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

[astragalus]

Some more crevice pictures, but not many - am always forgetting to photograph, unlike Cliff whose camera has been surgically attached.

Beautiful Anne, what's the last photo showing pink buds on a cushion?  Liked seeing the prep work for your crevice plantings.  I tried Moltkia petraea from seed, but never got anything out of it... it's a very pretty thing.

Mark, that's Asperula sp. - the best I can do thanks to the indecipherable label written with special pen that withstands all weather - not so. That's basically a tear's worth of seedlings depending on my memory which is well honed for the peas but a bit fuzzy elsewhere

[Lesley Cox]

Sore back or not, I'm WILDLY envious of those perfect and natural!!! crevices. The plants are pretty good too.

[Lesley Cox]

Sore back or not, I'm WILDLY envious of those perfect and natural!!! crevices. The plants are pretty good too.

Re permanent pens. I used to use the Staedtler Pancolor F (Fine) in black and it lasted a full two years. Then they took out some environmentally unacceptable ingredient to make the Lumicolor pen as a replacement. It doesn't even last 2 months! So now I use an ordinary lead pencil, 6B.

[TheOnionMan]

Regarding labels, I have found the best and most affordable writing instrument is #2 pencil.  Over the years, I have used vinyl "pot stake" labels that I buy mail order from a company in Texas, USA.  They worked well because they maintained flexibility for their lifetime.  They were available in several colors, but the darker color green worked best, as pencil would fade less on the green labels than on the white ones.  They were of a size that could be cut in half, to double the investment mileage; shown are some in their original uncut shape, and others that have been cut in half.  I ran out of the green ones, and started using white ones of the same style.  Since then I ran out of these labels entirely, now using a different type of plastic label... these work except for becoming brittle much more quickly... must place an order to get another bulk shipment of these to last another 20 years... their minimum order is a certain number of thousands of labels.

What's interesting is, just a couple days ago I brought in some original labels to remake them.  See two labels shown at the bottom, the dark green one is still legible after 19 YEARS!  The white label below is the replacement.  Pencil on a matte plastic or vinyl label works, easily for a decade or more, never found an ink pen that was as reliable.

[Lesley Cox]

19 years must be close to a record Mark.

[astragalus]

Bloomimg now in the crevice garden - Convolvulus sp.  It doesn't appear to be C. compactus or C. boisseri which are elsewhere in the garden. Can anyone i.d. this?

[Lesley Cox]

Don't know, but a real beauty.

[Maggi Young]

 Anne,  have you seen the little piece in the March issue of International Rock Gardener on these convolvulus ? There may be some help there......
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2010Mar311270058840IRG_March_2010.pdf

[astragalus]

Thanks, Maggie,  I did read this already and still was not sure .  It certainly seems to be far less hairy than C. compactus and C.boisseri.  The label is unfortunately a blank and it was a label which would mean it was a "bought" plant as against something grown from seed.  I've looked over old catalogs from which it could possibly have been ordered and still no clue.  Whatever the name, it's very nice and tight and the flowers are lovely. Here's hoping for a visit from some expert who will take one look and say "of course, anyone can see that that's such and such". 

[astragalus]

After looking again and again at my mystery convolvulus and the pictures in the article it appears to look very much like Convolvulus phrygius. I don't know where I could have gotten it. I'll have to look again at old catalogs when I have some time.

[Wildspirit]

May I first say that having stumbled upon this thread via a Google search on rock gardens, how enthralled I have been by the content! What started out as a quick bit of research has had me glued to my computer for the past two days. There is no doubt in my mind that what you have all created here must be THE definitive guide on the subject, written from the only truly reliable source of information - collective years of genuine, practical experience (you can't beat that). As a rank amateur on the subject of rock and alpine plants, I have been sufficiently inspired by the thread to have a go myself at building a crevice garden. I have built and planted dry stone walls before, and several basic rock gardens, so I am hoping that experience will be of some help. The site approximately 5m x 3m, flat, and south facing, on the front lawn of the house, butting up to the wall below the living room window. It has continual full sun, and the patch of grass I am lifting to place the garden has always remained obstinately brown, due, I suspect, to it being on heavy clay, builders rubble, and sewage pipes all below a very thin layer of poor topsoil. Not ideal conditions for a lawn, but hopefully good ones for the crevice garden!

I intend to use pennant sandstone for the construction, and I am happy with my design ideas which will - hopefully and eventually - make it look like the house was built onto the crevice outcrop (nothing wrong with being ambitious - or is it optimistic?). I really do need advice, however, on the substrate to bed the rocks into, and the material to infill the crevices and plant the plants in. Options seem to vary between "sand", "gravel" and "soil", none of which are particularly helpful descriptions as all three of these come in many different forms. I know that whatever I use for bedding the rocks in needs to bind together secure them in place, and whatever I use to infill needs to be free draining, but at the same time provide nutrients for the plants and not wash away in the first shower of rain. I also hope to have a good supply of stone shards for hammering into gaps, and a gravel that matches the sandstone for the top dressing. Finally, I was thinking of putting a layer of geotextile under it all, but I suspect that this might cause more problems that it is worth, especially as the site does not suffer from overly invasive weeds. Any views on this?

Can I throw myself on your tender mercies and ask for the benefit of your far greater experience? I promise, in exchange, to post pictures of the work as it progresses.

Many thanks in advance for your indulgence.

[Wildspirit]

Ooops - forgot to do the signature thingy at the bottom.

[Maggi Young]

Hi Andy, a very warm welcome to you!
Your project sounds really interesting.... and darned hard work.... you do realise we'll all be looking for photos of progress etc??!! 

I know that ZZ is in the USA at the moment at the NARGS  meeting in Salida, so he probably won't be available to comment for a while, but there are others around here who have tackled similar building tasks so I hope they will be able to come up with useful tips for you.

I suppose, depending on the degree of the slope, that a fair amount of "shoring up" or terrace-type supports might be needed underneath the whole construction to anchor it? 

[Wildspirit]

Hi Maggie

Thank you for the warm welcome. The project seems to have developed a life of its own and has gone from a simple garden project to terraforming. Still, never let it be said that I don't like a challenge!

The rocks will be, for the most part, vertical or leaning slightly back (according to the plan at the moment), so will need to be well secured. This will be achieved, at least in part, by using larger rocks buried deeper as periodic anchors, as well as rocks placed strategically at the bottom of the crevices to provide additional bracing. I am also considering using good old rebar... I also forsee at lot of trial and error...

Photos will be forthcoming as promised, just as soon as I stop panicking and start work!

Gulp

Andy

[Lesley Cox]

Welcome to the Forum Andy. Of course this thread is the tip of an enormous iceberg and when you have six months with nothing else to do, it will be well worth delving back through them all, then there's the Old Forum. Life will never be the same.