Garden Stairs

A boring garden located on a flat place! Hills and ravines provoke the owners to build retaining walls, terraces, alpine slides - everything that in the language of landscape designers is called geoplastics. In a garden with a height difference, stairs inevitably appear, which can be made an interesting element of garden design.

A bit of history

For a long time, garden stairs had a purely utilitarian purpose. With their help, the ancient Romans successfully adapted to the mountainous terrain of their homeland, creating terraced gardens that surrounded the ancient Roman villas.

As an element of landscape design, the staircase first "sounded" in European gardens of the Renaissance. The solemnity of ceremonial marches, white balustrades, sculptures and flowerpots on the sides…. Born in the era of the "grand style", all these decorative elements were then replicated many times in classic park ensembles. They can be seen in the palace parks of St. Petersburg, the rich estates of central Russia, the former pioneer camps and sanatoriums located on the very blue sea.

Today is

Today, the temptation to have a staircase on their site is so great that many owners of flat areas specially create an artificial relief in their garden, just to be able to arrange at least some semblance of a staircase. But the most organic garden stairs, of course, look at areas where there is a quite noticeable difference in height.

The steps of the stairs must necessarily have a slight forward slope so that rain and melt water does not stagnate. The materials from which the stairs are made are selected in such a way that the feet do not slip on it. It can be wood, brick, concrete blocks, natural or artificial stone. Naturally, concrete and artificial stone are more durable than wood and brick, but these materials look more natural, especially when all kinds of mosses and lichens inhabit them.

The width of the stairs depends on the width of the garden path, and the style of its design is dictated by the general style of the garden. In regular gardens and in the front area of ​​the garden with elements of regularity, preference is given to classic stairs, on both sides of which vases or flower containers are installed. In this case, it is advisable to place the floral decor strictly symmetrically, at the same distance, trying to select textured plants that are close in size.

The landscape style gives landscape designers a lot more freedom. In such gardens, the steps of the stairs are populated with plants to give them a picturesque and natural look. Sometimes they are made uneven in size or slightly shifted to the side. In this case, the staircase, as it were, becomes part of a rocky hill with plants characteristic of such a landscape - rock ferns, stonecrops, saxifrage, subulate phlox, stunted bells. In order for everything to work out as planned, already at the construction stage it is necessary to provide for special slots or pockets for plants. Sometimes gaps are left between the slabs, which are then sown with lawn grass or ground cover plants resistant to trampling.

A country-style garden is a real find for those who want to get creative. On the sides of the stairs in such a garden, you can plant peppers, arrange containers with bright tomatoes, replacing strict pots with flowering annuals with no less spectacular items characteristic of the rustic style. For example, it can be baskets with decorative pumpkins or watering cans with ampelous plants planted in them.

Based on materials from the magazine "Stylish Garden"