Dry Garden

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catllar

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Dry Garden
« on: October 07, 2010, 13:42 »
Having had a few health problems this year, together with one of the (sorry) driest, hottest summers on record, and the ever escalating price of water, keeping the garden looking as I'd like is becoming too much of a chore.

Together with OH we have decided to switch to a dry garden, and recently visited a local (well, 2hrs away) nursery (pepiniere Filippi) who specialises in dry mediterranean plants.  His plants are hard grown with no fertiliser and little water, open to the winds and sun. The average price is about 8€ each and the top growth is only about 10-15cms tall, so you don't seem to get a lot of plant for your money. The roots, on the other hand are grown in special pots so that they don't wrap round themselves, and the roots are more substantial than the topgrowth. Once installed in unimproved soil they get deeply watered once every 3 weeks until spring then once a month till end of summer, then no more EVER.

We had a look round his own  show garden and he has one  bed planted to show you how to do it as the planting technique is a bit different. It looked amazing even at this time of the year with over 2500 different varieties. He produces an amazingly comprehensive catalogue with each variety showing its water requirements and the degree of rusticity. Hopefully if all goes to plan we should be able to do away with the hosepipe by next summer, and with it the enormous water bills!

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2010, 13:44 »
Daft idiot - I've put this in the wrong place - can it be moved please nice moderator people??

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joyfull

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2010, 14:06 »
did you take any photos of his garden to show us?
Staffies are softer than you think.

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2010, 15:17 »
 No, but if you go to: http://jardin-sec.pagesperso-orange.fr/ then click on "phototheque" on the green left side bar, and then on the next page "Scenes du jardin sec" on the yellow highlighted top leftish, you get to his garden in its full glory. I should just add that it is right on the sea, so he also has salt to contend with.  At this time of the year the plants are not so colourful as they are in spring ( that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) TBH the camera battery was flat :(

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2010, 19:57 »
Havingbeen and spent a silly amount of money on a lot of plants for dry gardens we have had torrential rain for the past two days and are on storm alert - first time in five years in this area. Sod's Law will always get ya!

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2010, 13:49 »
Our dry garden planting is coming on well. We've bitten the bullet and  moved to one part of the garden anything that needs regular watering so we won't be rushing here and there with the hosepipe.

There is a particular way to do these dry plantings. First you have to construct a mound about 20cms higher that the original soil level and plant into that. Then you construct a sort of dam round the plant about 60 cms diameter and with walls about 20 high. Once the plant is in (no compost or fertiliser needed, just extra gravel) water well, preferably to the top of the  dam - about 20-30 litres per plant. Then you backfill the dam with gravel and walk away! They will need watering again in a month's time with the same amount. Watering like this is maintained till the end of the first summer then no more. You'll see that now we will have the wettest winter ever!

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tode

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2010, 15:05 »
What's the soil like where you are, Cattlar ?

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2010, 15:32 »
Tode, it's terre des vignes - a mixture of heavy clay and rock, schiste and granite. Wherever you put a fork you hit stones. The actual topsoil is only about 5cm deep and the natural landscape is covered with cistus, rosemary, wild lavender and thymes. We often use a pickaxe to make planting holes. What soil there is veers between acid to neutral.

 All new plants seem to be going well - despite strong winds of the past few days. When we started making the garden 10 years ago we dug in about 25 tonnes of gravel and sharp sand and the same of manure. We were going to try for an English garden but were on a hide into nothing with that in this climate -at least we tried though.

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Junie

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2010, 21:05 »
What sort of winters do you have, presumably you are generally warmer as a meditteranean climate.
I have lost a couple of plants this summer due to not enough water, We have very wet springs so the water builds up ready for the summer ( the Tarn et Garonne produce a vast amount of France's fruit)
I would love to know how you get on as I have some areas in the garden that do not have much topsoil and are on a hill, so it will just wash away and these sound like a good idea, if they can survive the winter and spring rains.
It is not the cost of the water that bothers us really as we are not onthe mains as we have our own spring, it is just remembering to water and the faff of doing so without loads of hosepipe.

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tode

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #9 on: October 20, 2010, 09:56 »
Look on the bright side, Cattlar:  at least you don't have to mow the lawn twice a week all Summer    :D

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Junie

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2010, 10:00 »
Look on the bright side, Cattlar:  at least you don't have to mow the lawn twice a week all Summer    :D
My french neighbour raised an eyebrow, when I said I liked the heat and brown grass because I didn't have to mow it!  Not very English!  He waters his!!! :mellow:

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2010, 13:14 »
Right from day one we decided no grass/lawn here. We don't have a free water source so it is all metered, and as last year's bill was over £1000 (remember, that's with  no lawn to water) it was time to do something. Do miss the smell of newmown lawn though!  Our garden faces due south and we have a small mountain going up into the hills behind us and we have the Pyrenees about 15 kilometres away.( I'm laying in the sun looking at the mountains as I type - there is a light dusting of snow on the summit and it looks like a proper mountain!It's warm today - about 20C) We very rarely have severe frost, but we do occasionally get snow for a day or two and we normally have spring and autumnal rain. We get very strong winds year round and this dries out the ground and crisps up large leaved plants. A lot of these dry garden plants will tolerate -10 to -15C so as long as they are well drained and don't sit in puddles they should be fine. We have bought plants that fall well inside the weather ranges here. Have a look at the website I mentioned earlier and you'll get some more info. He supplies mail order, but nothing beats going there and having a look at what he's done. We've bought cistes, sages, epilobiums, tulbaghia, callistemon, pittosporum, oenothera, grasses, sesbania, agapanthus and shed loads of succulents, tecomaria (same family as campsis) abutilon, and these have replaced the previous water thirsty tennants. Still got more to plant but going out for a walk today instead.

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Junie

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2010, 20:26 »
Thanks Catliar - I may well have a look into that, even if it for just part of the garden. Enkoy the planting.

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catllar

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Re: Dry Garden
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2010, 12:55 »
Update on our new planting.  We've had no rainsince the downpour on 11th October Have watered them today for the first time since they were planted back around 8th October. Gave each plant about 30ltrs. They are all doing along nicely except for one of the cistes under the bird feeder which has been tap-danced on by the collar doves and is a tad trampled! If they keep that up  we'll just move the feeder.



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