Cyril Lafong's new crevice garden

[ichristie]

Hi to all, I have been helping the Master Cyril to create a new crevice garden at his home in Fife, a few details about construction then the first set of pictures. Cyril's garden at the back of his house is on quite a slope from top to bottom East to West, Cyril first removed some established shrubs and trees to have a clear space. I made contact with a local quarry about 20 miles away which I use for other projects this was to be our source of stone. Cyril organised for day one; 2 tons of sharp grit sand and one and a half tons of gravel, I wheelbarrowed the gravel onto the top of the garden soil to ensure good drainage then the sand was put on top which made a nice large mound. Day 2; two and a half tons of rock were delivered to be wheeled in and placed on edge creating the beginnings of the crevices. I was very pleased that near the end Cyril's young strong son came to help and we finished the first load of stone. I will send part two in the next few days plus keep an update of progress. cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[ian mcenery]

Fantastic Ian I can feel a project coming on   

Are you using just sharp sand between the stones?

[Lesley Cox]

And how do you apply it? Just shovel it over and let it filter through, maybe with the help of the hose?

[ichristie]

A quick note before I must go and work, I forgot to say that before we started building I added some bags of John Innes sterilised soil and mixed this up with the sand. As we started building the crevices we filled them part way up with the mix as we went along this made then very solid and easy to walk over if needed, we were lucky with the stone which I had organised as some pieces were thicker and heavy so we tried to use these at the edges, we were also able to split some stones along the length which gave a new face but the stone only has mud on then so a good shower of rain will clean them up. Will add more pictures tonight, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Most interesting Ian ! 
Very much looking forward to see how things develop further...

By the way.. are you ever in Belgium or thereabouts  

[Lvandelft]

Very informative. So good to see the story starting from the beginning.
I mean to see the basic (hard labour) work, which is mostly forgotten to show, but the most important,
when considering such a project.

so a good shower of rain will clean them up

One question, why is the big plane aside. It would keep it dry when raining.
But I presume it will be against cats etc. overnight.   
Looking forward to see the next pictures.

[gote]

When I read about 2.5 tons of stone I was amazed at your strength but then I counted and realized that they are maybe 10 kgs each.
It is still hard work. Are these stones sandstone?
I assume we will all in the future refer to the early 21st century as the age of vertical crevices. 
Personally i try to use large rocks on the flat because I want to be able to sit or kneel on them. I assume a crevice garden cannot be too wide.
I am mostly in woodlanders so the following pics show a "woodland rock garden". I rarely post overview pics since they are always full of weeds and paraphernalia
The first pic is about two years since completion (I mean since the stones were laid; a garden will never be finished.)
It is early. only Hellebores, Galanthus, Leucojum Hepatica and Daphne.
The second shows a part under construction.
The third pic shows a mistake. These stones are too far apart. I cannot reach well in the middle. It will be a major undertaking to move the left since today so many plants are in the way.
My gesneriads are hidden in the upper left corner of the first pic. The Haberlea and the Ramonda seem happy even if the latter does not flower as well as the one I saw in Catalonia.
Look forward to the follow up
Göte

[Maggi Young]

Fascinating to see these projects......thanks!
I am slightly surprised to see that in the large scale of Cyril's new garden, there is no path/east access to the middle of the bed.... won't it be hard to reach the middle for weeding etc, over only the upright stones? My knees are hurting already, just thinking about it 


Göte's woodlandy style bed is obviously very successful, too, even after only a couple of years.....so many on my favourite plants would love that situation.

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY , Göte ......I hope you are not moving stones of any size in the garden today.... only large pieces of birthday cake!

[Anthony Darby]

That crevice bed looks spectacular.

[ichristie]

Well, we really have started something here such great pictures form everybody, firstly my wheelbarrow has no licence to travel overseas sorry Luc. We covered over the area at night as we wanted the sharp sand to stay dry as possible as it is easier to get the dry sand in between the crevices. At the end of my first day arrive home and Cyril phoned up we need to make the bed BIGGER so he organised another two and a half tons of sand and I organised two and a half tons of stone. We worked away all day and managed to get all this wheelbarrowed up into the garden ( I am now 6inches shorter) and the wheelbarrow is caput. We sprread some sand over the first part and then built more crevices. The sharp sand is very good a dark red brick colour with lots of small chippings amongst it. Cyril has already ordered lots of seed which he is going to sow amongst the sand in the crevices. I did say to Cyril that he would need a huge amount of plants says he that is not a problem the crevices will be full in spring such a fantastic grower I am looking forward to spring. I add the next set of pictures, more once we have a rest, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[fermi de Sousa]

Tremendous work, Ian.
Does Cyril pay well? A Forrest medal or two? You certainly deserve a medal after the work you've put in. I'm looking forward to seeing this Garden develop.
cheers
fermi

[Paddy Tobin]

So now Ian - a  long soak in a bath, I think.

Gote, your third photograph is symptomatic of the truly obsessive - labels and labels and labels. Do you collect plants by any chance?

Paddy

[ichristie]

Hi again, I did suggest to Cyril about a path somewhere through the garden but we got carried away with the stone building, we did try walking over the stones and found it very easy to get to anywhere. I can assure you that once Cyril gets started the weeds will have no room to grow. I have just had a message from Cyril that his son Andrew has finished putting all the sand over the crevice garden so some more pictures will follow. I forgot to say all the pictures were taken by Cyril a Nikon D90 with V.R lens. I like this very much hope santa is listening, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Anthony Darby]

Perhaps you can persuade Cyril to venture into his greenhouses with said new camera Ian?

[gote]

Thank you again Maggie!!
No I do not move any stones today but I need to move another 15 to 25 in in order to complete my plans. I lift them out with the excavator using ropes, drive them some 750 m on a cart after a Stiga lawnmover that no longer has any cutter and dump them as close as I can. When I have enough I will drive the excavator there and use it when positioning. The bigest stone I moved was something like half a ton but I will not repeat that performance. 200-300 kg is quite enough. I am lucky since the local stone has a cleft so it gets at least some flat surfaces. It also has an unpretentious beauty that goes well in the shady surrounding.

I use to say that I collect plants as other people collect postage stamps. I believe we all know that many plants are impossible to identify most of the year. Many are not even above ground. To remember where I put several hundreds different species and strain is impossible in my age Often I cannot even find the label. Thus the labels. My labels are dark brown on the backside and olive green on the front. I think that this is a reasonable compromise between redability and unobtrusiveness.

Göte