Easy-care Landscaping With Rocks and Boulders
Talk about low maintenance. Everyone wants a showcase landscape, but not all homeowners have the budget or time often required to care for an outdoor space. Specimen rocks and boulders are a great solution for an instantly elegant and low-maintenance landscape. And often there is a selection of slabs already on your property anxiously awaiting use.
| |
| Modern landscapes full of right angles and inorganic materials can feel stark and uninhabitable. The animate quality of the boulders makes this space less predictable and breaks up the meticulous geometry. |
Add instant zen to any yard. Promote relaxation and meditation by devoting an entire space solely to rock of varying scales.
| Rocks strewn across a landscape populate sparsely planted spaces. The continuity unites multiple planting areas. |
Working with hillsides can be a challenge. Fortunately, a collaboration of rock walls for slope stability, as well as boulder clusters, create beautiful and functional retaining walls.
| All garden styles can benefit from the addition of rock. Here a more traditional cottage style garden uses rock slabs to create a hillside planter. |
| Boulders serve as the ultimate all-weather seating option. |
| |
| If a boulder is too massive to relocate, simply build around it. An otherwise mundane concrete driveway or terrace can become a showcase for a natural art piece. |
Instead of building through or blasting rock boulders, spectacular monoliths can stand on their own as architectural objects. Constructing your house and landscape to showcase the grandeur of the rock ties the built with the found.
A collection of smaller rocks can make as much of an impact as one big boulder.
One of the best assets of rock is that it legitimizes just about every space. Regardless of whether this water feature occurred naturally in the yard or was carefully designed and constructed, the result is awe inspiring.
What do you think about big boulders in the yard? Let me know in the comments!
More ideas for using boulders in home design
What do you think about big boulders in the yard? Let me know in the comments!
More ideas for using boulders in home design
Comments
thornton inspiring. we're redoing our front landscape now, and i loved your ideas for incorporating rocks and boulders. another bonus when using rocks is the no water use.
3 years ago · Like
Richard Martin - West Coast Home Design Assoc. Thanks for this collection Annie! As a west-coaster, we have a strong affinity to rockscaping. Nice to see that we are not alone!
3 years ago · Like
K. D. It's not "A collection of smaller rocks." It's a sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy.
3 years ago · Like
jeg700 700 I have always had an affinity for rocks. I pick up beautiful pebbles from the beach each time I go which resulted in a rather large rock collection in my house. I put them in a beautiful clear vase. I also arranged the rocks from the back yard around the deck. Looks fabulous.
3 years ago · Like
luckykats Since our house is on a hill, we've had a rock staircase built to join the front and back yard. We always get compliments on it - love rockscaping!
3 years ago · Like
leonardi I always have to add rocks (big & small) somewhere in my landscape. They create depth & are so visually pleasing. Out of the mountainous rock in our back yard my husband created a beautiful water feature, that flows down 20feet into a small pond. It Sounds & looks wonderful.
3 years ago · Like
sqftfarm Another asset of rock use is their year-round interest. I live in a long winter state and when not much is green and growing the rocks make a big difference. Rocks also contribute to an earth-friendly "green" landscaping approach in times where almost all of us need to be aware of water issues as well as fertilizer runoff that can associated with lawns.
3 years ago · Like
Annie Thornton what's so great about these rocks is that they can serve so many landscape needs spanning from necessary function to sculptural beauty. and there is no drought tolerant planting quite as water wise as a rock garden.
3 years ago · Like
Stone Farm In New England we have an abundance of glacier "erratics" or boulders. Sometimes they make great accents as well as steps. 
2 years ago · Like
INTERIOR MOTIVES & ASSOC rocks/boulders can be works of art, each rock is different and can add value to the property.
15 months ago · Like
saraheglass Screen doors
10 months ago · Like
Ideabook updated on Nov. 24, 2010.
What are you working on?
News From Our Partners
Latest Ideabooks
People found the photos in this ideabook after searching for:
View over a million photos:
