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Planting an alpine trough garden

© Lorraine Flanigan

All winter long I told myself that I would make one of those rugged, weathered troughs that look as though they've been hand carved by a nineteenth century English farmer as a drinking "dish" for his sheep, horses and cattle. I had the perfect spot for the trough, I borrowed every book on trough-making from the library, I told everyone about my plans, and nothing happened. O.K., maybe it was the two-page list of ingredients and tools that put me off, or the caustic nature of the cement, or the mess it would make in our basement. Whatever the reason (or, excuse), it never happened.

Not until an early summer garden tour did I think about the trough again. That's when I visited a garden filled with alpine troughs and plants. I couldn't believe my luck -- the gardener not only made her own troughs, but sold them too. Well, quicker than you can say tufa, a trough was sitting in the back of my car, complete with a selection of baby plants that would be the start of my alpine trough garden.

Before I left the garden, the owner gave me instructions for planting the trough, and now I'm passing them along to you - just in case you have a hankering for an alpine trough garden too.

1. Before filling the trough with soil, cover the drainage holes at the bottom with pieces of screening to prevent the soil from washing out through the bottom.

2. Fill the trough to about three-quarters using a mixture of equal parts rich loam, peat moss and coarse sand, mounding it higher in the middle than at the edges.

3. Attractively arrange a selection of smooth stones and upright slates on top of the soil, giving your trough garden height and interest.

4. Plant the alpines into the soil.

5. Lay a two-inch layer of pea gravel on top of the soil. Alpine plants need sharp drainage, so be careful to retain the mounded shape of the soil so that water runs off toward the edges of the trough garden instead of welling in the middle and drowning your plants.

6. Water the plants well and enjoy!

Alpines on the web:

Enabling Garden Bookshelf
Alpine Garden Society
North American Rock Garden Society
Planting Schemes for Trough Gardens
The Alpine Garden

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