The making of a tufa garden

[RickR]

Doesn't look at all like a stegasaurus  backbone now, but the "bones" are certainly well placed.  It's gonna be a great garden!

[Lori S.]

Thank you.  Let's hope it grows plants!  
Some views...
Excuse the plastic tags where you see them - I will remove these later when I map it out.

1) Convolvulus holosericeus (from Pavelka; 1500m, Bozkir, Turkey; dwarf compact cushions; silky silver short leaves,  solitary stemless white flowers, white to pale yellow; dry stoney places; 2008 seed) with rooted cuttings of Saxifraga cv., placed into tufa crevice.
2)  Dracocephalum heterophyllum, foreground - very attractive little plants - (from Pavelka; 4100m, Anyemaquen Shan, Quinghai, China; cushions, glaucous-green dentate leaves, 10-15cm, flowers white to yellow, stoney places, screes; 2008 seed) and Tanacetum tibeticum (from Pavelka; 5000m, Tanglang La Pass, Zanskar, India; dwarf suffruticose silvery-grey cushions 5-15cm; erect scapes with 2-5 yellow flowers; 2005 seed).

[Hoy]

I like your mountain! Does it have a name? How do you decide what plants to use?

[RickR]

Does it have a name?

I wouldn't say that is so eccentric.  Some people call their cars by name, why not a garden feature?

Go for it!

[Lori S.]

As if I need to seek out ways to be more eccentric...   :  
Well, I suppose I could pay homage to a local landmark and call it Tunnel Mountain...  

[Lori S.]

Trond, so far as selecting plants, it is more the case of having to plant up all the seedlings I grew this spring... which I chose on the basis of things that were unfamiliar and sounded interesting!  Yes, pretty well-thought-out and restrained, I know...  
I ordered from the NARGS and SRGC seed exchanges, did a couple of trades, and then...  swooned at the seedlists produced by the Czech seed collectors, Mojmir Pavelka and Vojtech Holubec, and made wildly-adventuresome orders!  It was great fun to grow them, and it will be fascinating to see which species are able to winter over here.  I am hoping that our relative high elevation/cool summers will be favorable to some of the high alpine species from China and elsewhere.   Many of the seeds were collected from plants growing in limestone areas, so that may be positive for the tufa bed (though I admit it was not a factor in choosing the seeds).  

Some more views:
1) Rheum rhizostachyum, another very attractive little plant (Holubec: Tajikistan: Yazgulem Range, Pamir, 3800m, gneiss scree; caespitose perennial plant; 2 ovate ground leaves, 15 cm long, flowering spikes 15cm long, red prominent fruits; 2006 seed)  
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242343403

2) From front to back, Potentilla caulescens (Pavelka: 1800m, Alps, Italy; tufted plant 5-15cm, green leaves, many white flowers in dense raceme; limestone rocks; 2007 seed),
Saussurea stella (Pavelka:4500m, Shaluli Shan, Sichuan, China; dwarf tufted plant, stemless blue flowers, red-purple leaves in autumn; alpine meadows; 2008 seed),
Campanula dolomitica (bought from Beaver Creek), and
Achillea aleppica ssp. zederbaueri (Pavelka:1600m, Karaman, Turkey; very good dwarf silver-gray plant 5-15cm, linear leaves, yellow flowers in dense corymb, 2008 seed).

3) From front to back - Campanula ptarmicifolia (Pavelka; 2500m, Sipikor Dag, Turkey; dense tufts or compact cushions; narrow spathulate leaves, erect stems 10-25cm, blue flowers in spike, 2008 seed),
Campanula seraglio - NARGS seedex,
Lancea tibetica (Holubec; China: Litang, Sechuan, 4200m, eroded open soil; small caespitose plant, 3-5cm high , lanceolate leaves in rosettes, rose flowers in low racemes, black sessile berries; 2007 seed).

Yes, undoubtedly somewhat overplanted, but then, this is zone 3, with unfamiliar plants, among which a few are monocarpic or biennial, so there will undoubtedly be losses.  (And my preference, as I've mentioned, is to get them in the ground and find out about them, rather than to take care of them in pots.   )

An aside... Bigger is definitely better with rock gardens.  Already, I need more space... !    

[Hoy]

Thay's very good! Building mountains to have space for your plants (many special ones too)! I do something like it - buy interesting seeds or plants. And then lacking appropriate space having to make it. But I have not built any mountains yet. Have to do it, I presume!

[RickR]

I'm thinking my garden will be a mountain range.    I guess that means the walkways will be passes . . .

Oh my, maybe I am getting a bit eccentric.  I'm sure those of you living in the mountains are just rolling your eyes. 

[Lori S.]

Here I am, with astounding boldness, posting a couple of "completed" photos... as if anything in the garden is ever completed!

Has there been progress on the rock garden plan, Rick? 

[Booker]

VERY, very pretty ... !

[RickR]

You should be proud, Lori. 

Ground breaking for my garden will be late Aug - Sept, when I can get time off from work. It will have permanent paths that double for water drainage, especially in spring before ground thaw, and to "match" the woodland garden nearby in the same "watershed."

[Lori S.]

Thanks!  I brace myself, however, for comments of a more critical nature, which one must always expect when "opening up" on a public forum!  
Re. tufa vs. other rock, I am surprised that we (DH and I) now seem to prefer the look of the tufa, as compared to the so-called "iron ledgestone" (siliceous slate) we used in the other bed.  Something of a change, as we'd both considered the tufa not terribly attractive, albeit very useful for alpine-growing.  Going forward, as we extend the ledgestone bed, we plan to build it up a lot more.  
We are (finally) in a stage of removing old, overgrown, not-terribly-interesting shrubs from various areas of the yard (gaining in each step an area equivalent to that of a modern subdivision back yard!), so I would not be surprised if there is not opportunity to extend this tufa bed soon, as well.  (I'd like to continue to build onto the backside of it... to even out those gap-toothed peaks a bit!)

Sounds like a well-thought-out plan, Rick.  

[Hoy]

I would not even out "the gap-toothed peaks"! They look like a mountain range and give more slightly variable habitats to fill with plants. Raising a second range behind seems very appropriate - making a valley in between the mountain ranges! I am jealous!

[Tim Ingram]

I've been thinking of doing this for a while and have at last found a source of tufa but haven't yet plucked up courage to go ahead (there is always so much else to do!). Finding this thread is quite an inspiration! Unfortunately I can't get hold of really large boulders which would be most dramatic. There are not too many gardeners in the UK using tufa in such a way and the latest and very effective 'fashion' is the crevice garden. Of course I would like to have both, in addition to sand beds!! A lot of construction in the offing!

[deesen]

I've been thinking of doing this for a while and have at last found a source of tufa..................

Lucky man Tim. I recently discovered a salvage yard with quantities of rockery sized re-claimed limestone and granite but the £100 per ton plus delivery cooled my ardour!