![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rockery work
Oct. 19th, 2011 08:10 pmWe're making good progress on the rockery.
Richard's been lifting more of the stones for me. (they tend to sink an inch or two every decade). He's done all of the ones at the front now and most of the middle ones. The ones at the back will be the hardest as they're stacked more like a wall there - there's a lot of soil washed down over the years and there's not much soil at all around some of the top ones. We may leave part of that job until next year.
The shape of a lot of the soil pockets has changed. We're generally going for slightly larger pockets and building up the soil level overall. Added in loads of compost and some top soil from the allotment. Some of the plants have got rather knocked about in this process, but they'd already taken a bashing from the total weed removal I've put them through. The sedums are tough and will survive. They grown back from cuttings before.
I've put in several new plants already and am contemplating adding a purple heuchera. (http://heucheraholics.co.uk/heuchera_shop.html)
Heucheras aren't normally rockery plants, but they don't grow very tall - around 30cm - and they are fairly hardy with attractive foliage. If you want some good looking low-growing herbaceous plants, you could happily consider heucheras. They don't get invasive and they aren't terribly demanding.
Tomorrow, back to the allotment. I'm roughly alternating between allotment and garden. If the weather's fine, it might be a good day to plant the broad beans that will over-winter.
Richard's been lifting more of the stones for me. (they tend to sink an inch or two every decade). He's done all of the ones at the front now and most of the middle ones. The ones at the back will be the hardest as they're stacked more like a wall there - there's a lot of soil washed down over the years and there's not much soil at all around some of the top ones. We may leave part of that job until next year.
The shape of a lot of the soil pockets has changed. We're generally going for slightly larger pockets and building up the soil level overall. Added in loads of compost and some top soil from the allotment. Some of the plants have got rather knocked about in this process, but they'd already taken a bashing from the total weed removal I've put them through. The sedums are tough and will survive. They grown back from cuttings before.
I've put in several new plants already and am contemplating adding a purple heuchera. (http://heucheraholics.co.uk/heuchera_shop.html)
Heucheras aren't normally rockery plants, but they don't grow very tall - around 30cm - and they are fairly hardy with attractive foliage. If you want some good looking low-growing herbaceous plants, you could happily consider heucheras. They don't get invasive and they aren't terribly demanding.
Tomorrow, back to the allotment. I'm roughly alternating between allotment and garden. If the weather's fine, it might be a good day to plant the broad beans that will over-winter.
