Wisley Crevice Garden project with Zdenek Zvolanek

[Maggi Young]

For those of us waiting eagerly to see how ZZ and the Wisley Workers (as I have named the staff who will be helping on this project) then you will find Log 19 of 2010 online now, with Paul's report on the start of the stonework of the crevice garden.
Find Log 19 here :
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley


You will be amazed to see how the garden "appears" as if by magic...... though, of course, there is really a lot of very hard physical work and expert planning to make it look so good!

 While we were thrilled to get Giles'  photo from the other day (http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6223.msg172163#msg172163) it is even better to see how the bare plot Paul showed us in the last log has been transformed.... work has been extraordinarily speedy, it seems to me, and the progress is quite remarkable..... enjoy Paul's log.......then make a date in  your diary to go visit the finished project at Wisley......

[Lesley Cox]

ZZ and Dub Dub. I like that Maggi though I HATE shortened words like the dub dub dub instead of doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou of website addresses. The dubs are so much easier and less cumbersome so I use them.

[sippa]

How much fun to see that garden being created.  ZZ is a master.  I wish I had those rocks.

Marianne in Vermont

[ashley]

... I HATE shortened words like the dub dub dub instead of doubleyou doubleyou doubleyou of website addresses. The dubs are so much easier and less cumbersome so I use them.

Why not forget the dubs altogether Lesley?  Just type the address (e.g. srgc.co.uk or sometimes even a truncated version thereof) and your browser should do the rest.  
Incidentally Dubs are one of the two species we Irish come in , the rest of us being Culchies (or latterly Boggers to younger Dubs).

Digression, sorry

[Lesley Cox]

I do, Ashley but sometimes one needs to write a whole address for someone or a similar situation.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Plants needed - Can you help with the Wisley Crevice Garden?

The new Wisley crevice garden will need hundreds of plants. We would like to plant it with alpines really suited to the situation. There are crevices in all aspects – north, south, east and west and from full sun to shade, so there will be lots of differing niches for a wide range of plants. We are going to be careful to exclude anything that may be invasive, seed around too freely, get too large or be weedy or diseased.

While we will be buying some, sowing a lot of seed and taking a lot of cuttings ourselves, I thought it would be great to offer the opportunity for anyone to take part in the project by way of donating us plants, seeds or cuttings. If you have any spare material that you would like to donate we would be very grateful to have it. Remember we are looking for plants that are particularly suited to life in a crevice and not invasive things etc. If we get inundated (I hope!) I can’t guarantee to use everything sent us, but anything we can’t use on the crevice garden will be found a good home somewhere on the rock garden so nothing will be wasted. Our main planting period is planned to be in March 2011. If you want to donate something, please send it to me at the following address:

Paul Cumbleton
RHS Garden, Wisley
Woking
Surrey
GU23 6QB

Alternately, anyone visiting Wisley could pop in to the department and leave things with us. I also will be at the AGS show at Harlow on Feb 26th next year and could receive plants there. It might be worth adding that a surprising number of alpines can be propagated from cuttings taken even at this time of year – if you keep them above 5 centigrade they will often root slowly through the winter and be ready for Spring planting.

Thanks!

Paul

[mark smyth]

Almost finished and looking great http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley. Roll on springwhen we what plants are will be planted

Paul, are you growing your own from seed?

[Maggi Young]

Mark: see Paul's post above yours.......
Posted on: November 15, 2010, 06:48:07 PM 

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Mark,
We are planning to sow well over 200 different packets of seed ourselves. Some of these we have bought, others will be from the various seed exchanges and more are donations we have received. Of these, over 60 packets have already been sown, the rest are yet to arrive. Some of course will that don't need chilling will wait until Spring to be sown. We will also be putting in at least 100 different alpines as ready-grown plants so there will be at least something to see right from the start. But I think the best things will be from those that we raise from seed and cuttings and plant in as very young plants that will establish in situ. This means it wil be probably a few years before the whole thing looks well established. A nice change from the fad for "instant gardening"!

Kind regards
Paul

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It will most definitely be a feature to look out for Paul ! 

[John85]

Are crevice gardens always"filled" with pure sand?What is the size used ?Is it washed sand,river sand or crushed rock?
What have members used in their own crevice garden?
Two years ago I made four different test sand beds  with different mixtures and pure sand produced the worst result.

[mark smyth]

My crevice bed is filled with black sand from a quarry that is now closed. They had the best sand a top  dressing grit.

ZZ told me it makes the roots reach down to richer soild below the stones. Maybe he will come in and answer.

Paul will remember better because I'm relying on my aging memory to think back to about 5 years ago

[Paul Cumbleton]

Not everyone uses sand in their crevice gardens. But for large scale ones like ours, cost is a major consideration and sand is relatively cheap to buy. We used close to 100 tonnes of sand in the crevice garden at Wisley. If we had wanted to use the equivalent of an alpine potting mix instead, the cost would have been prohibitive. We used washed, sharp sand which is just like what you might buy in a garden centre sold as "horticultural sand". One problem with sand is that it can be quite variable. Being a natural product, it varies somewhat in compostion even from area to area within the same quarry. Each time we buy a load it seems to differ somewhat, so you can never be sure exactly what you are going to get.

Having had some previous experience with sand beds, I think the key to success with sand is to get the feeding correct. I had heard people say that you should not feed plants in a sand bed, but my experience is that if you do not feed them, they simply do not grow. After all, their is pretty much nothing at all in sand as far as the major nutrients goes.

It will certainly be interesting to see how our new crevice garden grows after we plant it up in March. We are also thinking about playing with introducing mycorrhiza but that's a whole other story we are still working out!

Paul

[John85]

Thank you both.   I feeded the sand beds with a slow release fertilizer and food was not a problem it was the water.Even watered regulary it was as if the roots of the plants were not able to satisfy the demand of the foliage.Erodiums did very well(most come from the Mediterranean region after all) but even a easy thing like a dwarf bearded  iris wasn't happy.The summers in my area are much hotter and dryer than at Wisley but the winters are very wet and nearly as cold.
I think I'll give this a try :a slightly richer mixture till 15cm from the surface topped with a lean mix.Have you already tried something like that Paul?

[Jiri Papousek]

I discovered the whole mystery how to succeed with sand. You have to wear magic Wellington's from wizard ZZ, it has be be Dunlop brand only....I was convinced by ZZ to try pure sand for alpines and it is mostly success. I never fertilize plants in crevices, but it is true that below crevices is a good garden soil. I was also very surprised how quickly sand change the color and became mixed with soil by earthworms. I noticed that it is important to use higher top dressing as sand retains very high amount of water. This winter I could confirm what ZZ told me that sand doesn't freeze the same way like soil. During warmer winter period, soil was still frozen, but pile of sand was movable. It helps to decrease fine roots damages from melting and freezing cycle. See some pictures from my developing garden.