{"id":703,"date":"2023-09-28T18:46:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T22:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org\/?page_id=703"},"modified":"2025-03-20T13:53:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T17:53:25","slug":"crevice-garden","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.juniperlevelbotanicgarden.org\/crevice-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Crevice Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Crevice Garden<\/h1><\/div>

The 300\u2019 long crevice garden is our redneck take on a gardening style developed in the Czech Republic, where rocks were placed close together, and stacked vertically, to create narrow crevices, which mimic those found in the uplifts of the Earth\u2019s crust, caused by plate tectonic collisions. Instead of using rocks, we selected recycled concrete from deconstruction here on the property for our construction material.

Located at the east end of Michelle\u2019s Garden, the Crevice Garden parallels the vehicular exit drive. The first two sections at the north end, are the oldest, finished in 2017. Instead of planting in soil, plants here are grown in pure PermaTill, a pumice-like, popped slate material, mined in Salisbury, NC. The pH is just over 8.0, so we chose plants that love or tolerate alkaline soils. We focused on plants from dry areas of the Balkans, the Middle East, Mediterranean Europe, South America, South Africa, and the Southwest and Pacific Northwest regions of the US.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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North section of the Crevice garden constructed in 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Crevice
Crevice garden south section towards north<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Game changer in diversity<\/h2>

These first sections are filled with an array of agaves and cactus, many of which are derived from our own breeding program. In between those are an array of Arilbred iris, which are considered ungrowable in the hot, humid Southeast US. Other plants like the drought-requiring Alloberberis trifoliata<\/em> (Silver Barberry) thrive here, and the virtually ungrowable Texas native Penstemon baccharifolius<\/em> (Rock Beardtongue) also are right at home.  In one small section, plants are planted in pure Dolomitic Lime, right out of the bag \u2013 one of our more interesting experiments. This crevice garden area almost never receives any supplemental irrigation.<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n

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\"Iris<\/a>
Iris ‘Heart of Hearts’ AB<\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Iris<\/a>
Iris ‘Smokin’ Hot’ <\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Iris<\/a>
Iris ‘Shaman’s Magic’<\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Iris<\/a>
Iris ‘Bold Awakening’<\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Penstemon<\/a>
Penstemon baccharifolius<\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Hymenoxys<\/a>
Hymenoxys scaposa, Yucca linearifolia, Cylindropuntia x multigeniculata <\/em><\/div><\/div>
\"Agave<\/a>
Agave victoriae-reginae<\/em><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>