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

[astragalus]

Back home, over the jet lag and out in the garden examining deer damage.  Maggi, I'm inviting you to come next  year and be in charge of deer control (primal scream, etc) while we're away.  They have been walking everywhere in the garden, including through the crevice garden.  I'll even show you my secret stash of chocolate!

[Ragged Robin]

Anne, your photographs show such wonderful detail of plants growing in different conditions in your garden, they make an excellent reference point as well as being hugely enjoyable to look at from every angle. 

[astragalus]

Thank you so much.  Right now everything is sweltering in the heat, but the eriogonums are relishing it.  Their foliage looks fresh and very tight.  In their native habitat, 20% humidity would be considered a sauna and here the humidity is 90%.  It's amazing the adjustments many plants can make, isn't it?

[astragalus]

The crevice garden is fairly subdued at the moment in all the heat and humidity, but a few plants seem to be enjoying the extremes of sun and heat.  Not surprisingly, they are North American westerners.

[ranunculus]

Beautiful, Anne.

Our idyll in Corvara ends in the morning, so back to the heat, sun and humidity of a Lancashire summer!!!   

[David Nicholson]

Beautiful, Anne.

............... so back to the heat, sun and humidity of a Lancashire summer!!!   

Take it that was a joke Mr B or perhaps a certain closeness with the Grappa bottle last night

[astragalus]

Maybe a bit of both?

[ranunculus]

Maybe a bit of both?

 

[astragalus]

Earlier I posted pictures of the crevices on the top of the cliff.  After many, many hours, it looks quite different without the weeds and with new plantings started.  The plants are quite young but happy so far.  Everything up here will be covered with chicken wire for the winter as protection form the antlered rats.

[astragalus]

Also growing on top of the cliff now is Dianthus arpadianus.  It bloomed heavily and was never deadheaded.  Now I find that some of the stems appear to be making new little dianthus cushions at the top of the stems.  Has anyone ever seen this happen?  It's new to me.  What does one do with them?  Could I pin the stem down and try layering?  Sorry for the quality of the p[icture.  Have been having a little difficulty lately with the camera and taking good close-ups 
Also a picture Of Onosma nanum in the regular crevice garden.  It seems to be a happy plant.

[ranunculus]

The crevice garden looks amazing, Anne.  If viewers could only understand a modicum of the effort required to get those cliff top boulders clear of bramble and weeds to allow such precise and immaculate planting. 
I would be tempted to peg down a couple of those stems but let the rest develop normally over winter and hope that they grow foliage down the stem forming individual buns over the cushion?
Greetings from an unusually warm Lancashire.  Hope dear Joe is well.

[Lesley Cox]

What a wonderful crevice garden, the very best kind with the natural bedrock (?) used and then giving way to some man and woman-made crevices. Nothing could surpass that first picture in the group. A great effort Anne if what Cliff says is correct, about the bramble etc.

[Maggi Young]

Cliff cannot speak highly enough about Anne's garden and I must say that every photo I have seen confirms to me that he is quite right to be so full of praise for it. It is a wonderful place, a real tribute to Anne's eye for detail and sheer hard work... and I always feel for her tribulations against the 'antlered rats'.

Yes, there is natural stone, yes the site is beautiful but human hands and heart have made it the glorious garden it has become and which we are fortunate to be able to share , if only by photographs.
An inspirational garden, in my opinion.

[astragalus]

Thanks, Cliff.  Joe is fine and staying away from garden "projects" although he did help with leaves yesterday.

Lesley, it's wasn't just brambles, those thorny darlings, but also miles of poison ivy, which I find far worse.  If it were not for the miserable itchy rash it produces, poison ivy would be the world's best ornamental plant - able to withstand any type of soil (not happy in the sand beds), can take any kind of weather, has lovely polished foliage with excellent fall color,  can grow as a vine, ground cover or even shrub, the antlered rats don't touch it - AND - it's almost impossible to kill.

[astragalus]

Many thanks, Maggi.  Please remember, the invitation to "garden-sit" is always open and it comes with a map to the hidden chocolates.