Some more plants, now coming down the wall a bit. These are on the south-facing heath wall, although it's not exposed to sun all day due to shade from the house.
Some spare bits of saxifrage were planted here - S. 'Gregor Mendel' I think, also a purple hybrid. They settled in rather slowly last summer and growth has been slowish, but they are doing ok now. To be honest they have done better than I expected as the aspect isn't ideal.
Another larger saxifrage. Not doing as well as the cotyledon.
Houseleeks look good on their side too. That's a real cobweb, rather than
S. arachnoideum parentage!
This Erodium 'Natasha' is struggling though.
Another saxifrage, planted more recently.
Planting in these situations is quite a challenge. I tend to use pure, sterilised topsoil as drainage isn't an issue, but drought certainly is. I used to try to scoop this in dry direct from the bag, but this was problematic as (i) a lot of it used to fall to the ground and (ii) it's very difficult to water vertical crevices without washing the soil out again. To overcome this I wet the soil beforehand until it is about the consistency of wet cement, then shove as much of it as I can into the gap. Effectively this creates a pre-watered planting pocket. Then, I plant into this. Due to the difficulty of watering it's also better to plant during a period when it's not too dry, to give the plants the maximum chance of establishment.
