Planting Up A Drystone Wall

[puddlejumper]

Hoping for a bit of advice on planting up a yet to be built drystone wall, which is to replace our over grown border of shrubs, which is taking up too much space in our small garden. Wall will be just under 6' high & around a run of 18', & planted face will generally be in quite shaded conditions - will get morning & evening sun (when it shines, that is in rural North Yorkshire !)

I would like to encorporate some planting within the stones, & it has been suggested to include 'pockets' of soil, at random points within the wall as it goes up, perhaps including some seeds in the soil.

I would like to create sort of a natural looking rock garden effect, I really like ferns, brackens, foxgloves & would also like splashes of colour, scent, with some evergreens & mosses. We can also grow from the base upwards, but I don't want to loose much 'depth' into the garden, as before. Basically we would like to position some form of seating near to the wall, as this is where we get our aforementioned evening sun !

Any suggestions on what medium to use for the soil 'pockets' & plants to create that 'Edwardian-rock-garden' wow factor would be gratefully received ! Many thanks

[gardening_guru]

Hello,

For the mix in the planting holes I would use a 50/50 mix of sharp grit and a soil based compost e.g. John Innes. Rock gardens/drystone walls are traditionally planted up with plants that can cope with free draining soil and lots of sun, they are often native to Meiterranean regions. In your case it sounds as if you need to be careful to choose plants that do not need sun all day.
I might be useful to browse through our Drought tolerant section:
http://www.plantadvice.co.uk/plants/drought.php
and look out for plants that can cope with some shade for all or part of the day.

Hope I have been of some help.

[puddlejumper]

Thanks for the reply - your advice agrees happily with that I've received from a couple of other sources. I've managed to get some polypodium & asplenium ferns & quite a range of small alpines & some advice on how to try to anchor the roots & rhysomes into my gritty soil mix in the wall.

Your plant database has been very useful, as you suggested, researching drought resistants plants, & searching for 'wall' gave me quite a range of plants to look at. It's a very useful site for the novice gardener, especially with all the photos & care advice.

I've enjoyed the process of researching this little project, realising that this is the first bit of 'from scratch' planting that I will ever have done !

Am looking forward to 'having a go' !

Thanks again for the help

[vinaxuki]

I understand your need. If you want to design a rock wall which have the nice appearance, you should create things with many different colors. It will look very lively. For example, the green color of artificial grass, the red color of flowers. I think they are not difficult to do that because there are many services nowadays for this kind of design.