Rock Garden Design and Construction: Book Review

Autumn color in the display garden of Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery. Photograph by Baldassare Minco.

Rock gardens provide an opportunity to try some different types of plants in your garden. You can develop rock gardens over a number of years by collecting interesting rocks and bringing them home. This is also a helpful way to dispose of any rocks you may come across in your yard and garden. Or you can buy rocks in many different sizes to arrange the way you want to. You may do a little of both and purchase a few choice large rocks to be the foundation of your garden and then add to them over the years with rocks and large stones you pick up along the way. The look of each rock garden is unique because it is not possible to collect and two rocks that are exactly the same and each gardener has his own view of the final result.

Though its pages are graced with more than 100 color images — many showcasing exquisitely conceived and executed rock gardens — this is by no means a mere coffee table book, but rather a treatise that covers every aspect of rock gardening, from sitting and construction to plant selection, culture, and ongoing maintenance.

Rock gardens often rise up in a pile of rocks with soil filling in all of the spaces between the rocks. In some places you can plan to have larger soil areas for larger displays of plants. The rocks themselves will soon disappear after the garden takes hold. Most rock garden plants tend to grow over the rocks and hide much of them from view. At different times of the year the rocks are more visible than at other times.

Mossy type plants and plants that climb or crawl are good choices for rock gardens. These plants do not require much space or soil and will create their own special look as they cover the rocks and fill in the empty patches. You can even find many small plants that produce lovely blooms in a rock environment.

This is a well-planned book that addresses all the major aspects of rock gardening and has ideas to offer gardeners from all parts of North America. One of its strengths is that the writers understand, through experience, the differences in soil and climate that influence rock gardening in different parts of the continent. Because of this personal experience the dissimilarities are addressed fully and not just mentioned briefly.

Great How-to Stone Book

Excellent Sunset guide and well written book with plenty of photos, tips, ideas and how-to indications to be crative and build your desired garden, paths, walls, etc… with stones. Ample information on how to build with stone: tips, instructions and sources for materials. A must have for a gardener.

A Wonderful Stone Masonry Book

This book has color pictures on almost every page with almost every type of stonework imaginable. If you need ideas or just pictures of different types of stonework, this book should cover that information. Topics covered include paths and steps, terraces, patios, garden spaces, poolside spaces, dry and mortared stone walls, benches, landscaping features, sculptures, pools, ponds, streams and waterfalls, water fountains, entryways, driveways, and borders. A nice book to own for creating an abundance of ideas, however, this is not the book you want if you are looking for step by step do it yourself instructions.

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