Those of you who have followed Nincompoopery know that I love Alpine Gardens. On our recent trip to Scotland we visited a lovely garden in St. Andrews. It was the Royal Botanical Garden of Scotland with a gorgeous Alpine Garden.
Being early spring (in Scotland) it was in gorgeous bloom. The thing I love about alpine / rock gardens is the need to let it seep into your senses. The flowers are small and often windswept. Scotland in specific (and Great Britain in general) has a fantastic climate for these types of gardens.
In the states they can usually be found high up in mountains.
They are normally based on a bad soil mixture and cold weather conditions. There is a great set of images on how a many built a rock garden in his front yard in England (although I am less than thrilled with his layout),
here.
One thing that is interesting is the mirror vision of desert gardens, with the same soil issues, but with to much sun, heat and too little water.
And finally here are some images of individual plants from the gardens at Whisley - which have the names so I can build my own rock garden one day.
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| Another way to plant them in limestone/conrete planters |
Whisley's full on garden with alpine plants.
