Monday, May 19, 2008

Trough Time



Here is a homemade hyper-tufa trough i planted up on sunday at a friend's. The before and after pics speak for themselves. It was an easy thing to plant up with various cultivars of Sempervivum (hen & chicks or houseleek) into a lean well drained mix. From 40 known species there are now thousands of named cultivars. The colour intensity is at its best in early spring. The thing to do is not be too kind to them, they thrive on neglect once established. Instructions to my friend is not to water and leave them to root in . A fine black mesh netting has been placed over it to keep investigating squirrels and raccoons away. The ammonia mixture was sprayed around the perimeter of the container, hopefully this will keep the vermin off.

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