two new raised beds

[mark smyth]

I'm almost totally out of space to make new raised beds. This spring or summer the plan is to move these troughs and make a new bed in their place. The troughs used to stacked neatly but when the wall was painted the painters moved them breaking too many. I then lost interest in them.

Where the aviary is I'll take it down and make a long 5 to 6m x 1.5m raised bed

[Maggi Young]

Wow, that will make a LOT of new planting space, Mark 

[Lesley Cox]

You'll have a lot of fun with that new raised bed Mark. I've made a long, almost semicircular one, raised only to about 8 inches (20cms) because it's made on the driveway, from limestone building blocks. Apart from some troughs it's the nearest thing I have at present to a rock garden - even though there are no rocks in it - and is planted with about 300 different things including mostly relatively easy plants, such as campanulas, small dianthus, dwarf irises, veronicas, auriculas and such. It looks great even now, into autumn and from late autumn on will have crocuses, small daffodils, reticulate iises, frits as well as the herbaceous plants so I'm having a lot of pleasure from it. Still a little space to be filled so a trip south to Hokonui Alpines is planned for next Wednesday!

[Matt T]

Mark proves that there is always space for one more bed, or two!

... Still a little space to be filled so a trip south to Hokonui Alpines is planned for next Wednesday!

That's always a dangerous move, Lesley! Surely you'll come back with more plants that you can fit in the 'little space' and will need a new raised bed or two yourself 

[mark smyth]

Wow, that will make a LOT of new planting space, Mark 

It'll then be time to move home and get a bigger garden LOL 

[Lesley Cox]

I've still some good troughs to fill Matt, half a dozen made from natural limestone, among others.

[astragalus]

Lesley, could you please post some pictures of your limestone troughs?  Planted or unplanted, I'd love to see them.

[mark smyth]

Do you ever walk around your garden and ignore certain parts?

Way back in 2003 I made this bed. It became very neglected because its out of sight when I'm in the front garden. It sits in the corner formed by the sun room and shed. It looks west and doesn't get full sun until after 2pm. I allowed weedy Geraniums to self sow. Its been cleared out of everything except the few bulbs that live in there. It can become my new woodland bed

[annew]

Great possibilities there, Mark.

[mark smyth]

I'm thinking of putting my Cyps there

[Lesley Cox]

Here are some pictures of my limestone troughs, especially for you Ann. I've had them for many years, about 1982 or 83 I think. Most were made from the piles of an old bridge. Within South Canterbury Alpine Garden Soc to which I belonged at that time, we had a member whose husband was an engineering contractor and he had a contact to remove the bridge so that a modern two lane one could be built. So far as I know the limestone was part of the "rubbish" to be removed and kept by him, if he had a use for it. His wife was able to arrange for our members to have a field day on which we used large, cross-cut saws to chop them up, or a few of them anyway, and then we used chainsaws (preferably someone else's chainsaw) to cut out the middles of the blocks we'd made. Cuts were made around the insides, several centimetres 3, to 6 or 7 depending on the size of the block and to within about 6cms of the bottom. Then there more cuts made across the inside, perhaps 3 or up to 5 or 6 at 5cms intervals along the inside of the block. When these were completed, a first slices was broken from the bottom using a hammer or chisel or something and the slice removed and the others removed the same way until we had a trough with a rough bottom but that didn't matter. Some were scuffed up a bit on the outside to "age" them and within a very short time, lichens and moss grew on the outsides. I didn't make holes in the bottoms of mine but one night when I had them home (cause there for a party!) I filled them all with water before I went to bed and next morning they were empty so I thought they didn't need a drainage hole and they've never become waterlogged or soggy in the time since then. My present garden is their fifth and maybe one day I'll be buried under one.

Two are planted now, just this last week and though I intended to make small crevice gardens, I had no limestone pieces and had to use some schist I had available so I've just put two pieces in each, a large flattish piece in front to make a cooler shady spot n the back then a smaller piece to create a small crevice. Tho' the stone is raised above the sides, the plants won't be much, as the compost settles.

[Lesley Cox]

Most are about 45cms in height but LT 4 above is one of two which have just 12cms of planting depth and have always had a collection of sempervivums in them where they've grown very tight and well-coloured. I've still to get these sorted and replanted.

The old concrete washtub has recently been put in place in the garden near the back porch, on the other side of a path from the drive to the back door and to match one put opposite a few months ago. Not planted yet, it has a few redundant and ugly rocks in it to provide ballast and to give rock surfaces which alpine roots like to grow against. The tub is perched on top of a concrete calf trough in order to keep it clear of the ground and its drainage hole clear of soil. But because unlike the first of this pair the tub is narrower than the under-trough I've mostly filled this under-trough with compost and will be able to plant something on the "shelf" thus created.

[astragalus]

Lesley, thanks for posting the trough pictures.  They're really beautiful, and what a lot of work making them.  Wonder how many saw blades must have been destroyed in the process.  I have a friend who made a trough in a similar fashion from a large solid hunk of sandstone.  He didn't include a drain hole and the same thing happened - filled the trough with water and in the morning the water was gone.  The entire trough drains slowly and I guess evenly, remarkable.  Lucky you to have them!  Must be very heavy to have had to move so many times.

[fermi de Sousa]

... I have a friend who made a trough in a similar fashion from a large solid hunk of sandstone.  He didn't include a drain hole and the same thing happened - filled the trough with water and in the morning the water was gone. 

Presumably after a thousand years there'd be a stalactite forming below it!
cheers
fermi

[Lesley Cox]

I'll look out for one Fermi, under mine

Yes Ann, they're heavy but not so much as concrete and so much nicer to have in the garden. The lime is not free of course so the plants don't need to be lime lovers though many are or will be, very tiny dianthus, campanulas, porophyllum saxifrages etc.

When they were first moved to my Timaru garden, a bunch of friends came and we (they) moved the troughs up my steep path with steps in it and positioned them on a little concrete platform in the middle of the garden. They looked great and were the source of much pleasure in the next few years until I moved, and so did they, to a new home in Dunedin. That first night we had a party around the movement and I seem to remember quite a lot of wine as well as (MY) superb party food, and a good night being had by all. I say "they" rather than a genuine "we" as I also remember that mostly I waved my arms about and gave instructions while the others did the work.  Well someone had to look after the ladies' handbags!