How to Make a Flower Bed into a Rock Garden

Plan your future rock garden in your head or on paper. Choose the types of rocks, greenery and decorative brick or stone border you want in your garden, and measure the space to make sure you get an adequate amount of materials.

Clean out your current flower bed. Rake out most or all of the pine straw, wood chips or whatever currently makes up your flower bed. You can clean around any greenery you plan to use in the rock garden. Use a shovel or hoe to dig out any debris or weeds if necessary—you can either take them to a compost pile with a wheelbarrow or throw out any unneeded material.

Plant any new greenery you want in your rock garden. Most shrubbery will be low-maintenance, but you can add flower bushes and most other flowers to the landscaping as well. Add any other decorative features, such as bird feeders and globes, at this point, too.

Prevent weeds from growing in your rock garden by putting down a landscape fabric or weed barrier. Overlap the fabric in small areas to prevent weeds from creeping up through the seams, and tack the fabric down with small stakes to hold it in place.

Lay your border rocks or stones around the exterior of the garden, if you choose to do so. This can help prevent small rocks to wash away, or could add more details to the rock garden.

Arrange the rocks. You can simply pour the rocks in the garden area--or, if you want to be more creative, you may choose to arrange the rocks in a certain order or style. Cover the ground with at least one layer of the group with rocks—you may choose to pour the rocks 2" or more deep.