A gravel garden is the ideal solution for anyone who doesn't have a lot of time to care for their garden, because the plants that thrive there hardly need any care and weeds don't stand a chance. If you have no idea how to landscape a very dry part of your garden that is exposed to direct sunlight, consider creating a gravel bed. But which plants are best suited for gravel beds? Robust plant varieties that can tolerate a hot place in full sun are particularly suitable here. Find out more in today's article!
If you want to create a gravel bed in your garden, you should first decide what look you want to achieve: Mediterranean with culinary herbs such as thyme and lavender, Japanese withBamboo plantsand bonsai trees or minimalist-modern with cacti and ornamental grasses. Depending on the style you choose, there are different garden plants that are well suited for this.
Mediterranean Garden – Real lavender, thyme, olive tree, rosemary
Japanese or Zen garden – Japanese maple, sacred bamboo, fine bladed miscanthus, bearskin grass
Ornamental grasses for the modern garden – Pennisetum grass, feather grass, riding grass, bearskin fescue, blue fescue.
The yucca palm and aloe vera also fit particularly harmoniously into the rock garden and can survive long dry periods without damage.
Flowering perennials can also be planted in it, which can create a beautiful visual contrast: purple ornamental onion, yellow Junker lily, purple-flowering verbena, yellow maiden's eye, blue rue, yellow-flowering rue, black locust and pitch pink flowers.
Check out these great examples below and get some ideas for designing your gravel garden!
The ornamental grasses of the genus Stipa have various German names: angel hair feather grass, girl's hair grass, priemen grass, tussock grass, etc. The most common name, however, is feather grass. It grows naturally on poor dry areas and rocky steppes and therefore fits quite well in a gravel garden. As the name suggests, feather grass scores with long, feathery leaves and flowers. The perennial ornamental plant grows like a clump and, depending on the variety, reaches a height of up to 90 centimeters.
Particularly noteworthy is the angel hair or tender feather grass (Stipa tennuissima). It grows to around 50 centimeters high. The hair-thin foliage can sway very clearly in the wind and still looks very decorative in winter. The feather grass looks great in larger groups, but can also be planted individually.
Here we see a lively mix of medium-sized perennials such as penstemon (Penstemon cobea) and low stonecrop species such as Caucasus stonecrop (Sedum spurium) and mild stonecrop (Sedum sexangulare). Some Sedum species impress with their beautiful flowers and are also wintergreen. You can't go wrong with this incredibly diverse genus of plants.
The genus Festuca is one of the richest in species and forms. Fescue is a perennial, grows spherically and impresses with all sorts of color variations. The most common varieties are Festuca gautieri (bearskin fescue) and Festuca Cinerea (blue fescue). The bearskin grass grows very compactly in a strong green, while the blue fescue varieties appear in delicate shades of blue. The barren the soil, the more intense the blue color is. Festuca Cinerea also gets along well with the evergreen Iberis sempervirens, which scores with small white flowers and cushion-like growth.
If you want to bring bronze and red tones into the gravel garden with ornamental grasses, you can choose the varieties Carex buchananii or the Japanese blood grass Imperata cylindrica. A light layer of gravel emphasizes the special foliage color. Grasses come in a wide variety of colors, so you can put together a great mix. Some types of grass also take on a completely different color in autumn. The choice is large and not just in terms of color. Height and width can also vary greatly. Find tall species that are suitable for the background or those that can decorate the foreground in the bed.
The ice plant Delosperma is a flowering perennial that grows well in dry locations. The succulent perennial includes 140 species and all of them are extremely flowery. The purple-red species Delosperma cooperi is vigorous and likes to spread over stones. Bright golden yellow flowers make Delosperma congestum 'Golden Nugget' an attractive jewel for the rock garden. The pretty white flowers of Delosperma basuticum 'White Nugget' open very early and provide joy all summer long. The ice plant can be combined very nicely with other succulent perennials such as stonecrop (Sedum) and houseleek (Sempervivum).
The Alpine man's shield is a cushion-forming rock garden plant that belongs to the primrose family. He is an endermit of the Alps. The dwarf Tibetan Man's Shield Androsace sempervivoides and Androsace brigantica would thrive better in your own gravel garden, as they thrive in these weather conditions.
The harebell belongs to the genus Hyacinthoides and flowers in blue-purple, pink or white. It grows well in soil covered with gravel and loves sunny to partially shaded locations. It reproduces rapidly through daughter bulbs and can become somewhat invasive, which is something you should keep in mind when choosing a location. You can then take the bulbs out of the ground and use them to create additional beds in the garden over the years.
The plants of the genus Saxifraga belong to the saxifrage family, which also includes purple bells and astilbes. Almost all species of Saxifraga are hardy and very robust. Some of them tie up cushions and some rosettes. Popular varieties for the rock species are cushion saxifrage (Saxifraga Kabschia) and moss saxifrage. The Kabschias include the species Saxifraga x abingdonensis, Saxifraga x anglica, Saxifraga x apiculata, Saxifraga x borisii, Saxifraga x boydii, Saxifraga x boydilacina and many others. They grow in the form of flat cushions or mats made up of small, tightly packed rosettes. In spring the attractive flowers appear in a beautiful variety of colors.
Lavender is without a doubt one of the most popular plants for gravel beds. And that's no wonder. The plant grows densely, which guarantees lush blooms in an attractive purple color. The herbal plant can also be used for a variety of purposes. For example, use them to create a flowery background in a stone bed or use them to frame a garden path. Lavender is wonderfully suitable for the Mediterranean garden, but is also increasingly adorning minimalist and modern gardens where some subtle color accents should be provided. In the rustic, vintage or shabby chic garden, it creates the necessary romantic flair.
Lavender also spreads quickly. If you want the garden to appear particularly natural, you can also let it take up part of the paths or terrace. If the gravel beds border one of these elements, you can let nature take its course. You decide for yourself whether you use gray, beige or white gravel for the bed design. These purple plants definitely look good in every variant.
You can also shape the bed itself geometrically. Round variants in particular look very appealing and differ visually from the classic square and rectangular variants. You can create the round shape with stones for the bed frame. Also, use a different color of gravel for each shape to better emphasize the pattern. You can then distribute the plants according to your taste. Here, ground cover plants were distributed directly along the garden path, but also occasionally in other places in the stone bed. There is also lavender and some ornamental grasses. The mix of colors that was created is also striking. The plants not only have different flower colors but also leaf colors.
As with any other type of ornamental bed, it is important that all plants can be shown to their best advantage. What's the point of investing in them if they will later be hidden and shielded from others? For this reason, you should find out in advance how large the respective plant species will grow. There should always be enough space left between them so that they can develop well. The gaps are simply filled with gravel so that the bed ultimately looks anything but bare.
Here you can see a great example of an Asian garden. Since water plays a major role, a small pond with a fountain was integrated into the natural stone in the middle of the gravel bed. The plants also adapt to the garden style. Grasses and ground cover that grow naturally from the gravel are combined with small trees, including the popular Japanese maple with its red leaves. If you have chosen stone beds, that does not mean that you cannot also have beds with ordinary soil. In this garden example, both variants were combined just as well.
If you use flowering plant species, you have the choice between two design options. Either you decide on a specific flower color and only choose varieties that bloom in that color or you create a colorful display of flowers. You can also try to create an ombre effect, where the flower colors gradually merge into one another.
