 |
A collection of troughs |
 |
As I've become more interested in rock gardening, including tending to
the diminutive plants that goes along with that corner of the gardening
hobby, I have come to realize the need for container culture of these
littluns. Until recently, I treated the rock garden plantlets just the same
as any other perennials: I started them from seed in winter, hardened them
off outdoors for a few weeks, and then stuck them into the orchard nursery area, where they'd have to fend for
themselves through summer and winter. Sure, I prepared a special section of
the nursery area with better-draining soil, and developed some rock mulching
methods designed to provide cooler root zones and reduce the tendency for
frost heaving. But still, I would lose a very large fraction of my plants
every season: some in the heat of summer, some in the wet and cold of
winter. After all was said and done, there were only a few survivors to
actually go into the rock garden proper. There had to be a better way.
Alpine gardeners have known of this better way for years (it just took me
a while to catch up): grow these plants, many of which are prima donnas, in
containers designed just for them. Containers can be moved around: the amount
of sunlight can be tuned to the plants' needs by selecting more or less shady
locations, and they can be protected from the vagaries of winter weather. Many
of these plants can easily cope with the temperatures our zone 6 climate throws
at them, but are none too pleased with the wet conditions and frost heaving
that are also part of our Pennsylvania winters. I haven't made the leap of
constructing an alpine house (I'll leave that to the truly dedicated rock
gardeners), but I do have the option of moving containers into the garage for
winter, or providing some kind of cover to prevent excess rainfall if they are
left outside. I do know from experience that I'll need to protect the containers
from ravenous mice in the garage - so some kind of mesh cage construction will
be necessary. I'll work on that later this year.
So what should I grow my prima donnas in? To be honest, I think many
types of containers are perfectly fine, including plastic and terra cotta pots.
But the container style of choice for many rock gardeners is the hypertufa
trough, which not only provides a suitable environment (the porosity helps with
drainage and root zone aeration, and the thick walls help keep the root zone
a bit cooler in summer's heat), but also look the part. So after years of
having hypertufa projects on my long-range to-do list, I finally took the
plunge and gave it a try. I looked up various recipes and methods online (you
can find some
resources listed here), went out to purchase the ingredients (Portland
cement, milled sphagnum peat moss, perlite, builders sand), made a separate
run to the dollar store to obtain a selection of molds, and went to it.
Using my wheelbarrow as a mixing bin, I tried different proportions of
the ingredients (some with, some without sand, and different ratios of
cement to peat) to see which would give the best properties. The verdict on
that is still out, since my troughs are still young, but I think I like the
recipes that add in some sand and use a little more cement best, since they
give a slightly stronger final product. Sculpting the containers turned
into a bit of a family project, with both kids and Amy having fun playing
around with the different molds, adding different materials to provide
textures to the exterior surfaces of the troughs, and putting the finishing
touches on the not-quite cured containers when they first came out of the
molds. After they had further aged for a few weeks, they were ready for
planting.
For the planting mix, I winged it even more than for the hypertufa recipe,
combining compost, perlite, sand, and chicken grit to what seemed like a
mixture with a suitable balance of moisture retention and drainage properties.
I admit that I haven't yet attempted to taylor the medium to the needs of
individual plants – perhaps one of these years I'll be ready to meet the
needs of plants preferring calcareous soils, lean soils, or humus-rich soils.
For now, they all have to deal with the random mixture I tossed together.
So now I had lots of new containers, along with lots of seedlings, and a few second-year
plants that had survived the nursery area through a full season. How to go
about placing the plants into the containers? I'll readily admit: my process
was largely random. My goal was to place a few seedlings of many varieties in
troughs (the rest still go into the nursery area, to increase my chances that
at least one method will yield success), and to have a variety of plants in
each trough. So most containers have an interesting assortment of succulents,
tiny xeric species, ground-hugging plants, and ones with a more upright habit.
We'll see how it all develops – one advantage of container culture is
the relative ease of moving things around. Once the plants were put in place,
I finished things off with a layer of small pebbles, which should serve as
a mulch to preserve moisture and prevent soil from being splashed up onto
the plants' foliage during watering or rainstorms.
Shortly after planting each of the containers, I took their pictures, so
that I could observe their progress through the season. Of course many of
the plants that die like clockwork in their first summer will do the same
thing in the pots as they always do in the open ground. But maybe a few
will find their alternative environment more to their liking, and stick
around for a while longer. For now, the troughs are arrayed on our patio
table, which provides some protection from roaming rodents and ducks. That's
probably not a long-term option (Amy may actually have other purposes for
that table), but it buys me some time to think about a proper solution. The
patio is nice in that it gets sun during the morning and early afternoon,
then gets some shade in the late afternoon and evening. If I were a plant,
that's just the conditions I'd like!
For now, I'm including photos of each of the troughs in its initial
state. I hope to provide some updates on how my troughs fare as I gain some
experience in this area of gardening. Wish me luck!
Small Round Basket Trough |
Small Square Trough – I didn't make this one; it came to us as a gift
a few years ago, which accounts for its
more expertly crafted shape, and the mossy growth |
Big Oval Trough – this one has two second-year penstemons, along with a
couple of Alyssum montanums |
Square Bowl Trough – round at the bottom, square at the top
|
Rectangular Trough #1 |
Rectangular Trough #2 – this one made in the second batch, which included
sand and a higher proportion of cement, yielding a stronger, smoother product
|
Flat Round Trough |
Scalloped Round Trough
|
Square Trough |
Oval Trough – made in the third round of hypertufing |
Round Pot Trough – formed using a squat round nursery container |
Tall Pot Trough – from a largish square nursery container |
Tiny Square Trough – the littlest of the bunch, here seen with just two
small succulent seedlings: Sedum divergens and Talinum calycinum
|
Willow Trough – so named for my attempt to impress a willow-twig
pattern into the sides (mostly unsuccessful). Originally home to a tender
elephant bush, since demised. |
Basin Trough – one of a series experimenting with a mix higher in cement,
hence the lighter color and smoother finish. A wash basin served as its mold,
and a few rocks were added for visual interest and cooler root runs.
|
Rim Pot Trough – made using a rimmed nursery container.
|
Primitive Round Trough – an attempt to build a trough around
instead of inside a mold, which turns out to be a good bit harder, hence the
irregular "primitive" shape.
|
Primitive Rectangular Trough – same deal, just using a rectangular mold: the
same one as used making the rectangular troughs shown above. For now, this one
is used as a "keep them alive" container, more for providing favorable conditions
to prima donnas than for creating a pleasing combination of plants.
|
Boat Trough – named for its shape, this one came through its first winter
with most plants alive, and sported the first trough blooms of 2015: Townsendia
rothrockii
|
Plants growing in our Small Round Basket trough
Plants growing in our Small Square trough
Plants growing in our Big Oval trough
Plants growing in our Square Bowl trough
Plants growing in our Rectangular #1 trough
Plants growing in our Rectangular #2 trough
Plants growing in our Flat Round trough
Plants growing in our Scalloped Round trough
Plants growing in our Square trough
Plants growing in our Round Pot trough
Plants growing in our Tall Pot trough
Plants growing in our Tiny Square trough
Plants growing in our Oval trough
Plants growing in our Willow trough
Plants growing in our Low Bowl trough
Plants growing in our Rim Pot trough
Plants growing in our Primitive Rectangular trough
Plants growing in our Primitive Round trough
Plants growing in our Basin trough
Plants growing in our Cement rectangular trough
Plants growing in our Tinnel trough
Plants growing in our Boat trough
Plants growing in our Hanging basket trough
Plants growing in our Rectangular bowl trough
Plants growing in our Line rim trough
Plants growing in our Lined trough
Plants growing in our X trough
I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to
leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors
to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if
appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information.
Note that I discard any comments including
html markups, so please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a
comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my
guestbook. If you
have a question that needs a personal response, please
e-mail me.
Last modified:
June 07, 2015
Contact me
|