Regarding wood

hugelkultur aside (google it, if you are unfamiliar. fascinating...almost a cult...maybe it is?)--

Rotting really limits the functionality of using wood as a structural piece in the rock garden for sure!! Also ants, wasps, and all manner of 'varmint'!
Because the pine tree roots in the pic are the literally the roots that I removed from underground, (previous post/another thread) they are holding up fairly well for a few years now...but they wont last forever...have always intended to change that up since the day it went in anyway.

As admitted, I have a blueberry and strawberry mound, currently supported in mound-shape with logs, and mulched w/ wood chips. In this case the eventual breakdown is okay. Furthermore, the soil mix there is very compost rich because blubes and strawbs like it but also decomposing wood into compost, i.e. eventually giving nitrogen back, actually consumes a great deal of nitrogen in the process and can rob it from the hungry plants.

not to be all didactic...but
wood pieces, stumps, logs and the like--in the garden, on and near the surface-- the primary mechanism of breakdown is fungal decay given sufficient moisture, even 'dry rot' is caused by a fungus, unlike 'regular' composting, which is done by bacteria. For the adapted woodland plants this is not a problem at all and in some cases there are beneficial arrangements between fungi and plants; whereas for the non-adapted plants (because they live above timberline on the side of a cliff?) fungi can present serious problems. The issue with the non-woodland daphnes is characterized. I suspect that it can also be a problem for some other 'strictly' alpine plants as well, but I don't know.

growitall said:What kinds of plants do you grow, dirtdorphin (unless that's more of subject for one of the other threads here)?

All kinds of things for the subjects of other threads to be sure!!
Mostly tough/relatively easy stuff in the rock gardens for my climate/area areas (bulbs galore, lilies, iris, many penstemons, salvias, dianthus (? plural--forget it), astragulus, asclepias, campanula, scutellaria, lavender, agastache, linum, aubrieta, antennaria, arenaria, armeria, silene, gypsophilia, a few gentians, many different succulents, atheonema, ptilotrichum, pterochephalus, antirrhinum, aquilegia, erigeron, erodium, heterotheca, saponaria, lithodora, lewisia, heuchera, viola, veronica, globularia, satureja, pelargonium, petrophyton, dracocephalum, pulsatilla or whatever they think it is, I have a draba, and seriously, I don't remember what a bunch of other things are called??? weed malva?, hypericum, potentilla, callirrhoe, talinum, asters, telesonix, oenothera, hymenoxys or whatever they want to call it, kniphofia, epimedium, ornamental yet edible strawberries, verbena, phlox, oh yeah phyteuma, helianthemum, a few evergreens, grasses, groundcovers and I'm sure I will remember more later when I'm sleeping... Nothing too terribly tricky or exotic (except perhaps the daphnes and saxis and asperulas and androsaces)

edited, again, to correct misspellings!

Sounds like a nice mix.

Add linaria, just saw that in June's post in the new forum (yipee), cripes it's even in one of the pics I posted above!
and leontopodium, corydalis, cymbalaria, teucrium, achillea, the stachys that I even typed about earlier (cripes again), chrysanthemum hosm???something (silvery leaves/white flowers)
how many misspellings so far???
and thymes
and some other little evil spreader with cute blue flowers that I'm sure I will regret for years to come

Dirtdorphins, you are quite the excellent speller! And you have an enviable assortment of material.
As this is my first post in the Rock garden forum, I'll introduce myself as a 25 year NARGS member. I grow alpines mostly in troughs and pots. I love to grow from seed, and consider myself a mad propagator. But I am still not nearly as accomplished as Lori (growitall).

Regarding wood, is it the wood and the fungi that break it down that is "bad" for alpines, or the conditions that decaying wood thrives in?
Probably some of both, but fungi that invade and break down dead wood tend not to be the pathogens that are directly deleterious to alpine growth. Still, both wood and wood decay fungi help provide the environment for the "bad" fungi to prosper, so we are splitting hairs here. And as was said, while the use of wood might be okay or even good in the high desert like conditions of Utah (for example), it would ultimately prove itself unusable as a major component in alpine gardens of the much wetter climes of the Pacific Northwest or the eastern seaboard, and in places where summer humidity is oppressive. Growing alpines necessitates the mimicking of the environment they want, and that will change depending on the basic climates of the geographic areas.

Hi Rick!
Welcome, welcome!
please invite your friends
Thanks for splitting the hairs

ge1836 said: I tried to build a pocket to keep an siberian iris from suffering.

@ge 1836
I am sorry...I don't understand. What is the problem with the iris? What is it suffering from?

Dirtdorphans.It was being washed out in heavy spring rains. I made a pocket and tossed in some compost as backfill. The plant looks great as of this fall.I wanted to redo the pocket because my first attempt wasny aesthetically pleasing.
I will continue to keep notes from this thread and bu next spring I will either just have a new pocket or let the whole issue go..
This is the pocket last Sept. Both Gay Gallant and Pennywhistle are the ones I wanted to rescue.

Oh, go on, Rick! Don't make me squirm. If by "accomplished", you mean using trial and error and killing far too many innocent plants, then perhaps.

growitall said:Oh, go on, Rick! Don't make me squirm. If by "accomplished", you mean using trial and error and killing far too many innocent plants, then perhaps.

Well Lori, I will venture that there are some things I might know more about.....
But actually, yes, that is partly what I mean by accomplishment, because with all those failures come so many successes (and lessons)!
And how many times have people commented on both the NARGS and SRGC forums, "Lori, is there anything you don't grow?".
And oh how I'd love to have your geologic knowledge.

Leftwood said:
Well Lori, I will venture that there are some things I might know more about.....

Yes, in spades!!! But anyway, back to the topic..

@ge1836
okay--I get it now!
or at least I think I see what you mean.
In addition to redesigned fortification, my suggestion would be to increase the area a little--if you can --so that it's not right on the edge and the irises have room to expand-- that way also if you don't succeed right away in 'stabilizing the edge' it is not quite as critical.
But I don't have any idea of the 'lay of the land' there...maybe level it out and plant it deeper?
Merry Christmas

There is a slight slope. I do see there needs to be some enlargment but I am right on the property line and cant come out too much further.





I would like to have more rocks as bis as the largest ones in the pix.
Believe me we have them.

Oh, the dreaded property line...
Well, if you have bigger rocks use a few of them.
and/or maybe erosion control planting--I have a few steep slopes held with sedum (rips out easy enough when it starts to eat my other plants) and one really wicked slope held with Stachys. But there are certainly plenty of better behaved plants that could work for you.

I have cool neighbors but I dont want to push it. This garden can be seen from their diningand kitchen area and they remark on it several times as the season passes.
They have the raised bed of Black Raspberries and weeds.

ge1836 said:I have cool neighbors but I dont want to push it. This garden can be seen from their diningand kitchen area and they remark on it several times as the season passes.
They have the raised bed of Black Raspberries and weeds.

Perhaps you could offer to "landscape" for them!

They are not cool enough.

ge1836 said:They are not cool enough.

Well, I was thinking it would be more for you, than for them

One of our awesome neighbors sold his house to his son. My other neighbor and I who garden to the hilt were so sad to see him go. Well, he bought another house across the street. It has a HUGE HUGE HUGE yard. He has already said we can "landscape it for him" ie, use it as overflow for our passion!

I am 78 and am trying to rein in my tillage here. I do have 2 daughters who garden and several neighbors and friends with gardens who take overflow.
Its nice to be able to be busy. I also design containers for friends.

The raspberry patch neighbors raised a large family and didnt have time to keep a garden.Even now there has to be a programmed effort for weeding the berries. 5 sons and 2 daughters make it happen on a weekend.Then they leave for the summer and weeds return.

I'm just starting to learn about different types of rock. I'd assume that PH levels in the rock used would make a difference for some plants? I'm guessing that limestone would work for high PH plants and, what, maybe granite for lower levels? Am I over-thinking this part of the design?