Cottage - the favorite vacation spot of the happy owners of a private house. And if there is also a piece of land, then in the breaks between the rest and you can work. After all, nothing is more inspiring to "laboring a person," like fresh air. In addition to the cultivated plants in the garden, each cottage necessarily has a flower garden, and the forms of flower beds depend only on the gardener's imagination. This can be as simple, nothing fenced front garden along the fence, and an elaborate flower bed. Recently, a new trend is becoming more and more popular - a bed of gravel, which practically does not need weeding, because weeds are removed even at the stage of laying a bed.
Advantages of a gravel bed
A gravel bed is a kind of a mixture of stone and plants, laid and planted in a specific order. This is a small stone garden that confidently crowns simple flower beds due to its advantages:
- requires a minimum of maintenance due to the almost complete absence of weeds, because instead of soil - gravel backfill;
- the possibility of creating a flower bed in various places of the site( in the shade, in the sun, on a slope, in remote corners);
- giving any shape and size;
- simple flower breakdown technology;
- no need to frequently water and fertilize planted plants.
Step-by-step recommendations for setting up a gravel bed
It’s not so difficult to make a gravel bed with your own hands at the dacha by following these step-by-step recommendations.
Soil preparation
Select the area where the flowerbed will be broken, and designate its boundaries - drive in pegs and tighten the rope. The bed of irregular shape will look more organic. Next, in the intended area, remove the top layer of soil to a depth of 20 cm. Select all the roots in the intended place under the flower bed. In order not to miss the still-sprouted weeds, moisten the area and leave it for a week, so that they hatch, and also remove it.
Next, dig a plot. To create a drainage layer when digging add coarse sand or expanded clay. Then the earth should be slightly compacted with a garden roller and lay the dug up area with the first layer of geotextile. It will serve as an obstacle to perennial weeds left in the depths of the earth, and also keeps gravel from subsidence.
The geotextiles cut into pieces must be laid in such a way that a solid web is obtained. Between themselves, pieces fasten special decomposing clamps.
After the flowerbed is completely covered with a mulching canvas, every 3 square meters in it. Need to pierce holes for drainage excess water.
Preparation of a site for planting
Having determined the places for planting, they are also cut out in an agrofibre, guided by the size of soft planting containers. Dig a hole in the hole cut, put a container in there, fill it with earth and plant the prepared plant. Such containers are very convenient when laying gravel beds because they protect the root system of flowers or shrubs from damage and separate the landing site from the gravel layer.
If you want to plant new flowers after the flowerbed is filled with gravel, you need to disembark them:
- Select gravel in the place to be planted.
- Make a cut in geotextile and tuck the edges down.
- Dig a hole under the sapling.
- Plant a plant, sprinkle with a small layer of soil, water.
- Place gravel in place.
Filling the bed with gravel
Fill the space left after planting with the first layer of gravel. Lay the second layer of geotextile on top and cover it with a second decorative layer of gravel.
Video on how to make a bed of colored gravel
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