and root weeds need to be removed in time to prevent them from rooting and spreading too deeply. Some weeds such as the annual bluegrass (Poa annua) form a dense network of roots, which after some time can only be removed with great difficulty and with great force. Seed weeds, such as the common spotted cress (Cardamine hirsuta), must be removed in good time before flowering, as they shoot once in seed and multiply over a large area and in large numbers.
Mulch open ground surfaces with rock chips
Especially seed weeds develop quickly on open ground surfaces. A mulch layer of stone chippings is the right defense measure in the rock garden. Use the same type of rock for mulching as for building the rest of the rock garden. The "stone mulch" is especially natural when different grain sizes from fine grit to coarse gravel are used.
Watering and fertilizing rock garden plants
Basically, the rock garden is kept rather dry than a normal perennial or flowerbed. In midsummer it is usually enough to water once or twice a week. When it comes to fertilization, keep in mind that most mountain plants need very little nutrients. If possible, use a low-nitrogen fertilizer, which is applied between April and July. Thereafter, fertilizer is no longer used so that new shoots can reach the necessary maturation before winter.
Cut rock garden plants
So that the plants do not overgrow each other in the rock garden bed, they must be regularly cut back.
When to cut back?
In the case of upholstery plants such as blue cushions, goose cress and weed, pruning is carried out to the desired size after flowering. The upholstery then has time in the summer to train new shoots and buds for the coming year. Summer flowering species such as carnations, bluebells and moorweed are also cut back after flowering in summer or in early spring between March and early April.
Tips
Mountain plants usually spend the winter under a meter thick snow cover, where they are protected from cold and wet. Therefore you should protect especially sensitive species from bald frosts and wetness.