My friend, Deana, is a real rock gardener. In fact, she grows all her plants in rocks. Her yard gets lots of sun, and all that gravel affords good drainage, but I still don't know how she grows such wonderful plants in rocks! Here's a bed of her succulents.
I love sempervivums - have a collection, but it's tough to keep them going well here. I built a raised bed to give them good drainage etc, but this looks an even better idea.
We get so much rainfall here that drainage is critical. Last fall I buried 4" potted perennials into my beds to winter over. The most successful were some starts that Deana had given me. She didn't have potting soil, so she transplanted them into shale rock. Since our winter was very wet, I think many of the plants developed root rot as then were thawing. The ones in shale drained & survived.
what a good idea.
I'm just about to start reorganising the area where i have my alpiney sort of plants, so i'm going to think very carefully about what i'm trying to grow them in. I did to an extent when i first built it, but i reckon i could go even more extreme with drainage
Our rockgardening is almost a reversal of the hotter, dryer climates. We once had a rock garden expert from Colorado who spoke to our local garden club. Her method was to mound soil into a pile, add large rocks from the local quarry, tuck plants behind the large rocks, then mulch with gravel.
Here we begin with a pile of gravel, add large rocks that we find in the riverbeds or roadsides, make a pocket of soil behind the rocks and add the plants. We don't add any mulch, since we're not trying to hold moisture in this wet climate. In fact, many of the plants that cascade down over the rocks put out air roots underneath. Another advantage of the rocks is that they absorb and hold the heat of the sun. I think that is part of Deana's secret, as well... lots of good sun and warm rocks!
I use the gravel mulch to ensure that the plants don't have moisture held round their necks in the winter time.
That seems to be the thing they can't stand. They don't seem to mind how cold they get as long as their necks are dry.
Hadn't thought of that, Phil. Maybe I'll give it a try. Winter & spring wetness does seem to be one of our biggest problems.
