Friday, October 4, 2019

Resistance is Futile: modernist crevice gardens

I hold that there is a spectrum, at least, of the variety of crevice garden, and refuse to be dogmatic about the "best" way. Is there a "best" wing that evolved in nature?  I joked with a friend once that the most modern, non-natural aesthetic a crevice garden could be would be a tilted cube. I probably also said " I won't be the one to build it." Never say never unless you want to be destined to do it.  (Enter the Borg.)


 I had great help from their gardening staff and my friend Joe from the local rock garden club.



A little "easter egg" I tried to keep visible is the stamp from the original, excessively deep, 8" (20cm) concrete poured driveway that this used to be.  1976.


As an exhibit within Aurora Water's Waterwise (Demonstration) Garden in the largest suburb of Denver, Colorado, this will be totally unirrigated once the plants  (spring of next year) are established. We'll use temporary microsprays for the first season.  The soil is real, local, unamended soil, which will settle a lot and need to be topped up after the winter.

Plants to go in will be dry crevice favorites like Hymenoxys scaposa, Escoabria leii ,Yucca "nana," Opuntia debrezyi, a few more, and a trial of Erigeron tener and others like Acantholimon. I'm aiming for clean looking plants, and especially tough buns.  I mean, rugged... buns.

I think we need to keep our definition of crevice gardens open to its fullest extent. I am personally, in my own private sphere, a lifetime disciple of the naturalistic, nature-worshipping rock garden.  But in order to grow and persist, a thing must adapt and evolve. (High Naturalism won't go away any more than books died with the invention of e-readers)  Resistance is futile.