Denmark's giant crevice garden... how it was made....

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Welcome Zdenek !
Thanks for taking the trouble to join us !
I'm sure you will enjoy it here though - we didn't have a "Stone rider" yet !   

[Michael J Campbell]

Try writing your message in word or wordpad and then copy and paste, then if you mess it up on the forum you still have a copy. Sometimes when I go to post I get a message that someone else has posted and I might like to review my post. The trick here is to highlight and copy your post before viewing the other one. then if it disappears you just have to paste it again.

[Maggi Young]

ZZ, it is grand to have you here.... even if you have spent time on your birthday losing your first message! The advice given by the Forumists is good.... type first in a word document which you can save, then copy and paste into forum.  
Losing text is something we have all experienced at one time or another....it's like having the carrier pigeon shot from the sky to make supper!

The system does "time out" after a while, so when making long posts it is best to use the copy and paste method. You will soon become accustomed to the ways of the system.... I well remember when we first came to this forum system... we were all confused!

So, belated greetings  to "Stone Rider" ZZ  for your birthday yesterday!  

[Stone Rider]

Dear Maggie and your crowd of disciples. My first sentences appeared with a little bit of blooming luck at this holy land of opinionated rock gardeners, so I can make my first careful steps forward to my aim. This nice project of tiny unknown Bangsbo Botanical Garden was well documentated by project leading Viking, local teacher Herluf Johanson. Practically all the photos are his (I let my camera home because of the experiences that bad luck is surely coming if you wish to photograph your triuph or something similar. Limestone slabs were shining in lucky sunny weather and fooled camera. The result are very burned whites. Photographs taking in summer when I was in Bulgaria are more natural because of cloudy days. I took two exercises (like a true superman) six weeks before this action: I placed 20 tons of irregular rocks around huge new alpine house of Fritz Kummert without machinery at steep hill and one outcrops from perfect parallel porphyr rock (20 tons plus grit) for a horticultural university in Bernburg, Germany. From Bernburg I traveled with my perfect partner Joyce Carruthers to the most northern top of Jutland peninsula to Frederikshaven where is Bangsbo museum and botanic garden.

[mark smyth]

hello ZZ, long time no email! Greeting from N. Ireland. When will you come and visit us again?

Mark

[Ragged Robin]

ZZ, an incredible feat moving all those stones and placing them in the giant crevice garden at just the right angle - really wonderful to watch as it develops.  Congratulations on your efforts.

[annew]

Fantastic acheivement - the crevice garden AND the forum post!

[Maggi Young]

Poor ZZ ... he is still having some problems posting... and has other work to be done at the moment, but I am confident that a man who can move and rebuild mountains will not be beaten by these setbacks!

[Stone Rider]

hello ZZ, long time no email! Greeting from N. Ireland. When will you come and visit us again?

Mark, nice to see your happy face. I must do something more useful next year. Weeding my darling rock garden for example. Zesterday I got for birthay golden trombon and I must learn it next year. So Ireland later, please. ZZ

[mark smyth]

Anytime ZZ

[Stone Rider]

  Danish Outcrop. Story of appearance of limestone rock in flatland of Jutland. The beginning of this story with happy end was after my talk for Danish Group of the AGS. Slim, permanently smiling Viking asked me if I can build for Bangsbo Botanical Garden a crevice garden with size about 250 m2. It was good chance to build something more visible so I promised to do it for 20 Euros per hour plus transport and accommodation. I am not professional and I have very low pension (300 Euro per month) so this is some kind of nice economical help for an old rascal. The Viking- Herluf Johanson sends me last year a plan of large area full of funny different flat beds in long stripes. The area for my outcrop was marked as 36 meters long and 6 metres broad, real fat noodle. So I drove in it diagonal lines representing the direction of stony layers and paths for visitors and maintenance. All layers were running in precise direction from west to east and it means possibility to have tall southern side-walls and nice steps leading to north. During realisation I pushed Herluf to give me another one meter more, so the outcrop is 7 meters broad. It gave me possibility to have the highest point 3 meters above the lower western side. Later all Vikings agreed that to make the area broader will be lovely so two third of the main outcrop have prolonged layers in pavement and behind it four Vikings constructed their own peak called New Zeeland (see the group of builders standing on it) and now waiting for 6 tons of tufa for constructing Tufaland at the place where they performed magical round dance (see the picture). All the parallels were kept with posts with red liner and Herluf was perfect with controlling the run of layers with compass. So in the end all crevice garden is in area of nearly 400 m2.

[Lesley Cox]

A warm welcome ZZ, to the Forum, from New Zealand. You and I did meet once, in 1981, eating fish and chips in the garden of the great Roy Elliott but I think you were not very interested in New Zealand's plants.

So I am thrilled that the Vikings have a peak in their new crevice garden, called New Zeeland. I hope they will grow some of our plants there. I'll look forward to following the progress of this incredible garden. Some who have tiny gardens must be envious at so large an area. What fun to start the planting of it.

[Stone Rider]

 It is great feeling when a man is winning in the fight with clever half human digital creature called robot of the forum (the name robot is inventory of Czech writer and rock gardener Karel Čapek). The first cut of my story (Vikings can have different one) went smoothly into yours international playground so I am not so nervous now and we can continue little bit forward. Stones were problem in planning our action. I have sent them a picture of limestone crevice garden which intelligent German gardener Christopher Ruby recently built in Botanic Garden in Hof in Germany near Czech boundary. The quarry was about 1000 km from Bangsbo but they liked the rock and they ordered it (together 125 tons). This small Botanic garden has no white-collar parasites, only one professional gardener Ellen and fat and firm bunch of volunteers. Local rich people support their local garden and they do quite popular Festival there every June. So they charm out money for stones and Mr. Zvolánek. When I arrived the place had long ridge of sand (as I wished) and 25 tons of rocks were sitting as ducks around it waiting for me. They were stocked in piles at woody platoons and wrapped in foliage. Every pile had around 1200 kg. I asked the operator of the machine with the help of Herluf (this nice boy spoke only Danish) for modelling the ridge after bringing a heap of clay in the place of highest peak and covering it with 50 cm of sharp. I was stupid and did not look at their tools. I ordered to place piles of rocks with machine at the highest places and from there we start to put them into layers with our hands (me, Herluf and one strong Dane Johannes). Rolling slabs on their edges like a wheel is fine in firm surface but in soft sand it was heavier task. We were tired but the rockwork had relatively good progress and I was sure that I would have soon no stones to continue. It was reason that I designed the third growing technique there (together with the techniques of Sand bed and Crevice bed) the peat bed. I ordered to cut big peat blocks long ways (dry ones are quickly cat with a chain saw) and to place them instead of layers of stones at the northern slope. The crevices between peat blocks were firmly filled with mixture of loam-sand-peat and clay pellets which is promising medium able to keep moisture and feed plants.

[Stone Rider]

A warm welcome ZZ, to the Forum, from New Zealand. You and I did meet once, in 1981, eating fish and chips in the garden of the great Roy Elliott but I think you were not very interested in New Zealand's plants.

So I am thrilled that the Vikings have a peak in their new crevice garden, called New Zeeland. I hope they will grow some of our plants there. I'll look forward to following the progress of this incredible garden. Some who have tiny gardens must be envious at so large an area. What fun to start the planting of it.

What a sin, I still have no plant from New Zeeland in my garden because of our continental frost, but Danes have mild weather and they can have better results with the whites and yelows than English thin crowd. I hope that kind experienced friends like you will help them to fulfil their dreams. I had perfect results in crevice bed full of sand in Northern Ireland, Gentiana saxosa is self sowing there in a large area.  Ohoy ZZ

[Luc Gilgemyn]

A great achievement and a great story full of very interesting information ZZ ! 
Again, thanks for telling us all the little secrets !!