Troughs

Troughs are great for growing small alpine plants.  Even a small one can house quite a number of alpines while they also offer the opportunity for some miniature landscaping work too.  Easy to keep weed free, pleasing to the eye and no lawn to cut -  the perfect small garden!

Last night I turned the big slate trough through ninety degrees, to place it alongside my 'Hole in the Ground' trough (to it's right.)  The slate trough was hand built by a much missed friend and given to me by Jacinta for my 50th.  The 'Hole in the Ground' trough is so called because it was made by lining a hole in the ground with a mixture called Hypertufa.  The mixture is part fibrous compost - Coir is good - part sand/gravel/cement.   The walls are very thick (too thick) and the whole is extremely heavy.  I guess I might move it on rollers but so far it's been there 17 years without a move and I've no plans to attempt it.  Which brings me to another virtue of alpine troughs, the plantings can be very long lived, several of the original plants from 17 years ago still remain.  I love the rough finish that this method of construction gives.

On the far left is an empty hypertufa trough made (by me nearly 25 years ago) using the double box method where the space between two different sized cardboard boxes is filled in.  The two smaller troughs in the foreground were made the same way, the larger of these, awaiting attention, has a couple of nice little saxifrages that have survived about a decade of neglect.  After I replant the empty trough this is the next project :-)

A late night blip as dusk fell - where did the day go?