Photos of a low, rock-garden-like border

29 Apr '07 6:21 pm

I have a Sally Holmes planted 5 years ago in the arboritum, choosen because it could stand the neglect. Well, that it sure has had. I doubt if I have ever fed, watered or pruned it. I remember once cutting back some wild Hypericum revolutum encroaching on it - and for two years I've been making mental notes to repeat the exercise Rolling Eyes

It hasm't flowered prolifically, it hasn't outgrown the competition as I thought it would, in fact it hasn't particularly endeared itself to me with anything other than its tenacity. Perhaps a bit of cosseting this winter will change that?... bonding with my Sally Holmes??

When you first mentioned Annies I went onto their site, Mark, and became an instant devoteee. I try to avoid them from home as they are so image rich, and somehow I've not had much time at work - or rather after work, between extra-murals - of late. I shall explore Linarias. As far as I'm concerned if this is a Linaria it has been carbo-loading and is on steroids... I think of them as delicate little flowers (four wouldn't cover a finger nail), each precisely positioned on a slim stem. The gorgeous bicolouring and the basic structure I can recognize. But knowing how willing Linarias are, I intend finding out more and laying my hands on some seed!

How have you prepared your open areas? Coarse sand or crushed grit by the look of things. Weed surpressing layers below? How much weeding do you find you need to do? What is your planting distance for rock roses? How long have they taken to bulk up?

I must admit part of my questioning is because I'm beginning to think of the gardens I'm laying out for my brother and sister's 50th birthdays. David is easy. I will move a young Davidia tree to be the centre piece of a clipped green garden of about 6 x 10m next to the Jewel Garden which should have been completed seven months ago for my own 50th. (I wrote about that middle of last year in a post I called 'A walk around my garden' - I think in 'My garden and plants'.) For my sister, being the Namibian, I thought to plant a lush-world version of a dry-world garden. I've always loved the smokey grey/rose/chatreuse tones one often finds in succulents, but I have very few here because it tends to be so wet.

PS: Here's a link to that post: http://forums.mooseyscountrygarden.com/viewtopic.php?t=737&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

29 Apr '07 6:53 pm

Well, my pathways start off 4 feet wide (before encroachment), cleared and pounded flat, then landscape cloth and then about an inch of crushed granite .. what is called here "Pathway Fines" but I don't know if that is descriptive or a trademark. I shovel the granite over the landscape cloth, pound it with a tool whose name I don't know and then water it. It becomes like shale to walk on, very comfortable providing sure footing. It isn't weed free however. Every seed seems to like getting started on it, but don't seem capable of becoming very developed. Of course the more soil I drop on it or which washes onto it, the better plants will like it for growing on.

Another surface I've used is gravel, I believe it was 3/8th's of an inch diameter and coarse. I don't use any layers for weed suppression beneath it, but I do tamp it down and renew it a little every 2 or 3 years. This is a labor-intensive luxury, requiring weeding in the spring and occasionally after that, though I like to think I'm gaining ground.

In another area, I've taken slabs of concrete reused from a demolished basement at my school and set them on a bed of the crushed granite. In between I've planted creeping thyme ('Elfin'), fleabane and sometimes allow volunteers like feverfew, mexican weeping grass, throatwort and violets to grow too. This again is labor intensive made worse by having planted a tree (Palo Verde, Cercidium I think) that drops a lot of needles and other debris. The 'Elfin' thyme however can form a mat like a carpet. It makes you want to take your shoes off.

Ok, please tell me what I've left off as I am being called to bed and I will continue later.

Photos of a low, rock-garden-like border

Sally Holmes and Linaria

My surfaces.