Wall finished and now planning rockery project

Now that my stone wall has been re-built I can start designing the raised bed in front of it, which is going to have a rockery in the corner to grow alpines and lime loving plants.

The rest will be gravel with plants like lavender.

The idea being that it will eventually be low maintenance if it is never dug over, and weeded by hand as soon as a weed appears.  The bed is not large enough to be as minimalist as I'd like but it won't be densely planted so any weeds will be obvious, and a few stepping stones may be needed to walk on top of the bed.  I have yet to buy the grit and gravel, but I did buy some lime today.  As my soil seems to be pH7 neutral wherever I take soil to test, then the plants should be ok until the lime makes a difference (which I read could be 2 or 3 years).  As this is the sunniest part of the garden (facing south) and the only area with no trees nearby, it is ideal for a gravel garden and rockery.

I'm pleased that I have the place to myself at the moment, with no work being carried out.  The weather stayed quite sunny and dry all week for the stone walling until Thursday, when heavy downpours were forecast.  I suggested to the stone waller that he may want to take that day off, as I also had to go shopping for my niece's birthday present which I nearly forgot about, and which had to be delivered by Saturday.  He said something about having intended doing my steps (which had not been discussed when he had estimated the cost of the wall) so I said he could do the steps another time, thinking I was being nice and not making him work in the heavy rain.  When Friday morning arrived I woke up feeling really anxious, which is unusual for me.  I couldn't shake off that feeling all day, and for some reason he seemed to be in a not so good mood on Friday compared with the previous days.

I knew that there wasn't much left to do on the wall, and so discussed the steps.

Did he have any cement with him?  No....but you can't do concreting in the rain anyway, he said.

Fair enough.  (even though it wasn't raining)

I then mentioned that if the layers of stone were concreted together it would be harder for the ivy to burst through (the ivy is coming from next doors' garden and there is no partition wall as that stone wall had fallen down before I moved here).  He didn't seem to want to use concrete, said it would look awful and suggested I keep spraying it with glyphosate and clipping it.  Forever, it would seem, as my neighbours wild patch is never cleared and would continually feed in to my steps.  He then seemed to get annoyed with me and said that if I wanted to use concrete then I can do it myself.  

Apart from being a bit taken aback by his rudeness, I didn't think the steps would be that stable or safe without some concrete holding it all together.  He finished the wall and left by about 2.00pm on Friday, saying that he would have to look in his diary at home to see when he was next free to do the steps.  I still paid for a full weeks work on the wall, and was left wondering whether I should have just let him come in on the rainy Thursday when my steps would probably have been included in that price, whether concreted in or not.  I need to buy some better treads anyway, so I think another trip to the local quarry may be necessary. 

Maybe he was pissed off with me because I'd asked him to re-do one part of the wall which had loose stone that wasn't stable (an area he was going to leave alone), but I did carry all the new stone he'd brought from the quarry up two steep flights of steps while he got on with work, saving him the time and bother of going up and down all those steps.  On his way out the door on Friday he suggested I have a bonfire for all the wood at the end of my garden, and laughed out loud in a condescending mocking tone when I said there were too many trees around, as if I was so silly to feel cautious.  He had a real 'attitude' on Friday that was so different from the friendliness of the first 3 days.  When I looked on the internet about how to have a safe bonfire, it also mentioned being careful of sparks if there are many trees around and having a bucket of water nearby in case of problems with the fire, so I guess my cautious nature wasn't totally unfounded, especially as I'd never had to do a bonfire on my own before.  

He is coming back on July 11th with another guy to fell my ash trees as previously arranged, and I've not decided yet whether to have him back to do the steps if I can't have concrete, and if his presence comes with the same kind of surly attitude.  I also wasn't that impressed with the fact he had emptied his wheelbarrow of rocks (which I had taken the trouble to find for him earlier) on to the middle of my lawn, which I had to move out of the way today.  He had plenty of time to do that one step that was broken and which he had a stone left over in which to replace the tread.  It was left in a more unstable condition after removing the ivy, and I still don't know why he rushed off around 2pm  instead of continuing until 5pm as usual. I had been so impressed with him up until that last day (was going to offer him other jobs), when he came back in a different mood entirely despite my having effectively paid him for having taken the day off.   If he really wanted to work in the pouring rain then he should have said so, rather than project all that negative energy towards me which I had been picking up since I first woke up that morning, wondering what was going on - one of the pitfalls of being an empath and sensitive to energies.

Anyway, it's good to get it all out of my system, that's the beauty of having a blog.

I noticed that he had planted some of the plants he had brought with him for going into the crevices of the wall, into the bed on top of the wall.  This area was supposed to be left alone as I already said I had plants for this area, so I moved the ajuga to a more shady area under my newly planted hawthorn hedge, which it will probably like better anyway, and applied some lime to the corner area on top of the wall for my aubretia, dianthus, lavender, and some trailing plant with little red carnation type flowers which was moved from the other bed.  

There are plenty of rocks lying scattered around the whole area, so some are being used for edging the flower bed on top of the wall, and the rest will be part of the rockery.  Still much to clear below the raised bed on the narrow terrace itself, which is my only possible area for sunbathing free from the shade of trees.  

Below, i just want to make a list of the plants I planted today in the corner of the top of the wall bed, in case the name tags get washed away.  Which is quite likely considering the kind of non-summer we have had so far, and it is raining very heavily at the moment. I read somewhere about there having been a months worth of rain in 24 hours and that there was 60 per cent less light level than we should have at this time of year, and I have to say that this summer is not 'normal', even considering our erratic weather patterns.

So in the top of the wall bed we have so far:

Saxifraga Southside Seedling

Dianthus 'Cranmere Pool'

Dianthus 'Haytor White'

Dianthus Inschriach Dazzler

Dianthus 'Pop Star'

Aubretia

Lavender Hidcote

Lavender Lullingdtone Castle

Festuca glauca

There were also already two 'Gertrude Jekyll' rose bushes there which were planted last year and are still not very tall.  I took a photo of one the other day, as they had revived a bit after encircling each bush with some Epsom Salts.

Gertrude Jekyll Rose

The only other roses that are in bloom are the 'Wild Edric' in my front garden (below)

None of my other rose bushes have bloomed so far this year.

Below is my list of plants which I want for the raised gravel bed and rockery, and to grow over any wall on the terrace (level one).

1.  Cotton lavender  (already have, awaiting planting)

2.  Cordyline australis  (ditto)

3.  Echinacea purpurea

4.  Dianthus  (various other varieties)

5.  Hebe 'Emerald Green'  (already have)

6.  Lavender 'Grappenhall'

7.  Various mossy saxifrages (I already have one growing elsewhere in my garden which I took a pic of, below)

Also groundcover plants are needed for along the side of the walls and gaps in the paving stones and to hold the bank of earth together by the steps, where the collapsed wall is reduced to an earth bank filled with rubble and held together by nothing more than the roots of the ivy.  My plan is to clear as much as possible while not making the mudslide worse, and hoping the plants (both groundcover and hedging shrubs) will somehow knit the whole thing together and make it more stable, so I can gradually remove the ivy completely.  Right now it is a complete mess, and there is much earth to shovel up from where it has fallen on to the terrace area.  If I can clear myself more floor space there may be room enough for a small table and chair, so I can have my morning coffee above the rooftops with a view of the distant green hills.

Evergreens are also needed as once the ivy has gone completely I will miss all that green when nothing else is in bloom, and the bare stone areas can look rather hard and barren.

So I want to try growing all of the following evergreens in various places:

8)  Dwarf Japanese Garden Juniper (Juniperus procumbens‘Nana’) 

An evergreen shrub with a mounding, creeping growth habit reaching 4-6 inches tall with a 3-5-foot spread. Attractive bluish-green foliage turns purplish-green in fall. Best in full sun/part shade in average, well-drained soil.

One of the finest groundcover junipers. A dwarf, wide-spreading, evergreen variety with beautiful, needle-like, silvery blue-green foliage and stiff, ascending branches. The foliage has a coarse texture with bluish undersides and develops a lovely purplish cast over the winter. It will lay flat if given enough space to spread, or attractively mound up on top of itself if the surroundings are crowded. Adaptable to most situations and tolerant of hot, dry conditions, it is perfect for groundcover, rock gardens, mass plantings or cascading over retaining walls.

9)  White Creeping Phlox

White Creeping Phlox Phlox subulata is ideal for rock gardens, topping retaining walls, edging pathways, banks, and slopes - a spectacular evergreen ground cover. Great for high traffic areas and stepping stones. A favorite flowering ground cover.

This phlox blooms in mid spring and is available in several vibrant shades including white, pink, purple, blue and rose.

Foliage: The foliage of the moss phlox is fine cut, needlelike foliage on wiry stems that hug the ground.

Growth Habit: The plants tend to grow in a dense mat that looks great as a natural edging around beds and borders.

and

9b) Candy Stripe Creeping Phlox (or other colours)

- grows vigorously forming dense spreading, evergreen mounds covered in beautiful white flowers with a pink mid stripe. Masses of two toned pink and white flowers cover the top of this mat forming creeping phlox for a long period. Phlox is 4 to 6" high, 12 to 18" wide. Plant phlox in full sun, blooms in Spring.

10) 'Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet'

Growth: 30cm High x 45cm Spread

Non-flowering form, 'Silver Carpet' is a vigorous evergreen carpeting perennial.

Rosettes of silver, greyish white leaves provide an attractive, weed suppressing carpet for much of the year. This variety of 'Lamb's Ears' rarely flowers and is an excellent, drought-tolerant groundcover or edging plant for a well-drained site in full sun. The foliage is a more intense shade of silver than flowering varieties of the plant.


11)  Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens) - A low-growing, dense, upright perennial with a height of 12 inches and spread of 3-4 feet. Shiny dark green leaves accent the white flower clusters in early spring.

A useful plant for rock gardens and well-drained borders, forming dense evergreen mats which make a good background for the round heads of white candytuft flowers in late spring and early summer. When not in flower, the mats make a good background for other flowers that enjoy similar growing conditions, especially rock plants like thrift, alpine pinks and early dwarf spring bulbs. They also provide structure to a rock garden in winter when there is little else to see. Plant strategically along paths or to outline steps etc to make the most of this valuable feature. 

Perennial evergreen candytuft is considered one of the best plants for beginners. Candytuft prefers full sun for best flowering but tolerates partial shade. It endures a wide range of soils provided the site is well drained.

Ideally, candytuft prefers a pH range from 6.6-7.8 so acidic soils will need a dose of lime.

Spring flowering companions include bulbs, creeping phlox, alyssum, alpine wallflower.