Creating an alpine rockery

The bed was apparently part of a greenhouse which fell down years ago. When we arrived, it was filled with low-growing ground cover such as ivy, pulmonaria, geraniums and spring bulbs.

As the months have gone on, I’ve gradually cleared away the original plants, making spaces and planting mat-forming phlox and sedum, dwarf euphorbia and tiny campanula.

Flat stones, lumps of limestone, fat pebbles and broken terracotta pots separate the plants and make otherwise bare spaces more interesting and bare soil is covered with a layer of gravel that unifies the bed.

The new plants include specimens such as Sedum ewersii ‘Rosenreppich’, a gorgeous subject with tiny succulent grey-green leaves topped with tight pink buds. These began to open here a week or so ago, warm pink star-shaped flowers that will eventually cover the whole plant and are attractive to butterflies and bees. This creeping member of the sedum family is especially good for a hot, dry site and poor soil.

Another pink blooming plant that echoes the colour of the sedum is Erodium ‘Bishops Form’. Another mat-forming perennial, this erodium is what is termed a ‘good doer’ with greyish evergreen leaves and veined pink flowers that have been opening on and off for months.

It prefers a little moisture in summer, the gravel that surrounds it acts as a mulch keeping the soil beneath damp, and will cope with partial shade to full sun as long as it doesn’t dry out.

In winter, however, the soil must be well drained in order for it to survive so we will just have to see how it manages in this spot when the weather gets cold.

More common is Silene, easily available but lovely with white flowers above spreading foliage. There are two varieties in this bed. Silene maritime alba with soft greyish-green leaves and contrasting Silene uniflora ‘Druett’s Variegated’ with cream-splashed foliage.

Both flower from late spring through to mid to late summer and are easy to look after in a sunny, well-drained site. Plain green stems appearing on ‘Druett’s Variegated’ need to be cut out straight away to stop the plant reverting.

Weekend catch-up

AFTER listening on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time last weekend to a query from a listener concerning ants in the compost heap, I went to check on ours.

We have rather a lot of these little creatures in our garden; they seem to live under the flagstones at various points about the place. Our soil is sandy and they love dry conditions and we rub along together, ignoring each other.

However, it is the time of year they begin to fly and sure enough the compost heap was swarming with a mixture of the usual tiny black beasts, together with the large winged types about to set off to wherever it is they go.

Ants don’t usually live in a compost heap because it is or should be too wet. If they make a home in one it is because the matter is too dry, perfect from them but no good for the breakdown of vegetable stuff.

Ours is shadowed by an overgrown lilac tree, which looks picturesque for about a week in spring and boring for the rest of the year. The shelter it has created over the heap hasn’t been penetrated by the recent rain and the ants have moved in. So if there are ants in the compost give it a good soaking and remove anything that overhangs it and stops the rain getting through.

open gardens

Tomorrow

In aid of the National Gardens Scheme

Havoc Hall, York Road, Oswaldkirk, YO62 5XY, 21 miles north of York. Garden started in 2009 and made up of different areas including knot and herbaceous gardens, mixed shrub and flower beds, a courtyard, vegetable area and orchard together with a woodland walk, large lawn with hornbeams and hedging, and a two-acre wild flower meadow. Open 1pm-5.30pm, admission £3.

Thorpe Lodge, Knaresborough Road, Ripon, HG4 3LU, one mile south of Ripon. Twelve-acre country garden with extensive colour themed borders, walled rose garden, canals and fruit trees. Pleached hornbeam walk and allees lead to walks through mature woodland with ponds and vistas and the courtyard has exotic shrubs and tender plants in pots. There is an area for picnics. Open 1pm-6pm, admission £5.

Withernsea Gardens, HU19 2PJ, 23 miles east of Hull, 16 miles south of Hornsea. Two contrasting village gardens open. Cranford, 35 Hollym Road, has been transformed from an abandoned plot to a picturesque refuge with colourful herbaceous borders, a pond, vegetable garden, chicken run and a secret garden. 54 Hollym Road has a range of interesting and unusual plants showing what can be grown on clay soil in a coastal area as well as a collection of succulents in the garden and greenhouse. Plus, see Leylandii hedging in a new light. Open noon to 6pm, combined admission £5.