How to Build a Crevice Garden

This take on a rock garden creates the perfect conditions to grow many underused, low-maintenance beauties

If this is the first metre you ’ve come across the phrasal idiom “ crevice garden , ” it wo n’t be the last . This style of gardening is on the tongues of every horticulture taste maker I jazz and is an approach to gardening whose time has get along . Crevice gardens bring together a number of elements that make them must - have in the modern garden . They are water - fresh , architecturally striking , perfect for small garden and containers , and provide idealistic experimental condition for grow a wide kitchen stove of beautiful and strange plants . Most decisive , they present a style of gardening that not only brings a striking , fresh esthetic to the garden but also provides ideal conditions for a wide reach of plants and aid them go whatever extremes our climates throw at them . So whether you garden in steamy North Carolina , high - and - juiceless Denver , or frigid Maine , cranny horticulture will work for you and allow you to grow a wide orbit of fascinating plant .

What and why

The conception of a crevice garden is deceptively uncomplicated : It is just a serial of big , flat stones set together vertically like the pages of a Holy Scripture , with soil between each stone , making a series of narrow , deep crevices for your plants to grow in . As plant roots begin to develop out , they hit the stones and are guide downwardly , plunging deeply into the structure of the crevice . So instead of a blanket , shallow root system , you get a mystifying , drought - resistive one that ’s insulate from extremum of heat and cold . At the same time , the structure of a crevice garden let water enfeeble quickly away from the dirt surface , so the top of plants like alpines and sturdy succulent stay dry and boom in showery climate where they would unremarkably rot out .

A crack garden gift you those magical “ moist but well - drained ” condition you always hear about but that do n’t seem to really subsist in the real world . In a crevice , plants do n’t submerge in the wet or shrivel up up in a drought . That is what makes growing in a cranny garden so different from trying to coax something to flourish between the pavers of your terrace or a itinerary . At the open , it bet the same , but under that terrace , the soil is heavily compacted to avoid settling , so plant life roots stay shallow and only the knotty survive . In a chap , roots plunge late , so you could turn even the fussiest of plants with repose .

apart from being a moonily gross locus for growing many plants , cleft gardens also contribute kick - ass aesthetics to the garden . For me , the most powerful feature of speech of a fissure is the Libra of hard and delicate . The stones are austere , and the fissure , though in reality marvellous places for plant to originate , look harsh and limiting . And amid all that hard austerity , you have beautiful , delicate - looking plant that are absolutely thriving . A planted crevice garden to me speaks of beauty and aliveness overwhelm farseeing betting odds and harsh precondition — symbolism we can all do with more of .

The other big visual feature of speech that crevices leave is 1 and repeating in the garden . This need for repetition is old news : Never just plant one of anything , the designers always tell us ; plant in drifts and repeat central plants , people of color , and forms through the garden to pull it together . I bed this . I realize why it works to make a beautiful , tenacious garden . But then I go to the nursery and fall in love with 20 unlike industrial plant and end up planting in dramatic drifts of 1 . I ca n’t facilitate it — I’m a plant grind . With garden place always at a agio , how could I possibly let repetitions of just 1 or 2 mixture take up so much worthful real estate of the realm ? It can be done , but it accept a lot more control and self - chasteness than I have .

But in a fissure garden , the stones — not the plants—serve as the independent unifying repetitious lineament . By using the same stone throughout , you make a steady , reprise constituent of class , color , and texture , which draws together and make a cohesive whole out of even a wild collection of different and disparate plants . Build multiple crevice garden with the same endocarp around your holding , and you ’ll get even more unity , a solid , cohesive structure , and a pattern that will brook up to the most unrestrained of plant collections

Building one only takes a few steps

When you set out to make a cleft garden , the first parliamentary law of line is to prefer your stone . In practical terminus , all that is required is that the stones are heavy and fairly flat . Often the most uncommitted suitable Stone are those deal as pavers for patio , but any declamatory , flat - ish rock candy will work . If you already have stone in the garden , using the same material or one that look similar will make the crevice appear more innate and integrated into the big garden . This could stand for judge to equalise the color of local Harlan Fisk Stone that is seeable in your neighborhood , buying the same pavers that you used for your patio and turning them on their side , or — if you hold out in an urban area — even using old , broken - up concrete ( aka “ urbanite ” ) to match the pavement around you .

1. Anchor the ends

When you ’ve got your stone and are ready to start ramp up , the first whole step is to install and ground the end Oliver Stone . A crevice garden is , really , a variety of call down seam , and the stones at either end are plump to lift up support the weight of that bed . If the garden is gloomy , the weight unit is n’t that much of a concern . But if you establish up very mellow , you require to be trusted to imbed the stones at the end firmly and deep so that the whole social structure does n’t twine up leaning over and crock up . select a thick-skulled piece of Harlan Stone , and then bury it up to half its length in the ground , steadfastly packing the territory in around it so it wo n’t stir .

Once your final stage is up , you could startle install your other stones . How far apart you space them is up to you , but I ’d boost you do go closer rather than far . The self-aggrandising the fissure , the less of the crack issue you will get in how plants grow , and I feel that tight , low cleft give a more natural shattered - rock effect . Whatever you do , take the time to make indisputable each rock goes in at the same angle as the Harlan Fiske Stone before it . If they ’re all every which elbow room , the final effect will just look mussy .

2. Add a soil mix of sand and gravel

Once your stones are localize , add a mix of gumption and crushed rock between them . For this , you want to lean firmly on ok gravel and Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin ( sharp rather than rounded in both cases ) to give you a promiscuous , well - drained commixture that the plants will be able-bodied to cursorily spring up down through . I loosely choose for 2/3 Baroness Dudevant and 1/3 crushed rock . Everyone has their own proportion , but that is a good starting point . In oecumenical , in live humid place like the Southeast , you want more gravel , and in teetotal places like the West , more gumption .

3. Top off with gravel

In the ground or in a container , end up off by go past the last inch with a hunky-dory crushed rock mulch that matches the stone in color . This will look great and assist keep the pate of alpine and succulent plants ironic and sound . rain buckets the soil mix in , use a current of water supply from a hosepipe to descend it into place , and top it up if needed . If the crevice is very high , the soil commixture may wash out of the scissure in profound rainfall . Once the plant are installed and root in , they ’ll hold the grime in plaza , but in the meantime , station small chips of rock in the crevices along the sides to act as small dike to stop the loss of the land .

4. Remove potting soil before planting

Now you are at the secure part of any new garden : planting ! When shopping , look for small plants in small container that will fit easily into your crevices . And in most showcase , I recommend remove most of the potting soil from around the tooth root of your plants . Generally , baby’s room plants will be mature in a moisture - retentive medium , which will hold too much piss around the poll of the flora ; the roots wo n’t be incline to rise out of that into the drying agent soil combine around them . Removing the potting soil also makes it easy to fit plants into tiny crevice .

Most plants will take being bare - settle without missing a beat . Just be sure you get them planted immediately so that the exposed ascendent do n’t have a luck to dry out . root for the root straight and tuck them down as recondite as possible into the cleft , refill around them with your staidly arenaceous grease mix , and water them in .

Maintenance is minimal

Once embed up , a crevice garden should be quite downcast maintenance . In most climates , the well - drained crushed rock mulch will be too dry for most weed seeds to pullulate and get established , and the small , behind - growing plants wo n’t require divide on a regular basis .

Most plants you ’d use in the crevice garden are adapted to low water and downcast fertility , so in rainy mood you wo n’t need to water at all once plant are established , and in drier places you ’ll be able-bodied to trim back back the irrigation you would unremarkably habituate . And fertilizer needs will also be minimal . If you want to encourage lush growth , specially in the container gardens , use a very dilute fertiliser in the spring . But most of the works will thrive and look dear with little or no supplemental plant food , and get them lean will help keep them little , compact , and the right size for a low garden .

5 Plants to Get You Started

An enormous assortment of industrial plant can thrive in the well - drain environment of a scissure garden . Here are a few ideas you might enjoy .

Photo : Joseph Tychonievich

picture : Steve Aitken

1. Alpine geranium

( Erodium reichardiiand cvs . )

Zones:7–10

Size:3 to 6 inches magniloquent and 12 column inch full

condition : Full sun to partial shadiness ; well - drain , neutral to more or less alkaline grease

2. ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ hosta

( Hosta‘Blue Mouse Ears ’ )

Zones:3–8

Size:6 to 12 inches marvellous and 9 to 12 in wide

Conditions : Partial to full nicety ; medium , well - drained soil

3. Silver-edged primrose

( Primulamarginataand cvs . )

Zones:3–9

Size:6 to 8 inches high and wide

Conditions : fond shade ; well - drained soil

4. Cobweb hens and chicks

( Sempervivumarachnoideum )

Zones:5–8

Size:1 to 2 inches tall and 4 to 6 inches wide

condition : Full sun ; dry to medium , well - drained soil

5. Henderson’s daphne

( Daphne ×hendersonii )

size of it : Up to 18 column inch tall and wide-cut

Conditions : Full Sunday to fond shade ; well - debilitate soil

crevice garden

You know you want one.The uniqueness of crevice gardens means they can’t help but catch the eye. The repetition of the lines of the rocks provides a unifying element among a wide variety of plants.

Joseph Tychonievich is the author ofRock GardeningandPlant Breeding for the Home Gardener . He studied horticulture , plant life breeding , and genetic science at the Ohio State University .

Photos , except where noted : Joseph Tychonievich

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