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Green grass. Trees and shrubs. Flowers. That's what the typical landscaped lawn consists of. And properly designed, such landscapes can be quite pretty, of course. But there's many different ways to landscape your yard - and you should consider them all before making your final decision. Let your imagination run riot.
Why not try a rock garden?
If there's a section of your grounds where the grass just won't grow, why not replace it with a rock garden? Of course, you don't want to place such a garden in an area which gets a lot of water run-off. If that's the reason why your grass won't grow, consider fixing the drainage! But if it's a question of bad soil, or of too much shade in the area, a rock garden is the perfect solution.
Once you create a rock garden there will be little or no maintenance for it. But that's contingent on you building the rock garden correctly to begin with. The last thing you want is for the rocks to shift during a rainstorm, or for grasses to constantly crop up through the gaps in the stone and have to be weeded away.
There's a dearth of sources on the web for rock garden design, but there are plenty of books on the subject, from Rock Garden Design and Construction by the North American Rock Garden Society , to Stonescaping: A Guide to Using Stone in Your Garden by Jan Kowalczewski Whitner, from Stonework: Building Rock Gardens, Walks, Walls, and Ornaments by Alan Bridgewater and Gill to The Rock & Water Garden Expert by D.G. Hessayon.
Apart from a rock garden – not to be concerned with a Japanese garden – there are plenty of other ways to use decorative stone to enhance your landscaping.
Warm, welcoming stone
A concrete sidewalk up to your front door is so prosaic! Why not change it into a rock pathway? And add a rock pathway leading to the back of the house as well. For those types of designs you'll have to check the building codes in your area - many housing developments restrict the kinds of things you can do to your own yard.
As with a rock garden, the ground needs to be properly prepared first, so that water will run-off properly during even the most ferocious downpours, and the rocks themselves don't tilt or slide when walked on...or settle and heave during a winter frost. Always consult a professional if you're going to be working with slabs of stone or rock in an area that gets a great deal of cold weather.
Properly designed and executed, a rock garden can bring you joy for years to come.
It's time to break out of the everyday landscaping design. What does your lawn consist of? Lots of green grass - that takes a lot of time to mow and a lot of water to look healthy, trees and shrubs. Perhaps some flowerbeds flanking the house itself.
But there's so much more you can do with your landscaping, if you just decide to do things a bit differently.
In desert locations, of course, like Arizona and Mexico, why bother to try to force grass to grow at all? Why not simply cover your yard with attractive, ornamental rock and stone, with a few shrubs. Or as the joke has it, "I'm retired, I've mowed my last lawn!" The reason is simple - you may think water is a renewable resource - but it doesn't renew as fast as mankind is consuming it. In desert states where water comes from below ground aquifers, the level of this fresh-water source is lowering every year, and rainwater cannot replenish that level fast enough.
Even if you don't live in a desert climate, there's no reason why you can't make a rock garden - either large or small - in part of your yard. Such a garden will cut down on the time needed to mow your lawn, there'll be no need to spread pesticides around, and it will be a quiet and restful place around which to sit.
Like any other landscaping element, a rock garden does have to be planned carefully. Rock doesn't absorb water - so any rain run-off will go straight into your lawn and does need to be carefully drained off. Don't put your rock garden over electrical or phone lines, either.
You may think that a rock garden is equivalent to a Japanese garden, but that isn't necessarily the case. The Japanese garden combines three elements: stone which represents mountains or islands, water - representing purity, and plants. A Zen garden is what most people think of when they hear the term Japanese garden - a stretch of white sand with black rocks placed strategically about, and one meditates by raking the sand smooth.
There are two ways to install a rock garden...one would be to make the rock look like a natural outcropping of ed to cut off an inconvenient slope. The more usual design is to pile up the stones - both large and small - in harmonious groupings...and if you simply must have greenery, leave small gaps between the rocks into which the plants may be placed.
Surf the web to get ideas for how to design your rock garden, and venture far and wide, into sites from Japan and India as well as the United States. You'll find beauty everywhere.