Your lawn and garden can be low maintenance yet beautiful through rock gardening. The best places in your yard for rock gardens are in exceptionally dry areas, or in water run off areas that can be made to look like creek beds.

Although it is quite easy to create a rock garden, you will have to plan well ahead of time. First, you'll have to choose the area of your yard for it to be made. Also, what kind of plants and rocks to you want to use in it?

Often times, small river rocks and pebbles work very well for the rock garden bed. It looks great to have the rocks be similar in size, shape, and color, but sometimes it can look good to just use any rocks that look interesting to you, even if they are not similar to each other.

The rock gardens that tend to look the best have a rock bed of small pebbles and stones, with different types of plants rising up between them. Larger elements will be used as focal points and shade areas through the garden to add areas that are more interesting to look at.

Sparingly and thoughtfully adding larger rocks or boulders create interest and variety in your garden. They also create the possibility of adding a small fountain or stream. Additionally, they create areas for you to plant moss or other plants on the rocks.

After you pick a place for the rock garden, the area needs to be completely cleared of all debris and weeds and their roots. The open dirt area will leave you with a space to imagine and create your unique rock garden.

The first thing that you will do after clearing the area is to place the plants into the space. The plants will likely be small, and used sparingly through the garden. They should be scattered about, and not too close together.

Next, the largest of the rocks to be used should be placed in the locations that you've chosen for them. Your layer of base rock or pebbles should be applied after that. You can make this layer as thick or thin as you want, but it should be laid as close to the edges of the rocks and plants as possible. The plants will wind their way through the rocks, so having the rocks very close to the plants is not a problem at all.

Finally, any areas of special interest can be added, such as water elements, driftwood, old wagon wheels, or any other interesting and attractive item.