Sempervivum and Jovibarba

[Maggi Young]

luit--cool plantings--is that bed in your garden i don't see any sand.....

Cohan! I'm shocked.... of course there's no sand.... I know Vroni van Delft, she  would never allow sand in the bedroom  


( actually, I don't think that IS Luit's bed!! )

[Graham Catlow]

Forget the bed and the chair, just look at all those semps. 
Its a good job the North Sea is between us.
Graham

[cohan]

luit--cool plantings--is that bed in your garden i don't see any sand.....

Cohan! I'm shocked.... of course there's no sand.... I know Vroni van Delft, she  would never allow sand in the bedroom  


( actually, I don't think that IS Luit's bed!! )

i have a little experience of dutch housekeeping, i believe you!

[Lesley Cox]

I do like the chair and bed plantings. We have an old white hospital bed here (don't ask) and I would be thrilled to find a permanent loving home for it many miles away from here. Roger won't let it go to the dump. At one stage he thought it could be usefully converted into a trolley for my nursery but it's too darned heavy apart from anything else. It's fully mobile with wheels and can be raised or lowered. It goes to the first person who will send me a private address.

[Lvandelft]

The bed and the Semps were taken this summer in Austria in the nursery of our young friend Christian Kress (Sarastro), who also made a year practice in our former nursery.
Therefore you will not see sandy soil
The bed could have been Dutch because the double beds in Holland used (and still sold here) to be no more than 1.00 m. or 1.20 m. wide
 These are called "twijfelaar" (transl. : doubter ) too wide for one and too narrow for two      Well understandable when you ever saw pictures of the sometimes very narrow old houses in Amsterdam.

I think I will better not tell you here about our housekeeping 

[ranunculus]

A bed covered with sheets of semps, cushions of jovibarbas and a blanket of plants. Beautiful! 

[cohan]

The bed could have been Dutch because the double beds in Holland used (and still sold here) to be no more than 1.00 m. or 1.20 m. wide
 These are called "twijfelaar" (transl. : doubter ) too wide for one and too narrow for two      Well understandable when you ever saw pictures of the sometimes very narrow old houses in Amsterdam.

I think I will better not tell you here about our housekeeping  

so this is why bicycling is so popular in the netherlands--you have to stay trim enough to get in those beds..anyone who gets too large must emigrate to canada  
although i suppose outside of amsterdam, you are able to eat more

as for the housekeeping--always good to rebel against national stereotypes

[Cris]

I'm delighted with all those photos of Sempervivum

My little contribution  

[TheOnionMan]

I'm delighted with all those photos of Sempervivum

My little contribution  

Hello Cris, thanks for contributing.  Your planting shows what can be done when a clay or ceramic pot breaks, it is still suitable, rustic, and visually appealing as a sempervivum planter, nice  

I have a couple very old hypatufa troughs that I made as a teenager (embarrassed to admit, just about 40 years ago), these troughs finally starting to break apart, but portions might be suitable for sempervivum planting vignettes.

[TheOnionMan]

Following up on a previous posting where I declared my intent to make a semp planter out of an old rusty wheelbarrow, today I worked on this project.  http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5315.msg165794#msg165794

It will "live" in a hollowed out part of a hillside, the whole area to have sod removed (too difficult to mow the steep hillside) and the ground "sculpted" with paths and bermed planting beds.  The first step was to remove sod and excavate soil at the base of the hillside up to 1' (30 cm) deep or more, to lessen the incline somewhat.  The unexcavated edges around it will be broadened, and further rock features and plantings will soften the excavation.  A layer of gravel will eventually be laid around the wheelbarrow setting.

1-2  Sod removed, area excavated, excavated rocks temporarily tossed into wheelbarrow.  Wheelbarrow positioned.
      (note: additional drainage holes were drilled in the metal well of the wheelbarrow)

3-4  Wheelbarrow heaped with sand/loam mix.  The fun part, arrange native stone in pleasing formations and plant pockets.
      (note:  the planter is heavy, but still can be moved.  However, the intent is to leave it in place.)

5-10 Wheelbarrow is planted, and top-dressed with the same rock that was hand-crushed; our native rock crushes easily with a hammer, with eye-protection of course.  I like the fact when crushing the rock, one can purposely make various grades of chippings, large to small, and even some fine particles.  When planting this late in the season, the semps are mostly already hunkered down and ready for winter, and only showing green, so not overly showy at the moment.  Also, there are more pockets that need planting; I was running out of daylight.

When I place the rock, I like mixing rock sizes, and I try to create some noticeable height to the planter (see side view).  I also like to have some rocks extend out and over the planter edge.

There will be no labels in this planter, I created a map instead.  But I will also use a digital photo marked up with plant names as my guide.  Some of the semp plants are ones for which the labels either disappeared or wore off.

[Thomas Huber]

Wow, Mark, what a great idea.
Who owns the copyright 
I also have an old wheelbarrow....

[Maggi Young]

Super project.

I'm a little embarrassed that the two wheelbarrows in constant use here are in much worse condition than the "old" one being retired to this new purpose in McMark's project.         No need to drill any holes in ours... they are worn through already! 

[maggiepie]

Looks fantastic, Mark.
It looks very heavy though, I hope the legs aren't rusty, it looks like they are holding a lot of weight.

[TheOnionMan]

Looks fantastic, Mark.
It looks very heavy though, I hope the legs aren't rusty, it looks like they are holding a lot of weight.

I tried to "dispose" of this wheelbarrow by disassembling it, but was handily thwarted by fasteners solidly rusted together.  So then I tried my "magic sledgehammer" to beat it into submission, the wheelbarrow was too resilient to be easily pulped, so after sitting there unused in a junk heap for a couple years, getting ever more rusty, I decided to give it a new life after being inspired by creative plantings seen on this forum.

[Lesley Cox]

And because of the rock placements and the many crevices between rocks, you have a planting area bigger than the barrow itself. I look forward to seeing the barrow when the plants are maturing and lapping over the edges.