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

[Maggi Young]

Welcome, Tim, it is good to see you here.
 
I understand your local difficulty with finding a good rock supply..... here in Aberdeen, the 'Granite City', this is not a problem for us - grantie and sandstone are quite easy to source.... it 's down to the state of your back really, as to whether you can cope with the construction work!
I have been interested to see your posts on your sand bed " Fun with a Sand Bed" on the AGS site,
http://www.alpinegardensociety.net/discussion/inthegarden/Fun+with+a+Sand+Bed/531/  and I agree that this is a method that is much more accessible to folks than extensive rock work.

We have not made a pure sand bed in the body of the garden, as you have, but we have made sand beds, surrounded by vertical (part) slabs in a variation of  our outdoor sand plunges, and these are proving a popular home for many plants here in Aberdeen.... mostly bulbs, in this the home of the Ian the "Bulb Despot" ! You can see more of our crevice beds and sand beds in Ian's Bulb Logs.
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb  is the main page and an index is there too.

 Also you will find quite a lot of discussion both here in this Forum and in the archived version of our previous Forum ( http://www.srgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi ) where such methods of growing plants have been shown to be both successful and fun!

[David Nicholson]

Welcome Tim, glad you found your way and good to see you here. You'll enjoy the participation I have no doubts.

[Tim Ingram]

Many thanks - I look forward to it!

[Ian Y]

Unfortunately in the far flung south-east rocks are not so easy to come by and I have concentrated more on building simple sand beds (they still grow plants really well!), but they lack some of the aesthetic appeal of crevice gardens, and definitely lack the romance of playing with rocks!

Tim, welcome to our forum. Have you ever seen the Utrecht Botanic Garden?

There they make amazing use of recycled building materials - old slates and roofing tiles, sewer pipes, paving slabs, etc - it may sound terrible but I was so inspired I came home and made up some troughs with slate, paving slabs and broken cement blocks.

After a few years it is difficult to tell that these are not made with stone.

I just nipped outside and took three of pictures of troughs : one using cement rocks, one with limestone marl and the other roofing slates. You can decide which if any you favour.

I really fancy making a crevice bed larger than a trough using a mixture of recycled materials- if only we had some space to put it.

 

[Lesley Cox]

I really fancy making a crevice bed larger than a trough using a mixture of recycled materials- if only we had some space to put it.

 

Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael. (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")

[Tim Ingram]

Ian, Harry Jans has shown us slides of the Utrecht garden and it is really thought provoking. I wonder how many people have taken up the ideas? I remember particularly the angled long shallow troughs, weird but clever. But the plants grow brilliantly. I think it shows the wonderful benefit of experimenting and trying different things. I must admit my real dream has always been a tufa cliff a la Harry and some of the growers in Germany, and of course Roy Elliott. Lacking that I have seen a picture somewhere in an AGS garden of a huge tufa boulder planted up and surrounded by other plantings - really enticing. It's wonderful when you find a way to grow a plant really happily.

[Maggi Young]

Kaye Griffith at  RHS Harlow Carr has planted a number of troughs in the Utrecht style.  She has shown us photos in the forum of some, if I remember correctly.

This reminds me that Paul Cumbleton features Harlow Carr, and Kaye, in his recent Wisley log  #4 of 2011
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2011May091304960462Log_4_of_2011.pdf

I agree, when one finds a way to make a plant happy it is very rewarding!


Wisley Log main page http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley

[Maggi Young]

Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael. (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")

Lesley, Ian is making plans to consult a lawyer tomorrow to find out what position is vis a vis land grabbing in the highlands..... he may also email Donald Trump and Mohammed al Fayed for extra advice   Though, in their cases, money changed hands... that's not going to happen with Ian. 

[Kristl Walek]

Here is Jim Almonds blog link with pictures of many of the fascinating re-cycled materials used at the Utrecht Botanic Garden:

http://alpineenthusiast.blogspot.com/2008/01/holland-dutch-alpine-garden-society.html

and this Flickr series also highlights many of the innovative structures, etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hansvanderboom/4682580708/in/set-72157624231439908/

[Maggi Young]

Some more Utrecht links....
Sandy Leven's Utrecht article in the main site:   http://www.srgc.org.uk/feature/utrecht/utrecht.html


Ian's posts from thre "old" forum;
http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/1078/10834.html

and some links from this forum
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=208.msg10886;topicseen#

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3430.0
 

[Lesley Cox]

Ian, I believe there are some quite large areas of the Highlands, as an example, where the population is sparse, and where you could put quite large acreage to good use. Of course you may have to protect from deer and perhaps the odd irate Gael. (I've just finished re-reading Arthur Ransome's "Great Northern?")

Lesley, Ian is making plans to consult a lawyer tomorrow to find out what position is vis a vis land grabbing in the highlands..... he may also email Donald Trump and Mohammed al Fayed for extra advice   Though, in their cases, money changed hands... that's not going to happen with Ian.  

Well that gives us all much to look forward to. Why not a sand bed on the Trump land? I seem to remember Peter Korn had something of the kind. Shouldn't be too difficult to divert a small stream to keep the sand moist. So al Fayed's been up to similar tricks? Wasn't Harrods enough? What greedy people they and their kind are.

[Lvandelft]

May I add some pictures of a recycling wall like in Utrecht B.G. of [concrete] paving slabs.
Last Saturday we made a visit to a garden where such a wall was made and this wall is now almost 15 years old.
On the shady side there is a mix of Ramonda, Haberlea, Pleione limprichtii etc.
For those who are interested this garden is situated more than 4 m. under sea level!

[Maggi Young]

Very successful planting area and pleasing to the eye as well as being a good use of recycled materials.
The Pleiones look especially good.

As a person living up a hill, though, the thought of being lower than sea level worries me !
Has your friend got a boat? 

[Graham Catlow]

I constructed a new trough at the weekend and coincidentally this thread has recycled materials in it. I was going to post this next year just in case it didn't work but the opportunity has arisen so I will do it now.
Last Wednesday my wife and I visited the Explorers Garden in Pitlochry for the first time. We had a pleasant walk and the Meconopsis were coming to the fore. Another week or so and they would have been at their best. A lovely place and we will visit again. Met Julia.
More to the point - my wife MADE me buy some plants - mainly Lewisia's. So I had to find somewhere to put them. We had seen the Lewisia dry stone wall at Bodnant many years ago and I had tried to emulate it a couple of times. This time I decided to do something different. All my troughs are natural looking so I decided to do something a little more contemporary.
To the point.
Photo 1 - This was a Rhodohypoxis trough and I am aware that they are not necessarily hardy but they had flourished for for five years. This is the only one I found this week. Disappointing but an opportunity.
Photo 2 - This beam is wedged in the trough to ensure the front bricks don't settle in the compost.
Photo 3 - Layer 1. The bricks have small holes in them just at the height I needed them. The canes fit in the holes and are to ensure the next layer of bricks don't settle in the compost either. Roofing slates provide the back.
Photo 4 - Layer two in situ to see how everything fits.
Photo 5 - The first plant. The nurseries compost was washed from the roots and I then added my own mix and wrapped the root ball in thin card to ensure it stayed in place and allowed me to ease it through the holes in the bricks. The theory is it will eventually rot away.
Photo 6 - First one in place. All the plants had roots long enough to reach through the bricks and into the main compost area.
Photo 7 - Level one planted and ready for the top layer.
Photo 8 - Between the bricks I planted Sedum oreganum tenue
Photo 9 - Nearly done
Photo 10 - Completed.

Plant list - Lewisia cotyledon hybrids, Lewisia 'Little Plum', Dianthus 'Whatfield Magenta', Sempervivums 'Walcott's Variety and 'Fire Glint' Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco' and Purpureum, Sedum oreganum tenue.

I do hope this works. I will let you know how it gets on.

[ranunculus]

Intriguing Graham ... please keep us up to date with developments.
I must admit that my wife was unequivocal; "That's not very pretty ... don't you get any ideas!"
It reminds me of a ziggurat in a rainforest (but perhaps that's just the gin and tonic talking)!