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

[rgc]

When building a crevice garden, I am sure that you should plan it all out carefully and do it all in one go. Unfortunately, not the way I have done it.

In autumn 2014, I built a small crevice garden and showed a picture on this thread on 23rd November 2014. Then extended it and showed a picture of the extended crevice garden on 6th May 2015.

Made a further extension last autumn and I have now begun to plant up the new parts. Not much colour just now, but the Kabschia saxifrage in the older parts have lots of flower buds.
Picture of crevice garden version 3 is below.
Bob

[Lesley Cox]

I'll look forward to seeing it again soon Bob, when the saxifrages are in flower. I suffer a permanent state of Kabschia saxifrage deprivation as we have so few here and may not import plants.

Looks like a nice sunny day in Scotland.

[rgc]

Hi Lesley
We are lucky in Britain and seem to be able to assume that if a plant is available commercially anywhere in the world then we can buy it here.

It was a lovely day here in Stirling and after a few hours gardening, I was able to sit out in the sun. First time this year. However, from David's post I gather it was horrible weather down in Devon.
Bob

[Jupiter]

Spent the day working on my new (extension to my) crevice beds. I haven't mulched with any gravel and chippings yet but I'm happy with how it's going... I definitely think I'm getting better at it; looking back at the first and second crevice beds I like this one a lot better, and the second was better than the first, so that's progress! I'm itching to start planting!

[astragalus]

Looks great.  Nice stone!

[Maggi Young]

You are making a great job of that, Jamus 

[ian mcdonald]

Bob and Jamus have both made good features for alpines. If anything (I try not to criticize as I am a poor gardener) I would remove the labels. They detract from the effect. My attempt at a "rock garden" as a site for alpines was a mistake. I placed three squares of rocks in the area 12 ft. x 12 ft. and that took up too much space. Over the years the addition of small chippings as a top dressing has resulted in a "scree" instead of rocks. I mention this so that other people do not make this mistake. Does it matter that we may forget the names of plants, after all, they are there to be enjoyed. We could make a sketch with the plants on but then it becomes too much trouble to keep altering it. Well done both, I hope the gardens give many years of pleasure.

[astragalus]

A possible solution to the label issue is a nail with a number painted on the nail head.  The gardener would then have to keep a notebook of names corresponding to the numbers.  This method does have some  advantages:  the nails are  fairly easy to hide, and they are much smaller than labels.  I've seen troughs where this was done quite effectively.

[Lori S.]

Why not just draw a "map" of the trough and write the plant names on it?  Or take a photo and do the same?  No nails to be lost then.  Either is easy enough to do with a trough.

[Matt T]

I'm with Lori, and take a photograph of all my troughs and label the photo with the plant names.

[johnralphcarpenter]

I love labels. My wife hates them.

[Gabriela]

Jamus rockery beds are absolutely gorgeous!

I also don't like labels sticking out and I started to do like Matt last year for a small rock area first. In a large rock garden it might be a bit more problematic though; would involve a lot of 'data keeping'.

[Tristan_He]

I don't like labels either (they get pushed right into the soil by and large) and also tend to be in the habit of shoving pieces of things into handy crevices in the rockery. This looks nice but the result is that I have quite a few things without a label. Saxifrages and houseleeks are the worst as they often grow in places where a discreet label is hard to accomodate - so a fair few 'white flowered ?Allendale something or other' and 'sort of vaguely like paniculata but probably a hybrid encrusted thing'. I don't think I'll be applying to hold any national collections!

I have now started to keep a spreadsheet listing everything I know I am growing. Helps to narrow it down a bit at least.

[Hoy]

I don't like labels and I forget most names and I am too lazy to make any kind of files to keep track of my plants

Anyway I remember the Name of this common sax. It is the first to flower on my rock/crevice roof garden!

Saxifraga oppositifolia, collected by myself.

[Rick R.]

I have now started to keep a spreadsheet listing everything I know I am growing. Helps to narrow it down a bit at least.

I have done that for many years.  It will help if you give location names to certain areas (east garden, front yard, etc.).  Then you can narrow it quite a bit more.  For troughs I list all the plants in a single trough on one or multiple tags and put them all in one place in a discrete part if the trough. Can you find them in the pic below?