reclaimed from concrete
Two posts ago I mentioned the Crack Garden, a winner in this year’s ASLA awards program that made me think in a new way about dealing with too much concrete. Ryan over at Dry Stone Garden has some different thoughts on the project that are worth a read.
And as long as we’re talking about reclaiming space from what used to be paved over, let me show you a few shots of my front porch. (Notice how fanatically I staged the space for these photos, including coiling the leaky old hose off in the corner. That’s a level of creativity you never see in the garden design mags.)
The area was all concrete until two, three years ago. This was from the years when a lot of concrete was poured with strips of wood to break the expanse of concrete into neat rectangles. Nice idea, but over the years the wood rots. The concrete shifts.
So I dug out all the decaying wood with a chisel. Next John and I spent a couple hours with a sledgehammer removing some of the big squares of concrete, and then I poured black-pigmented cement to grout between some of the slabs.
I probably didn’t do enough to prepare the ground. Why spend time doing that when there’s bare dirt where you can put plants? So in went some blue fescue in a grid pattern. (Fortunately a few of the plants died, breaking up what would be a cliche of little blue fescues all lined up neatly in their rows.) And then a plant of red shisu for contrast, two standing stones, three stepping stones, a potted euphorbia, gravel mulch and the coiled garden hose to complete the picture. (The shisu is an herb that dies back every year, but it reseeds like crazy, letting you decide where you want some dark red foliage this year.)
Okay, ASLA. I’m ready for my Honor Award.
June 09 2009 05:34 am | Categories: gardening • landscape design • my garden | Tags: blue fescue • concrete • Festuca ovina glauca • hardscape
Pam/Digging on 09 Jun 2009 at 5:59 am #
That looks quite nice. And don’t you love it when the plants themselves help you avoid cliches by dying strategically?
ryan on 09 Jun 2009 at 6:08 am #
I like this much better than the crack garden, although I’m concerned it lacks an attention grabbing title. Too bad I’m not on the jury.
tina on 09 Jun 2009 at 7:50 am #
Perfect garden! The fescue looks really good. I love the simplicity of it all.
Pomona Belvedere on 09 Jun 2009 at 9:05 am #
As fate would have it, I was just at the Crack Garden site yesterday. I think yours needs a title implying more dimensions (Multifarious Crevasses Garden)? I like it. And believe me, I’m impressed by the coiling of the hose. Someday, I’m going to write a post on how hoses sneak into my photos.
Susie on 09 Jun 2009 at 10:26 am #
I like it much more than the crack garden…very creative as well as aesthetic use of space. Try as I might I still had a utility box in one of my photos.….note to me.…must get a better camera.…must get a better camera.…..
lostlandscape on 09 Jun 2009 at 7:05 pm #
Pam, thanks! The grid seemed like a good idea at the time, but then I looked around and it was everywhere.
Ryan, I’ll also have to spend the next year coming up with a compelling statement to justify the project to the jurors.
Tina, this is probably the most restrained place in the garden. I’m sure I’m overplant it as time goes on…
Pomona, yah, the all-important project title. I like the mystical depth of the one you came up with. I have six hoses placed around the garden–almost impossible to avoid in pictures. I look forward to your hose post.
Susie, it almost seems like the houses in the magazines don’t have hoses, utility boxes, or anything else that has to do with life in the real world… Is the utility box right by a perfect spot for a big shrub?
lostlandscape on 12 Jun 2009 at 12:46 pm #
And one more thing, Pomona, I hope you have a chance to comment on the Crack Garden. I’d be interested in the opinion of someone who’s actually seen it.