Alpine Slide as a Decoration for Your Backyard

By Ty Watson

While someone buys an apartment in a skyscraper, others opt only for a private house with a backyard. It is always great to have access to nature, even if you live near a megapolis. A small piece of land can become a great energy resource. The current pace of life leaves no room for camping whenever you want. Even young people whose lifestyle is considered carefree can hardly free up their schedule without a specialized service that can help writing a paper for college. So, if you have a chance to equip your territory and turn your backyard into a little heaven or at least a beautiful place for relaxation after a hard day at work, meditation, or morning stretching, it is worth giving it a try. You can choose a simple landscape design or develop something interesting. Why not reproduce the scenic charm of alpine mountains in your backyard? Of course, it will require effort, but the result is worth the candle.

What is an alpine slide?

If you are new to landscape design, the chances are high that you have no idea what an alpine slide looks like. Well, it represents a rock garden with beautiful flowers and plants. In other words, it is a stunning combination of nature and stones like Central Park in the middle of concrete jungles. Once you do it, your backyard will play out in fresh colors since there will be a feeling that you hike in the Alps in spring. Nowadays, it is not a big deal to create such a masterpiece since the modern market offers a wide variety of plants and flowers suitable for implementing such an idea, not to mention stones of different shapes and colors. Just make sure you have enough space in your backyard for an alpine slide and recreation zone. It will not look as gorgeous as it should in a small territory. Anyway, there is no single concept of creating such a landscape design, so you can turn your imagination to the fullest and complement it with everything suitable you have around. However, it is worth following some tips and tricks to get the best out of this idea.

How to pick up the right place?

As already mentioned above, your backyard should have at least 3×2 m of free space to create an alpine slide. If you are a lucky owner of a specious territory, you can make a plan and mark the chosen area with a rope or anything similar. You will need to order stones of different sizes and shapes to create a hill that will resemble mountainous terrain. If you search for examples on the web, you will see that designers often make several terraces with rocks and plants to mimic the natural landscape. It is up to you to decide where such construction will look more appealing. Someone locates it in the middle of a backyard if it is big enough. Others opt for the edge of the plot. The second option will require decorative shrubs in the background of the rock garden. You should form your alpine slide so that the south will be directed to a gentle slope while the north will have a steep edge. The very garden can be tall (but no more than one-meter height) or relatively flat.

Drainage base of an alpine slide

When it comes to creating an alpine slide, you should take care of a drainage pillow. The latter is created with the help of landscape geotextiles (200 g/m2 density). Dig a hole across the future garden area (about 17 cm depth) and put it on the bottom. Cover the top with crushed stones of a fine fraction (about 5 cm). The next step will depend on how you imagine your future alpine slide. If it is about a classic option, you should create a mound in the center of the slide with crushed stones of a big fraction. After that, put another layer of geotextiles and cover everything with a layer of soil (about 15-20 cm) mixed with sand. Thus, the foundation of your alpine slide is ready.

Decoration

Now you can proceed to the most interesting part. If you want to create terraces, you can take big stones and rocks, putting them in steps. Place decorative stones on different sides of the alpine slide. Usually, people use sandstones, limestones, granite, or slates. If there are big rocks, place them closer to the foundation, while smaller ones should go on the top. Avoid sharp stones since they will spoil the natural look of your garden. You should plant flowers and stuff only in two weeks. Don't forget about required fertilizers when planting. You can search for suitable plants on the web, but usually, it is about heather shrubs, different decorative perennials, and cover plants.