Crevice Gardening ......in defence of rock.....

[Lesley Cox]

Amazing what lessons animals can teach you. Deer taught me that many penstemons can be severely pruned and will come back tighter and flower heavily.

Rabbits love penstemons too, the larger ones such as 'Blackbird,' 'Garnet' and their like. Pruned and grazed to the ground and yes they come away well, very bushy and flowering profusely. Some have been eaten to the roots and knocked right over but still survive when covered and stamped on.

[hadacekf]

Convolvulus compactus blooms this year particularly abundant !

It is true the humidity in the summer, but also in winter is the death for many rare plants.
Thanks for compliment

[Tristan_He]

Here are my Erinus, flowering their evil pretty little hearts out. They do seed around though, as you can see 

(I do like them really but I hate weeding tufa)

[johnralphcarpenter]

Coming along nicely. Mostly Aubrieta in bloom but other things getting established.

Getting better and better: Dianthus time now.

[astragalus]

Back from the Dolomites and into an awful heat wave. Oh, for those wonderfully cold early mornings in the mountains.  It will be in the 90s for a week with humidity, really brutal.  The crevice gardens had only one casualty. Everything seems to be surviving heat and drought pretty well. Flowering is mostly gone but there is still some leftover seed.

[astragalus]

Another acantholimon in seed.

[astragalus]

Sorry, I reposted the wrong acantholimon.

[astragalus]

My seedling of Hedysarum is still alive!  Also, daphnes are starting to rebloom in the crevice garden.

[John85]

What growing medium do you use in your crevice garden?
At Wisley they used sand but had problems with watering.
The summers here are much warmer and there is very little rainfall (if any),So pure sand is not an option
But the winters are very wet and I cannot put a pane of glass over most of the plants
I tried several mixtures but those that are fine in summer are not in winter and vice versa
Any ideas?

[Tristan_He]

Pure sand is useless. It holds neither water or nutrients and washes out when watered.

I use a mix of gritty sand and sterilised loam. I think the best mix depends on the vertical angle of the crevice garden and the stone you are using. More vertical locations will take a higher proportion of soil, because there will always be good drainage due to the slope, and because too sandy a mix will wash out. I'm afraid I am not very precise about this though - I just mix it until it looks right. I also vary the soil depending on the plant - Primulas get quite a heavy soil for example. When planting into a vertical wall I use pure loam.

Even in areas of high winter rainfall such as here, many alpines can survive because water at the roots is flowing, not ponded (I don't exactly know why this is so important, but it seems to be - aeration perhaps?).

[John85]

Thank you Tristan
I'll use slate and the stones will be vertical.
What do you think of this mixture : 1/3 grit, 1/3 sand , 1/3 loam ?

[Tristan_He]

Depends on the size of the grit relative to the width of your crevices John. Grit can get stuck in crevices and so make it difficult to backfill them properly. This can in turn result in air pockets. Probably 50:50 soil and sand will work for most things, maybe even a lower proportion of sand. I tend to use builders sharp sand which has a mix of grain sizes, so there is still a little gritty material.

[astragalus]

Eriogonum pulchellum (formerly E. ercium v pulchellum) is still in bloom in the crevice garden. This one looks quite different from most eriogonums. It looks almost like a tiny shrub. The flowers are whitish with a hint of pink. It reminds me of E. wrightii subscaposum, which blooms on long arching stems (but the plant is still under 1 foot), and also has white flowers.

[Gabriela]

Eriogonum pulchellum (formerly E. ercium v pulchellum) is still in bloom in the crevice garden. This one looks quite different from most eriogonums. It looks almost like a tiny shrub. The flowers are whitish with a hint of pink. It reminds me of E. wrightii subscaposum, which blooms on long arching stems (but the plant is still under 1 foot), and also has white flowers.

Interesting Eriogonum, I wouldn't have said it is one, at least not from the 'distance'. The flowers are also turning reddish when fading? I really like this 'chameleonic' feature of Eriogonums.

[Maggi Young]

Panayoti Kelaidis of Denver Botanic Garden writes :
 This remarkable young man (Kenton Seth) has achieved a lifetime's work already in rock gardening...a great inspiration to us in Colorado!
 I think the inspiration goes wider than that!
 See PK's  blog for a good reason :
http://prairiebreak.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/garden-meister-and-crevice-crafter.html




 Photos of Kenton are by PK and Bobby J. Ward and of the start of a Kenton Seth garden build at the JC Raulston Arboretum, photo again by author B.J. W.