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

[Jupiter]

That looks fantastic Chris. Very artfully constructed. I hope you give us updates as the plants grow and full out.

[astragalus]

I always thought the uppermost crevice gardens were relatively safe from deer, and they would never walk at the edge of the cliff. The rapidly melting snow meant I could finally get up there only to find the same devastation I saw farther down. They came, they ate, they left pieces of plants and their special calling cards, which I'll have to clean up. Talk about adding insult to injury! It's now obvious that covering the entire crevice garden with chicken wire in the winter is essential.  Very disheartening. The list of daphnes they ate is long. They especially like the treasures, all of the wonderful small daphnes like D. hendersonii and D. susannae. It will be a test of their recuperative powers although a couple have not a single leaf or branch end left.

[Maggi Young]

From ZZ : "4 kilometres from our village is big Celtic menhir (placed by group of artists 20 years ago). It is nicely erected limestone slab 3 metres high. I have one remark: we crevice rock gardeners place minimaly two stones - just to have one crevice or three stones to obtain two crevices for planting saxatiles. photo by Zdena Kosourová, 30th April, 360m above sea level. "

[astragalus]

But this is also a rock that has perfect stratifications for chiseling a crevice or drilling some planting holes down a natural stratification line.

[astragalus]

The end of the acantholimons and the beginning of Zinnia grandiflora. These are tachnically not in the crevice garden but close.

[odvdveer]

I built my first crevice garden yesterday    .
I have read everything I could find about creating a crevice garden the last couple of months (including this whole thread) and finally have one in my own garden.
I am now planting a lot of small plants in the crevices and top dressing.

The rocks are covered in dust in the first images. The turn dark grey with rust when wet and lighter gray with rust when dry. The top dressing will be with canadian slate (also grey and a but of rust). The soil mound is loamy soil with extra sharp sand added and bewteen the crevices is a mixture for nutrient poor roofgardens with lava.

I hope my plants will love it as much as I do and am looking forward to springtime

[Maggi Young]

Oh yes! You will have a lot of pleasure from that crevice garden. The Rock is very attractive, which is a great start of course!
 And a warm welcome to you!

[David Nicholson]

Nice job.

[ruweiss]

Well done, looks like a good place for a bigger investment of several Euros
for suitable plants. Good luck and welcome at the forum.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Well done Olga !! 

[odvdveer]

Thank you all for the kind comments.
The plants are in, I am glad there still is space for more though I will have to be selective  . There are saxifragas (still want some silvers), dianthus, sempervivum, androsace and some more challenging like a paraqueligia.

[astragalus]

This amazing crevice garden in progress is part of Tony Avent's garden in North Carolina. It is called the Juniper Level Crevice Garden and is made from reclaimed slabs of concrete, that have been carefully cut with a saw. To begin, it is hard to believe that this is concrete, especially in the areas where plants have been placed. Michael Peden is responsible for one part (already planted) and Kenton Seth started the second part which is being continued by Jeremy Schmidt and his crew.  This last part has great "movement", to my mind really important when building with rock. This latest part makes me think of waves curling in on a beach. Pictures in this case are better than words.
1. Close-up of "wave" of crevices.

[astragalus]

More on Tony Avent's amazing crevice garden in progress.
1. Long view of "waves" of crevices
2. Future "seep" showing protruding slab
3. The other side of the "seep" rock

[astragalus]

More of this crevice work still continuing.
1. Jeremy Schmidt working on extension of crevices
2. Future extension planned on tremendously long bank, varying occasionally in height.

This is really becoming a work of art and using such a humble material, cement. Who knew cement could look like this? And this is before the softening influence of plants and weather aging.
The caveats are of course heavy material (like rock is light!!), and the need of a saw with a diamond blade. Apparently, once the first part of the cut is made it will make a clean break with a small amount of chisel work. Cant wait to see this garden finished.

[David Nicholson]

Brilliant work there, thanks for posting it Anne. Presumably because of the material being used lime haters will not be able to be planted?