I GET ALL PANICKY when people say something is a “rock-garden plant,” certain that they mean it’s miniature and precious and finicky–a.k.a. something I’ll kill. But whenever I have visited a rock garden, whether at public spaces like the Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, Scotland, and New York Botanical Garden, or a private garden on a home scale, I’m so drawn to what I see.
Now Joseph Tychonievich, the sought-after Michigan-based garden writer and author, has confidence-building advice for me in his just-out book, “Rock Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style.” Joseph is also author of “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener.”
Read along as you listen to the Oct. 24, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
my rock-garden q&a with joseph tychonievich
Q. How did you get the rock-garden bug? Did you catch it in your time working at Arrowhead Alpine Nursery or how?
A. Yes, mostly through Arrowhead Alpines, which is a rare-plants nursery near me in Michigan. I started going there just because they had cool plants, but they specialize in alpines, and once I was looking around and seeing them, that’s where I got the bug.
It started there just when I was a customer, and then when I was working there and propagating the plants and growing them, that when I got more deeply interested and excited about rock gardening.
Q. Are you a member or NARGS, the North American Rock Garden Society? Tell the truth. I mean, it’s a pretty serious bunch of plant people, traditionally—I’ve seen notices for lectures at meetings on topics like “Alpine Flora of Greece” and “Chinese and Himalayan Plants for the Garden” and
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A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
A rock garden is a grand place to display your alpine plants. You can shade them with rocks, provide deep root runs and provide rain cover with perspex roofs
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
Your own rock garden does not have to be as large as that at Kew. You do not need to demonstrate every regional zone on the planet. Nor do you need specimen plants that grow in all the range of soil conditions and climates. Better to concentrate on doing one or two things well.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
Not what you would expect for a garden called ‘The Phoenix Garden’ in the middle of Tottenham Court Road near Crown Point. It isn’t a phoenix from the ashes of a great fire or a WW11 bomb site at but was built on a disused car park in the 1980s. It may be part of an overflowing burial ground for St Giles-in-the-field church back in the 1600s and is reputed to be the last surviving Covent ‘Garden’. The entrance is located in St Giles Passage
Garden Sprouts is a program I run at the South Carolina Botanical Garden that is designed for preschoolers and caregivers. This class takes place once a week for three months every spring and fall. The goal is to share age-appropriate nature-based activities with children, who are mostly three to five years old, but sometimes younger or older. Over time I have learned the caregivers also learn things they never knew, enjoy the activities immensely, and are able to connect more deeply to the natural world through this program. The structure of this hour-long program is three-fold, we begin inside with a book related to the theme of the day, a walk or outdoor activity, and finally a craft. In this blog, I would like to share some of the books, outdoor activities, and crafts we have done in this class.