My gravel garden up on top of the roof has gaps, and those gaps are being filled by some of the more thug plants at the expense of the original planting.

The sedums that really only pop up in Autumn are the main victims, being aggressively colonised by the geranium, but the houseleeks are also being pushed back by thrift, and worse still, unwanted dandelions and speedwell.

Given a very warm but very dry Winter, many of the plants are being tested such that it really isn’t clear which ones will pull through.

Never one to avoid a plant buying opportunity, I’ve started looking at the alpine website, as well as moving plants about a bit to try to maximise their chances but first I probably need an assessment of where we started from:

 

• Sedum sexangulare (1&4) being overgrown by the more vigorous thugs
• Satureja spicata (2), one of the more vigorous thugs
• Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Cherry Ingram’ (3) suffering through the dry Winter but holding it’s own
• Rhodanthemum hosmariense (5) now a lovely successful plant but it’s follow up plants for the nearby section have been drowned out by the fleabane  – maybe if I move them into the seem bed next to the senior plants they’ll be better suited.
• Draba rigida var imbricata compacta  (6) now replaced with seedlings from the geranium
•  Erysimum ‘Parkwoods Gold’ (7) holding it’s own despite the dry
• Aster ericoides prostrates (8) a lovely thug that dies back in theWinter
• Pulsatilla vulgaris (9) only one left and being invaded by all and sundry – One survivor which is beautiful and worth re-ordering
• Sempervivum ‘Greyfriars (10) not successful in the face of more vigorous invasions
• Campanula x pulloides ‘G.F. Wilson’ (11) now replaced with saxifraga “garnet” which is doing well but has a tendency to die back in gaps
• Sempervivum ‘Jungle Fires’ (12) now replaced with saxifraga erbium which is still not happy and being crowded by thrift
• Armeria maritima (13) seeding itself everywhere
• Arenaria purpurascens (14) holding it’s own but subject to mass invasions into it’s bed.

• Erysimum ‘Emms Variety’ (15)  now replaced with sedum reflex but being colonised more successfully by thrift
• Sempervivum ‘Greyfriars (16) now replaced with sedum sexangulare and still not happy!
• Dianthus ‘Whatfield Cancan'(17) holding it’s own
• Alyssum spinosum “rubrum” (18) definitely holding it’s own providing I clear the thugs occasionally
• Oxalis enneaphylla ‘Rosea’ (19) struggling in the face of the thugs
• Helianthemum ‘Beech Park Red’ (20) a lovely plant
• Dodecatheon pulchellum ‘Red Wings’ (21) struggling
• Sempervivum ‘Jungle Fires’* (22) disappearing under the thugs
• Osteospermum ‘Irish’ (23) suddenly disappearing probably because of the dry
• Gentiana samosa (24) Nothing seems to grow in this spot – bizarre!
• Sedum cauticola (25 &28) being invaded by the geranium and overprinted with a lovely penstemon
• Dianthus ‘Gold Dust’ (26) holding it’s own
• Leucojum autumnal (27) pops up ever Summer but has been overprinted with Aethionema ‘Warley Rose’ which flowers through the Summer.

There are three plants that will hopefully knit together to form a mass in that part of the garden.

Phlox subulata ‘McDaniels Cushion’ – One of the more ruthless plants which has formed a lovely cushion of a plant holding it’s own against the equally ruthless geranium.

So what do I need to do to prop up the plants I love and replace the no-hopers. Let’s start by asking how many beds are effectively empty, and how many are being invaded by their neighbours?

Empty beds  being invaded-

1: I’m going to let this bed be colonised by it’s neighbour the more vigorous satureja possibly with a bit of competition from the fleabane. Nothing to do here.

4: I’m going to plant this up with seedlings from the geranium and see how they take.

6: I’m going to move the struggling rhodanthemum plants here and see how the take for the next year or two.

9: I’m going to order some more pulsatilla to fill up the bed and try to weed this bed more vigorously though it looks like the red vulgaris is unavailable and only purplish-blue can be bought from my original supplier.

10.I’m going to move some of the black grass here and try some stay seedlings that turn up around the bed (aubrieat most likely)

12 I’m going to plant this up with more helianthemum and see how it goes.

16: Undecided. Shall I plant this up with totally new plants or let the thrift have it’s way? How much thrift is too much?

19: I’m going to order some more oxalis and try to build up the bed to defend against invaders.

22, 21: Undecided.

24: Nothing seems to want to grow here. Maybe I could try another osteospermum or the same osteospermum for a bigger show?

25,28  I’ve added in a plant or two  (penstemon) to see how they grow and the geranium is obviously colonising one of these beds. Maybe I should just wait and see though the penstemon is beautiful so I could add a couple more to fill it out.

 

Looking through the catalogue there’s a hardy diascia that looks like it would be a lovely plant to add but I’m going to show some restraint. There are plenty of different plants up there and some are clearly happier than others. If I’m going to buy some new plants, let it be ones that I know can cope with the conditions and bulk up existing success stories.

Being sensible isn’t quite as much fun as I’d like but maybe I’m growing old enough to try it anyway.