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

[astragalus]

Tim, the best way to grow the wonderful peas is to wring the moisture out of your climate.  If I can get them through the spring they tend to do OK because we can have long periods here of heat and drought.  They revel in that but I'll never get them to look the way Utah and Colorado growers can.

[astragalus]

Everything in the garden is almost a month ahead in bloom and the crevice gardens have started to bloom.  The last picture shows the back side of the cliff with some of the microphlox in bloom in natural crevices.  Almost everything that has been planted in these natural crevices (some 40 plants), has come through our snowless winter with only three losses so far.  I know this is a really nice group so I thank you in advance for not laughing at the picture of Eritrichium howardii with two blooms.  As of yesterday the count had doubled with many more buds to open.  This really is my favorite area of the garden.

[astragalus]

Sorry, there seems to be some difficulty in posting pictures right now.  I'll try posting one by one.

Eritrichium howardii

[astragalus]

Here's more.

 Androsace villosa
 Oxytropis multiceps

[astragalus]

More plants in the crevice garden

 Daphne velenovskyi 'Balkan Rose'
 Hymenoxys acaulis v caespitosa

[astragalus]

A few more plants.

DSC06152 -scree view

Onosma albo-roseum

[astragalus]

And the last.

Astragalus utahensis

[Maggi Young]

Great to see your garden waking up so well, Anne. Thanks for persevering with uploading the pix   

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Fantastic pix Anne !    Your scree view is sooooooooooo realistic !!

[David Nicholson]

Lovely set of pictures Anne. Wish I had your "artistic" touch with rock.

[Tim Ingram]

It's glorious to see those peas! I have just spent a couple of days (well in between a few other things) chipping legume seed using a magnifying lamp my wife has for embroidery. They include Astragalus utahensis and Oxytropis multiceps, and if I manage to grow them anywhere near as well as your photos I shall be well pleased.

[Lesley Cox]

Anne, I love your turn of phrase - "wring the moisture out of your climate." It says so much about needed conditions and is great creative writing as well.

And of course I love the plants in their habitat. That must be the nearest to a real mountain scree that could be found in a garden. You are so fortunate to have this.

Tim, must the pea seeds be chipped? Would an overnight soak in (starting as) hot water not soften the coats enough to let germination start?

[astragalus]

Lesley, I am indeed fortunate and I know it.  It's worth all the effort to enhance a lovely habitat.  It would, however, be nice to put the garden on a stick and elevate it a few thousand to get away from the humidity+ heat of the summer.

[astragalus]

Luc, the reason it looks so realistic is because it's real.  I just cleaned out the natural crevices and put in rock chocks where needed to prevent the plants from sliding downhill every rain storm.  It takes time for the roots to get anchored.  I'd love to take the credit but I can't.  The flat crevice work is mine.
Tim, Astragalus utahensis and Oxytropis are not only lovely peas, but they are among the easier ones and have a good life span in the garden if the weather cooperates reasonably.  It seems to be difficult to get them to form viable seeds or even pods in my climate.  That's where Alan Bradshaw's "Alplains Seed Catalog" comes to the rescue.  His seeds germ inate very well and he has plants no one else seems to have.

[astragalus]

Work is continuing on "The Last Outcrop".  I'm busy making soil with half-rotted chips as a component.  Adding top soil (fairly neutral) and some sand rounds it out.  A slow-release fertilizer is added at planting.  So far, I've planted epimediums, hellebores (including "ivory prince" and "pepperminy ice" - this last is one of Marietta O'Byrnes hybrids), haberleas, dodecatheons, anemonopsis, hepaticas etc.  There will be another round of soil mixing, grading . firming and planting tomorrow.  Most of the plants have just been dug up from elsewhere in the garden with the exception of two named hellebores.  The chips sat all winter and since there was no snow cover I was able to trample them down daily.  I'm trying to remember to take pictures and have a record, something I usually forget to do.