The APEX Crevice Garden: A Big Update after 3 years

Touching base in spring 2018.  Apex grows.

So coy, those Manzanitas.  This is Allan Taylor's "Red."

Unk buckwheat.

Mini forms of Hymenoxys acaulis are going to mix with tall ones and argentea.

I am never there to see the flowers on Petunia patagonica.   Huff.

Never enough Moltkia petrea, I've planted a few more.  Thanks Bill.

It really does behave like a blue daphne.

In a strike of the first theft in the garden, this Eriogonum kennedyi was dug up.  Such things are absolutely guaranteed to die when moved.  That's what a thief deserves. Just a couple other silver buns were taken.  

Phlox nana 'Perfect Pink' from David Salmon is like a pink version of the reblooming-dry-loving easy-grow flower-factory Zinnia grandiflora.

Hedysarum dshambulicum.

Monardella macrantha is a showstopper, but has not persisted.  

This aerial photo was taken as we were finishing; I think I know who the two figures are.

Stenotus acaulis

Tulipa linifolia does well at the base, near the true soil, and dislikes the top.

On "Mount Stireman", mound 3.

Agave toumeyana v bella is pupping. It likes the north exposures.

Rabeia albipuncta ex Molteno, a Stireman plant shining bright.

'Ochsenblut' Phlox courtesy of Mike Kintgen.

Still can't find a record for this Eriogonum. Any ideas, friends?

New Crevice Gardens Growing Up!

Turning a new leaf or two. Or thousands.

Stipa scribneri, formerly known from Tom Peace as "Stud Puppy."  

I'm going to get this plant out in more gardens or die trying.

This summer marks two big changes around here- I have essentially closed the landscape part of my company, Paintbrush (in favor of Garden Design and the Micronursery; I'll still make exceptions for very special native landscapes)  and we've moved house from a downtown Grand Junction apartment to a little 60s house in Fruita, Colorado.

Clank clank clank, drill drill, buzz buzz, pound pound pound, riiiip.  

Getting rid of all kinds of metal enclosures...

Gentiana dahurica and xMangave 'Pineapple Express'

Turbinicarpus lophophoroides (tender)

Sabal minor 'McClintock Strain', the first prick-lings in the new PBG nursery.

Eremurus roots, or sea spiders. 

The view now.

The dream... (At Bob's)

Inspiration for what we'd rather be looking at-  Bob Nold's incredible dry-meadow back yard.

Found a nice kind of "brown" to keep around for composting.

Moving the compost bin, I learned that it produces 2000 pounds of finished compost each year with its two bays, a thousand pounds harvested each June 1 and November 1.  It took two trips with the truck and help from my neighbors to move it.

Only one rose survived the influx of Agave immigrants.

How to kill all this damn grass.

Experimental fertilizer.  

Pest control:  Western Screech Owls.

A Fire Spreads

Van Milton and I worked together on two crevice gardens- he recorded many of the thousands of plants we put in at APEX in spring 2015, and he helped place stone in the last section at  the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens this March.  He interned and worked seasonally at Denver Botanic Gardens as well with giants like Mike Bone, their Steppe Curator.  He's not letting his skills rest, and contemplates some Landscape Design in his future; there are some stunning crevice garden concepts in his sketchbook that make the hair on my arms stand up.

Van built this Crevice Garden, one of the finest I've seen, at his friend's home in Broomfield, CO- a backyard off-the-side-door kind of space next to the family's multi-use area and firepit.  Beer and fellowship flowed on evenings and weekends while they used mostly salvaged rip-rap stone from the site to build to Van's somewhat yin-yang design which puts envelopes a viewer in a sort of perenthesis of small but formidable set of mounds- it's predominantly a matt dark gray basalt, but they did supplement with a couple pickup loads of new purchased material. 

 

When someone new to a thing enters it, they bring a freshness, not burdened with all the tradition or rules: I'm so glad no one told them that "a crevice garden isn't for annuals:"  The homeowners did their homework, researching rock garden plants ahead of time, buying a bunch from the Denver Botanic spring sales, but perhaps more notable- they planted annual Portulaca, which is a brilliant choice for an annual in a crevice garden.  Moss Rose's love of gravel may invite them to reseed nicely and be colorful filler in beginning years.   Either way, they looked fantastic  when I visited them with morning light igniting their magenta against the stark charcoal tones of the stones.

Perennials from DBG's plant sale are already taking foot- like Lewisia, which has been a classic success story staple in Denver area crevice gardens. So many folks have opined that Lewisia prefers a slope.

A phlox, despite being so new, already shows its character and gives volume to a nearby rock.  It should be a great show next spring, hopefully further addicting the owners to their new crevice garden.  I really enjoy the austere character of the basalt slivered stones against vibrant greeny-green plants.  Van plans to lace the garden with mixed small crocus.  Another thing I'd never think to do because of my own design habits which basically restrict me.

The growing future of Crevice Gardens shines on with young new families and with new minds like Van stretching the boundaries and incorporating new themes into design. 

 I can't wait to see where he's going to go after this.