Alberta raised gardens

[MitchM]

Seeing as how we live on soil that is pretty much gravel and clay, we need to bring in all of our garden soil mix and have chosen to make much of our gardens raised beds.
Here are a few pictures:

This is in front of the left side of our porch


This is a close up of the left side of the garden


This is the right side


This is in front of the right side of our porch


This is a close up of the left side


This is a close up of the right side


This is around the back side


Any comments, questions or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
Mitch

[NightHawk]

Great photos Mitch, and we certainly encourage our members to post them.

I would just like to give you a little tip though.  It would be best if you could limit the width of your photos to no more than 660 pixels.  Any bigger than that and you get a horizontal scrollbar.  When you have some long text to accompany the photos it makes it difficult to read, as you have to scroll down to the end of the posting where the horizontal scrollbar is, scroll right, then go back up to read the text.

Other than that, keep the photos coming as we're keen to see what you do with your gardens. 

Laurie.

[MitchM]

Hi Laurie,

Will do

I previewed the post on my computer and they turned out fine (no scrollbars), but I do know what you are talking about. That can be annoying.
I'll see if I can change that.

Thanks,
Mitch

[ideasguy]

What a collection of plants you have in there Mitch, and the photos are great  
May I ask - did they overwinter outdoors, or did you plant them this year?

Eric (palustris) will be delighted to see this - he's built an Alpine house and has outdoor scree areas for growing Sedums and other plants I see growing in your raised beds - our Alpine Garden expert.
I see a lovely little pink Lewisia. Ive tried a number of times and I just can't get them to survive in my garden.
Keep up the good work. I'm delighted you have joined us on the forum!

[ideasguy]

They fill the screen completely, but I'm not having to use scrollbars to see the photos youve posted Mitch.
I agree with Laurie, but its also good to see photos at the maximum without having to scroll.

[MitchM]

I have resized the pictures on my Photobucket account.
Hopefully the pictures are no longer oversized. Let me know and I'll bring them down another notch

George, the raised garden at the right of the porch is one I built a few weeks ago so it has not yet seen a winter.
The garden on the left of the porch was built last year. It had solid snow cover from November until late April but we still lost a few plants that were supposed to survive. We're still looking into that.

There is an Alpine Plant club in Calgary that propagates and sells the new plants at a local community center each spring. We are hoping that they will do well in our climate.

Thanks,
Mitch


 

[NightHawk]

I have resized the pictures on my Photobucket account.
Hopefully the pictures are no longer oversized. Let me know and I'll bring them down another notch
Mitch

This is a very difficult area to get right, so thanks for re-sizing Mitch.

However, I'm still seeing them at 1024 pixels wide which is giving a scrollbar.

I'm viewing this on a 17" CRT monitor at a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.  If I view it on Kathy's monitor, which is a 19" TFT at 1280 x 1024 pixels, there is only a slight scrollbar.

I'm thinking in terms of anyone viewing with a monitor at the lower specs as mine, so if you have a widescreen monitor or much larger viewing areas, then this does not become a problem.

It all boils down to your photos looking the best to the majority of people Mitch, hence the suggestion of 660 pixels max width.  They can still look good without losing a lot of detail. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Theres a lot of material going into that raised bed, Mitch, timber, compost and stone.
I'm looking forward to seeing that lot reaching its peak later.

Ive read about how the alpine plants are protected during winter by your layer of snow in Canada.
Since its not true alpine conditions I guess you have to expect a few losses if the soils is waterlogged when the snow arrives, or if it has been preceded by a period of hard frost. Not an expert by any means on the subject, just hazarding a guess!
I'm sure Eric (palustris) will comment!

Over here, what dies over one winter may survive another. I have a few Argyranthemums which have survive our last winter, and we had some severe frosts by our standards. Ive lost them during milder winters!

I'm using a 17in monitor with a 1024 x 768 screen resolution and I'm getting a horizontal scroll bar.
You have to scroll vertically right to the bottom to see the horizontal scroll bar Mitch.
Are you getting that as well?

[NightHawk]

I see you've managed to re-size your photos Mitch, the layout is now perfect. 

Thank you for doing that.

Now all you have to do is sit back and wait for all the comments and suggestions you asked for about your planting scheme/s.
I'm quite certain you're going to get a lot of very positive feedback there. 

Laurie.

[MitchM]

I'm glad to hear that the recent resizing worked this time. Simply resizing the images on Photobucket did not work. I had to reload the images and set a new default size on Photobucket.

George, I understand that compost has fairly good drainage, and we have been ordering our mix 30% topsoil and 70% compost. Hopefully we won't have a problem with soggy roots.
We have been told there may be a risk burning the roots with that high of a compost component.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

Did the mix contain any grit, Mitch?
Heres a link to a site offering a suitable mix for raised beds for alpine plants.
http://www.gardenworld.co.uk/jobs10.asp?october=026

The mix you've described sounds good for a general range of plants, so you could experiment with herbaceous perennials - I know I would 
Do you plan to grow only Alpine plants?

Heres a couple of links to topics raised by Eric (palustris)
An Alpine sink garden
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,628.0.html

This topic by Palustris has a good discussion on compost for alpines
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,741.0.html

[Eric Hardy]

That is great to see your work in progress Mitch. You are so lucky to have all that timber to hand. I can't begin to calculate what all that would cost in the UK !!

BTW your pictures are fine on my monitor. Like Kathy I have a 19 inch screen 1280 x 1024 and the width of each photo as you have now got them posted occupies about 60% of the screen width.

Eric H

[MitchM]

George,
I don't believe that the mix we used had any grit per se in it. I'll look into those links you posted.
We plan on keeping many, many different kinds of plants. As I mentioned to you before, in our previous home my wife had planted about 1000+ bulbs. We transplanted what we could before we moved and that garden is now overflowing with green right now. It is difficult to get a good picture of the complete garden, but this is part of it:



I'll put up more pictures as we go.

Eric,
That timber is a common landscaping feature over here. Unfortunately in Canada we have been having a problem with a pest called the Mountain Pine Beetle that has been destroying large tracts of our forests. The beetle's spread has been made easier due to our changing climate conditions. We haven't had the really cold winters that we used to.
One method of controlling the beetle has been to cut down the forests as needed. Hence, we have a lot of timber available.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

Those timber edging retainers look abot 6 ins square Mitch. Is that about right?

[MitchM]

Yes, they are 6" X 6" . I order them in 16' lengths and cut them up from there.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

Matter of curiosity, and if it not too personal Mitch- what does a length of that wood cost in Canadian dollars?
What type is it? Does it come pre-treated for weather resistance?
I have to say it looks real good. You've been working really hard on your property.

Over here in the UK, wood is a very expensive commodity nowadays. I love working with wood, ever since my woodworking classes at school and still have a keen interest in DIY.
 

[MitchM]

I don't mind at at all.   I believe the 6 X 6 16' timbers that I bought were $70.00 CDN each, plus delivery.
The wood is spruce, pine or fir and it is pressure treated with a preservative which allows it to be used for permanent wood foundations or structures like decks, fences, gazebos ect. The preservative helps prevent deterioration from termites and fungus. When I build a garden for vegetables, I won't be using that, though. I'll choose a product like cedar, which is much more expensive, but has natural anti decay properties.
Cement and stone or brick over here can sometimes not be accessible or practical.

Thank you for your compliments. I'm doing the work myself for the most part.
It goes slowly but my wife and I can customize as we go along

Mitch

[ideasguy]

I'm really impressed Mitch. I'm looking forward to following your progress as your gardens are constructed.

When currency is converted, that wood is about £37 GBP  but its well treated for the job. The raised beds are a great idea considering the conditions.

Also meant to ask - the rocks placed on the raised beds - are they natural stone in your property? They look real good!

[MitchM]

Yes, all those rocks are from when I dig trenches for power and water or excavate for the building foundations.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

You lucky guy
Why not use them for edging, Mitch? They are beautiful 

[MitchM]

Yes, thank goodness I have a backhoe attachment on the back of my little tractor....

I don't use them for edging because my wife would like a deep soil (>30 cm) and most of the rocks are just shy of that.
Also, when It snows here the rock or timber edging is completely buried and it is very hard on my snowplow blade to "find" the rock edging...
With the timbers, the blade will use them as a guide and not catch.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

If less than 30cm they would be perfect for my edging jobs 
In actual fact, I don't like stone edges built with stones larger than that. In your position I would go for 2 or 3 layers of the smaller rocks built like a mini dry wall. That would be a beautiful face to your borders.
We don't have need for a snowplough over here though!

Those rocks are quality. Have you considered selling them?

[MitchM]

The rocks over here are more of a nuisance... farmers need to rake the fields first before they can plant their crops. As a result, there are piles and piles of those rocks around here, sitting in the corner of a lot of fields.
They can be purchased at local landscaping stores, but you are mostly paying for handling, transport and storage costs.

Mitch

[ideasguy]

One mans feast is another mans famine!
I can well understand the costs involved in transport and handling. Those things are heavy!

When I built a small rockery, I edged it with hand picked rocks. I found some being used as infill on a building site and loaded them up in the boot of my car. It didn't take many to push the suspension to the limits!

Heres a shot in May:
http://www.ideasforgardens.com/gardenphotos/pic03706.html
Must re-publish those photos - they are woeful.

You can see my rocks in Photo No 1 here:
http://www.ideasforgardens.com/gardenphotos/pic00201.html

Perhaps you would consider constructing something similar in a part of your gardens which you don't have to clear with the snowplough?
I'd love to see a photo before you plant it up. Your rocks look perfect for the job.

[MitchM]

Those are beautiful gardens!
Whenever I see gardens from your area of the planet, my first thought is "wow, that must take a lot of water!"
You have the good fortune of ample precipitation. The rocks do add a nice hardscape element.

Mitch