Crevice Gardening - Otago Alpine Garden Group Workshop

[David Lyttle]

After a long gestation, including some consultation with the great and the good, this event finally took place on June 18th; Dave Toole arrived up from Invercargill in his truck on the Friday afternoon and pretty much immediately managed to incapacitate himself by turning his ankle stepping off my back veranda. I ran round trying to find a bucket large enough to contain his foot (not easy) and filled it with cold water - he complained it was too cold (I should have put ice in it to reduce the swelling but succumbed to his pleading and boiled the kettle instead and warmed it up which settled him down a bit).  After a dinner that featured brussel sprouts and a discussion on plant photography that stretched long into the evening he tucked himself up in bed with a hottie and stayed awake all night listening to the wind and said next morning he thought the roof was going to blow off. (On a scale of 1-10 for the Penisula it was about a 6 -these southerners need to toughen up a bit

Saturday morning dawned cold and windy but no rain, It takes a bit more than a sore ankle to deter Dave so we started into the job. The site takes advantage of a rocky bank about 1.5 metre high that had been excavated out when my house was built. I had collected up quite a lot of rock or so I thought but Dave looked at the pile on his previous visit and said I needed more so I double it. He also said I needed some big rocks so I got some big rocks on tho the site and ready for him to incorporate into the final stucture. I got four cubic metres of gravel from a local quarry- It is called brown metal and contains a lot of clay. I decide that this was not necessarily a bad thing the clay would wash down and provide some nutrient for the plants and the gravel would provide the drainage ( that is the theory anyway so it will be interesting to see how it performs in practise. I had previously tidied up the edge of the bank a bit with an with an electric Kango hammer and built a low stone wall to retain the crevice bed. Despite it being cold 15 people turned up for the workshop.

1 Here is the commercial for Otatara Landscaping without whose assistance nothing would have happened. ( A picture of Dave's truck).

2 Setting the height of the first line of rocks ( 1st strata line- there were three three lines of large rocks altogether)

3 Dave setting out the first line of rock with Bill watching.

4. Placing smaller rocks behind the first line.

5. Bill shovelling gravel into place.

6. More rocks in place by lunchtime.

7. The happy workers at the end of the day - many of the original crew had gone home to warm up by this stage.

8. The garden at the end of the day.

9. The garden 1 week later after a bit of a tidy up.

10 Close up showing bed construction and retaining wall (there are a few plants in place but more are still to be planted).

All an all a very satisfactory result though still a bit of an experiment - not sure if we can claim to have constructed the first crevice garden in New Zealand but I have not seen many others. We made it up as we went along using the materials that are available locally. Depending on the eventual outcome (ie whether the plants grow) modifications may be necessary when stage 2 is built. We only used a fraction of the rocks and none of the really big ones.

[ranunculus]

Excellent report of an ambitious project David ... more power to your collective elbows (and swollen ankles)!

[Lesley Cox]

Funny that, we didn't have a breath of wind in town either on Friday night or Saturday morning. A little in the afternoon.. I would have loved to come there David but had to work and didn't finish until almost 2pm.

[David Lyttle]

Hi Cliff,

Still plenty of rocks left and space to fill as you can see from the picture: we did only about a tenth of the potential area!

[David Nicholson]

Nice job. If you do have any rocks over David I could find a good home for them. Maybe if I asked Dave he could just drop them off for me

[ranunculus]

Maybe if I asked Dave he could just drop them off for me

Substitute 'on' for 'for' ... ! 

[David Nicholson]

Unkind!

[t00lie]

Maybe if I asked Dave he could just drop them off for me

Substitute 'on' for 'for' ... !  

They say there is no 'Punch' without 'Judy' you fellas.

I reckon you two are in cohorts  --you do the softening up Mr Nicholson , then Mr Booker comes in for the kill   .

On a serious note ,there is more work to be completed --some of the crevices appear too wide and need another line ,(maybe two),of thin rock placed in them and then a top dressing of small split rock haphazardly thrown ? over the whole bed .This last matter will be interesting to say the least --i attempted to whack one of the smaller left over rocks ,the first time the hammer head seemed to come up faster then when going down ,with the second try ending up in a few sparks and very little broken material...

Ankle is coming right --managed to plant out about 600 natives at the airport last week and had a stroll around the coast last Sat in lovely calm sunny conditions in a further search for Gunnera hamiltonii.  

Cheers Dave.    

[ranunculus]

Maybe if I asked Dave he could just drop them off for me

Substitute 'on' for 'for' ... !  

They say there is no 'Punch' without 'Judy' you fellas.

I reckon you two are in cohorts  --you do the softening up Mr Nicholson , then Mr Booker comes in for the kill   .
   

I could never 'kill' Mr. Nicholson, David ... I'm a pacifist!   Besides, he lives too far away for just a random slaying ... it would have to be premeditated, only a little gory and perpetrated with a punchline. 

[fermi de Sousa]

Ankle is coming right -- 

Dave,
I'll PM you an exercise that'll help.

cheers
fermi

[t00lie]

Ankle is coming right -- 

Dave,
I'll PM you an exercise that'll help.

cheers
fermi

That would be great Fermi --Thanks

Cheers Dave