Making a rock garden

The house I bought had no garden, just a neglected wasteland with a couple of tough invasive species that survived when most other plants failed. A large part of the problem was that previous gardeners had tried to grow plants that are totally unsuited to the climate and soil, as well as being lazy to do the backbreaking work of removing enough rocks and stones from the ground that the plants could have a fighting chance. This picture was taken slightly more than 2 years ago.

It's enough to make anyone's eyes bleed, and a real pity that some moron decided to paint the right hand rock a salmon colour. Last year, I sieved all the soil to remove all the rocks and rubble, added tons of mulch and compost and got a viable vegetable garden out of the section in the foreground. This year, I tackled the background and did much the same thing: removed all the invasive tree roots, sieved the soil to remove rubble, rocks and stones and see what was actually under the soil, in terms of rock structure. After a few weeks of work, I finally have a tidy corner with viable plants that will need a minimum of care and some weeding in the rainy season. The paint will come off eventually, sigh...

A closer view of the plants.

When building rock gardens, it's important to choose your plants according to their needs and ultimate size. All of the plants pictured are slow growing and not going to outgrow their places. The smaller rocks act as mini terraces, keeping the soil from washing downwards and allowing the plants to be seen. The terraced effect also improves soil drainage, which is very important for successful succulent growing in the garden. In my case, they also deter the cats from using the garden as a toilet because there's not enough space between the rocks and plant to dig easily.
When building rockeries, it's good to try the plants together, seeing what effect different combinations of sizes and colour have.

All of these plants have been "road tested" in my garden for a couple of years, they were growing in pots and mostly left to fend for themselves. They are all adapted to the conditions here and should thrive now that they are in the soil. I have chosen native plants, there's a combination of aloes, cotyledons and crassula, with a few small senecio and mesembs to act as trailing plants and groundcover.

A closer look: the right side

The left

All the stones were under soil and they should clean up and lighten now that they are exposed to sun and rain. I didn't add compost because succulents thrive in poor soil, I'll add dried banana peels later, they are high in the trace elements which succulents need for good growth.

It's such a joy to finally have a small part of my garden looking presentable, and the plants out of their pots. They have waited years for this day too.