gardening on a wall

17 years ago

I am thinking of building a wide dry stack wall with soil down the middle. Essentually two walls back to back with soil in between. I'd like to then cover the wall with plants.

Does anyone have experieince with such a graden? Does it dry out too fact for rock garden plants?

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Comments (2)

omniphasic
17 years ago
It'll be okay,although you should try to water out there at least twice a week(more when it heats up).All kinds of daisys would work,especially Cosmos.Also,Sweet Alyssum,Dragons Blood Sedum,other succulents,Ca Poppies,Trailing Rosemary,and maybe Society Garlic.
liquidamber
17 years ago
I've built a raised scree bed in such a way, with walls only 24 inches high, but I've read a bit about them. The walls should be built so they lean in towards the center of the bed, about a 15 degree angle if I remember correctly, and the stones should angle down, front to back, so that rain will hit the rocks and tend to flow in between them into the center of the bed. Ideally you'd be planting into the wall as you build it, but alternatively you could leave gaps between the ends of adjacent stones as planting pockets. Sandy loam between the layers (where mortar would go in a regular wall) will allow water to flow and make building the wall a lot easier as you don't have to be as precise in your placement of stones. Not too much loam, just as a spacer. Planting into the wall can be tricky. One way is to dig the soil from between two rocks, wash the soil off the rootball of a potted plant, wrap the roots and a little loam in a tissue to make a long cylindrical package, and placing the plant on a wide knife or narrow spoon, ease the whole thing into the hole so that the crown of the plant is near the outer surface of the wall. Then gently push as much soil as you can into the hole behind the crown so the roots will be in contact with it. If the hole is much larger than the crown, you can wedge small stones into the opening to keep the soil (and the plant) from washing out. After a good watering the tissue will disintegrate and the roots will be well-placed in the hole. If you're clever enough to plant as you build (I wasn't), you can wash the rootball and splay the roots out flat on top of a stone with that sandy loam above and below it, and place another rock on top. A few tiny stones set amongst the roots will act as spacers and keep the covering stone from squishing the roots.
I've seen gorgeous photos of such a structure, called a berm, at the Edinburgh botanical garden.