Garden lovers can be so passionate about the outdoor retreats they create that they get lost in daydreams about plants and gardening design themes for most of their waking hours. And for these people, landscaping with boulders can provide a spectacular outlet for their creative instincts. Boulders, by their sheer mass, make magnificent focal points for any garden setting

Have A Plan

Landscaping with boulders demands significant advance planning, however, simply because the boulders are so difficult to move. The boulders should be the first things positioned in a garden and their oppositions should be permanent, with all the other landscaping elements planned around them.

Designing With Levels

Landscaping with boulders will give you the opportunity to add distinct levels to your garden. You'll have to select the best areas in your garden to develop into levels, and then define each level with groups of from three to seven boulders of different sizes.

Using Boulder Textures and Colors To Create Effects

Boulders of different minerals will add different textures and colors to your garden and you can group them in similar colors for a large area of visual impact. From calming white and ivories to more vibrant yellow and red shades, from soft grays streaked with green lichen and moss to nearly black, there's a palette of colors which you can mix or match when landscaping with boulders to produce a variety of effects. Color has a strong influence on mood, so you can use boulders to transform different areas of your garden into calming, or energizing places.

If you'd like to add an Oriental look to your garden, landscaping with boulders is a very effective way to achieve one. A single smooth white boulder in a bed of small stones will evoke a peacefully flowing stream.

A strategically positioned series of descending boulders can create visions of a waterfall; if you are lucky enough to have a stream in your garden, you can even create an actual waterfall by landscaping with boulders.

You can get advice on how to position the boulders from the company which supplies them; the experts in landscaping with boulders will even suggest which end of the boulder should be kept exposed for its interest. Their staff will assist you in placing the boulders when they deliver them.

Their fascinating shapes, subtle striking colors and solidity mean that by landscaping with boulders you'll add an air of permanence to your garden, making of it a place where your gardening dreams are truly “cast in stone”!

One concern you may have about landscaping classes is their expense. The expense of a particular landscaping class will depend both on its duration and the price of the books and other materials you may need to participate. If, for instance, you are taking a landscaping class which requires testing soil samples for their pH and nutrient content, you may need to buy the appropriate testing equipment.

The opportunity to enjoy classes about landscaping is as near as you local community college. And some large gardening supply stores also offer landscaping workshops. So let your landscaper's eye roam over the Yellow Pages, and get ready to become a real landscape artist!