Tips from the top!
If you’re planning to build your own rock garden, take some advice from Burnby’s head gardener, Ian Murphy, on how to get started and what to plant…
Make your rock garden as naturalistic as possible. Here at Burnby it blends in with its surroundings as it’s made of local sandstone. It’s perfect to use as it’s not too hard or too alkaline.
All our plants have to be good performers, easy to grow and able to withstand being trod on a little! Look for RHS AGMs and robust growers. All our plants thrive in arid soil, befitting of a rock garden.
We tested our soil – it’s around pH7 neutral, so our plants thrive in it. Remember to plant accordingly – the difference between pH6 and pH7 is huge. The perfect soil is gritty and loamy, with leaf mould.
We used mycorrhizal fungi (Rootgrow) on planting to aid the development of fibrous plant roots quickly. We also used a little blood, fish and bone to enrich the soil.
For good drainage, we planted each plant in an elevated position, with the roots of the plants in the soil underneath, but the rest of the rootball reaching out into the topdressing of angular gravel.
We’ve aimed for interest all year round. Traditional rock gardens not only use small alpine plants, but small shrubs and perennials that suit rocky areas.