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

[Leiomerus]

Hi,

Here you will see two pictures of my sandstone rock garden, not really constructed for the crevices, but more to drill holes to plant mainly Saxifragas. It measures only a bit more than 1 square meter (120 cm - 130 cm), but it is 80 cm high, because most rocks stand upright. But it does have a lot of crevices too. It is unbelievable how many alpine plants can find a home in such a restricted space. I have made it last summer, so it has still a lot of 'growing potential'.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Kris - I saw on your photos a vertical tufa garden, presumably inspired by Harry Jans wonderful garden. I don't know of anyone in the UK who has made this sort of construction? There seems a lot more imagination on the continent growing alpines in the garden than you find here! (Present company excepted). Any tips on making tufa walls like this?

Sure Tim ,it was my friend Harry who inspired me .....Not alone on making a vertical tufa garden but in generally ....on gardening with tufa !
For me ,the vertical tufa garden has one big problem. And that problem is that it becomes dry much easier . Tufarocks who lies on the ground have the advantage from capillary activity .But the vertical rocks are free and this means they dry out easy.
So this mean that such vertical tufagarden needs much more watering .Also because of that I started to fill up the space on the back with sand .But even then I need to water it on very regulary basic. The horizontal tufagarden needs much less care .
So my advice is to think about watering before building.  

[Leiomerus]

But you can't attach it to a trailer to go and get more rocks.

Hi Lesley,

But a rock garden is too heavy to be stolen by thieves, and a car is sometimes so easy to be stolen ...
So, everything has its advantages and its disadvantages.
But only life has only advantages to make something of it because when you were created you had one chance out of maybe one million chances to be you.

[Lesley Cox]

Of course you are right. I wish that when I was MUCH younger I had made better decisions about so many things.

In your picture to the left of your posts, is that you many years ago or is it a new little person now? Very sweet either way.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Ha... another compatriot 
Just discovered your pictures Leiomerus !  All looking good !  I wonder if the plants will do as well in their sandstone holes as they would in tufa !
It will be very interesting to see how your new projects develop !
Have fun in this wonderful Forum !

[Leiomerus]

Hello Lesley,

Yes indeed, it's me in the picture, starting to look at that big world we live in.

Ha, de Luc,

This kind of sandstone is very porous, but some pieces have a harder structure than others. It also has a lot of nutrients, if you break a stone you will find old sharkteeth and a lot of fossiles like shells. This sandstone was formed in the Ecoceen period, so very old indeed.
The Saxifragas I have planted in them seem to respond well.

You don't always need tufa to grow plants in. I even have drilled holes in the rocks of my big rock garden, and these rocks are very hard, they are marble rocks.
I will enclose a picture of Saxifraga Winifred, growing inside a marble rock.

[Lori S.]

Rocks from the Eocene are actually very young! 
http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae/timescale/time_scale.gif
Your plantings look very nice!  Thanks for showing us.  The presence of shells and other marine fossils in the sandstone suggest that it is pretty calcareous, likely calcite-cemented, so it likely provides similar conditions to tufa, though less porosity.

[WimB]

Rocks from the Eocene are actually very young! 

  That depends on your definition of young and old and your reference points....if you look at how long humans populate this earth, rocks from the Eocene are very old, if you look at the age of the Earth, not that much...but I guess the last point of reference would be the best when speaking about rock, so than I have to agree with you, Lori, not that old at all!

[Leiomerus]

Hi Lori,

When I was 18, someone of 40 years old, was in my opinion 'old', now I'm 44 and I don't think I'm old, but young,  ha ha.
Interesting time scale you mentioned there, so the 'Eocene' is about 35 - 55 million years old. Thank you, I learn everyday.
About the composition of the sandstone : I looked it up : calcareous sandstone, made of fine quartsparticles, calcareous fossils, glauconite granules and it's calcite-cemented indeed . So you made a good guess. In my region they made a lot of churches with this sandstone from 'Balegem'. I only make rock gardens with it.

[astragalus]

I've been trying to post pictures and keep getting "file too big", despite the pictures having been downsized per usual.  The garden is at least 4 weeks ahead because of the crazily warm temperature.  Things are starting to bloom although we now are getting deep frosts every night.  Phlox 'Betty' is one of Dick Redfield's microphloxes.  This one was named after his sister and is in the upper crevice garden.

[astragalus]

p.s. Prime bloom time for Phlox in this garden is May 10th in a typical year.

 Androsace carnea

[astragalus]

I seem to have found a way to sneak the pictures on that I've been trying to post.  This is a draba sp in its chicken wire prison.  The antlered rats can't get at it but it's rather unattracive to see your plants this way.  I have to take some of the wire off because Onosma caerulescens is budding and it needs more room.

[Tim Ingram]

I like that little phlox, don't know microphloxes at all! I need to read the new book on the genus which has been so highly recommended. I haven't yet developed a crevice garden but hope to attend the Czech Rock Garden Conference next year and see the gardens made there. I would love to learn how to succeed better with some of the dwarf legumes, so various different growing conditions should be on the cards!

[Lesley Cox]

The Phlox 'Betty' is quite different from what I have as 'Betty,' a subulata form. It is soft pink with a scarlet centre and is my favourite subulata, but surprisingly difficult to sell.

[astragalus]

Lesley, I think my Phlox 'Betty' is the real thing because it came from Dick Redfield.  Maybe there's another phlox called Betty?  Another microphlox of Dick's is P.'Herbert' named after his brother.  They stay quite tiny in bloom.
The second picture I posted was of course  Androsace carnea in the crevice garden.