Lynn, Those blocks are just temporarily sitting in a greenhouse foundation while being sorted. The bed will be about twenty feet away along the west side of the house, which needed the retaining wall for a grade issue. Someday I will get the greenhouse up, someday.

Kevin, Thanks for reaffirming my suspicion about cold hardiness this time of year when the plants are not hardened off. Your Borscht, Watermark King, and Helen Payne are three of my favorites in the short time I have had them. Really enjoy your book too.

sedumzz, Good suggestions but I am concentrating on the semps and Orostachys spinosa right now. We have very dry winters which is good, but often no snow cover for insulation and temperatures down to 35 below zero which might be an issue for all but the hardiest. I know many sedum are cold hardy, but not my favorite plants. This bed will be near many of our native prairie selections.

Westfork said: Lynn, Those blocks are just temporarily sitting in a greenhouse foundation while being sorted. The bed will be about twenty feet away along the west side of the house, which needed the retaining wall for a grade issue. Someday I will get the greenhouse up, someday.

Kevin, Thanks for reaffirming my suspicion about cold hardiness this time of year when the plants are not hardened off. Your Borscht, Watermark King, and Helen Payne are three of my favorites in the short time I have had them. Really enjoy your book too.

sedumzz, Good suggestions but I am concentrating on the semps and Orostachys spinosa right now. We have very dry winters which is good, but often no snow cover for insulation and temperatures down to 35 below zero which might be an issue for all but the hardiest. I know many sedum are cold hardy, but not my favorite plants. This bed will be near many of our native prairie selections.

SOunds like you like rosettes... have you checked out Rhodiola? Or rosularia... also good candidate.s

sedumzz said: SOunds like you like rosettes... have you checked out Rhodiola? Or rosularia... also good candidate.s

Thanks, I will check out the hardiest of them. Most of the rosularia look a bit tender for here (as are many of the semps) but you never know until you try. Many winters they might be OK, but then a zone 3 long winter with no snow cover would be the Grim Reaper. And the Arctic succulents that can take the cold may not like our long hot summers. The joys of a Continental climate - Only the strong survive. Locally we have about a 150 degree range of temperature at the extremes, although at our farm I haven't seen anything over 108, or below 35 below zero. I like the rosettes as they are less of a target for the high winds and won't catch wind driven debris as easily.

We had our first (almost) meaningful precipitation in four months today so I left them out for a drink and wash. A whole 2 tenths plus two hail storms. Showing them what to expect. Next week back below zero. Summer is our wet season and winter usually dry as cold air doesn't hold much moisture.

Westfork, sounds like you have a well thought out plan. And a beautiful collection of semps to get started with.

Westfork,

Thanks for your kind words on my semps. I had moved my clump of 'Helen Payne' to a bed with new soil last fall and it looks really good right now too. It was in my first group of seedlings that I raised in Oregon.

'Sandi Lu' I had in a bad spot but in the new ground it is really showing off. It is one of my less known ones but it has a really distinctive form and an odd shade of gray. Sandi came to several of my early clinics and she spotted this plant right away.

That collection should look beautiful in the bed you're constructing. BTW I had no luck with Rosularias in Zone 4 MA. They might make it through one year but then the next would get them. The only semp I ever lost was 'Commander Hay' and I lost it three times! It was a "hot" semp when I started in '64. Orystachys did make it, although they grew a little less strongly than they grow here in Zone 8.

Kevin

I get "turkey grit" from a local elevator. I get large bags, 50 lbs for $10. I use it for mixing soil for my potted succulents, cacti.

The frost is coming out and it has been bone dry all winter - A good afternoon to start a small raised bed in front of the house. Used the 3/4" with fines Sioux quartzite to pack in around a 1200 - 1500 pound piece of Sioux quartzite that is a perfect fit for the cornerstone of the bed. Some quarried pieces and other stones will encircle this 3' by 7' by a foot high bed for some semps. East exposure so it loses direct light by 3 pm but in our climate the morning sun comes blazing in as soon as the sun rises over the horizon.













A Burke bar and a forged tamper make it easy to position these smaller boulders.

And the project has begun. How exciting.

valleylynn said: And the project has begun. How exciting.

This is just a two afternoon project to clean up a problem area in front of the house. Frost is not completely out of the ground to start on the big bed yet. I was itching to get outside and do something and tossing rocks around fit the bill.

Westfork, thank you for posting these projects. It is like taking a tour of the making of rock gardens.

Lynn, this will probably be boring, but had a couple hours before the rain to place the rear stone which protects the house from the raised dirt and bring in the rest of the pieces.
Dug down 20" and then backfilled with 8" of packed stone. Sealed the soon to be covered brick. In addition to supporting the shielding stone, this fill rock is getting close to the gravel above the drainage tile on the garage footing that we put in 35 years ago.



Then snagged an ugly piece of Sioux Quartzite from the rock collection (most of this one will be buried anyway).



The concrete foundation wall protrudes 1/2" beyond the brick - A perfect ledge for some below grade insulation between the brick and the shielding stone. It passed inspection by the cat. The blue insulation will be cut back after the project is done.



The 650 pound shielding stone is placed in the loader bucket so it can fall directly into the hole.



It fell where it was supposed to and then I packed in more fill rock around it. Some of the matching stones for the south side of the bed are now on the driveway. It took a lot of prying to get to these - the ones you want are always on the bottom of the pile.



Also brought up some pieces of scrap sill and other Sioux Quartzite quarry rejects. Planning to use these on the north side of the raised bed next to the driveway. Will be buried along the edge of the driveway for support and extending above grade 8 - 12" to hold the dirt.

Everyone needs an inspection cat.

Nice rocks and boulders!!

Westfork said: ...It passed inspection by the cat....

valleylynn said: Everyone needs an inspection cat.

Sedumzz has a dog to do it.

valleylynn said: Everyone needs an inspection cat.

And they were watching every move I made:


But the dogs give my projects the final mark of approval (as well as protect the cats from the coywolves, mountain lions, great horned owls, and bald eagles).

Too bad they can't shovel...I always regretted that my dog who spent all day at home could never answer my phone and take messages while I was away at work. Of course this was the time before answering machines/phone messaging

What a team, they can handle from rodents up to dangerous carnivores.

Here is my team.

Wow! They sure approve of that wire thing!