What could be nicer than sitting on the balcony on a mild summer evening, sweetening the sunset with a good glass of wine and enjoying the sight of the miniature rock landscapes you created yourself? You don't need a huge garden for a rock garden that is true to life, a flat planter on your own balcony is sufficient.
A chair is a particularly creative planter for the mini rock garden on the balcony
What you need to create a mini rock garden
If you want to create a mini rock garden like this on your balcony, you can use this shopping list to go shopping at the nearest garden store (if necessary, a hardware store with a garden department will do). You need:
- a bowl of any size or another planter (e.g. pot, flower box (16.99€) or balcony box…)
- this should only be rather flat and also have at least one drainage hole at the bottom
- suitable substrate (e.g. cactus soil, herbal soil or a mixture of potting soil and sand)
- Suitable rock garden plants (e.g. houseleek, gentian, cyclamen, edelweiss…)
- Stones and pebbles of different sizes
Caution: Stone vessels may be too heavy
Of course, it will be particularly stylish if you place your mini rock garden in a stone planter - for example in a trough made of natural stone or concrete. Please note, however, that such a vessel could be too heavy for the balcony for structural reasons. However, stone troughs are very suitable for the garden or terrace.
Suitable plants for the balcony rock garden
First of all, you should not only choose the plants in your mini rock garden based on aesthetic aspects. It is much more important to choose plants according to their common needs: All plants in the planter should have the same requirements in terms of location as well as nutrient and water supply. Otherwise you have a large number of suitable perennials, grasses, bulbous and bulbous plants to choose from. Due to the lack of space, take mainly dwarf varieties and create a lot of variety in the planter.
Examples of suitable plant species are:
- Houseleek (Sempervivum)
- Hot Stonecrop ((Sedum acre)
- Stonecrop (Sedum)
- Tripmadam (rock stonecrop, Sedum reflexum)
- Rosette Saxifrage (Saxifraga cotyledon)
- Gentian (Gentiana)
- Alpine aster (Aster alpinus)
- ice plant (Aizoaceae)
- Cyclamen (cyclamen)
- Cranesbill (Geranium)
- Blue fescue (Festuca glauca)
- different types of sedge (carex)
tips
If you have only selected hardy plant species, they can remain on the balcony over the winter with a light protection. The plant bowl in particular should be wrapped in a warm material, and the surface should also be covered. The roots freeze particularly quickly.