Let Nature Inspire Your Landscape: Mighty Mountain Gardens

Let Nature Inspire Your Landscape: Mighty Mountain Gardens

With pictures of soaring peaks, gushing valley rivers and evasive wild animals, high hills epitomize for all the ultimate, last sanctuary of Mother Earth. While tackling the Himalayas or the Andes is definitely not for everybody, all of us gardeners may discover direct inspiration in those scenic landscapes and their resilient plants. The trek between Annapurna and your lawn may not be as treacherous as you believe …

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The Himalayas are undoubtedly the most striking of mountain ranges — the 100 highest peaks in the world are found here. But, horticulturally interesting plants for most gardeners reside at midelevation, on either side of the tree line.

In this example, located in Sikkim, in Northern India, twisted peaks tightly circumscribe a little valley of botanical wealth — heaps of rhododendron species.

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Nature likes massing plants collectively — being a part of a close-knit group protects against the elements in harsh environments. In the backyard, big drifts communicate our aesthetic options are deliberate. Less is just in variety, not.

On Asian lava slopes, breaks in the shrub cover are filled with carpets of flowers — a Polygonum of sorts in this case.

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Such blankets of low, ground-hugging plants are wisely used here in the Alpine Rock Garden of the University of British Columbia. These are all indigenous to New Zealand, a land of bizarre and terrific plants, lots of them hardy in zone 8 and above.

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Vegetation become sparse at greater altitudes — snow is usually not very away. The highly specialized mechanics developed by the roughest survivors up here are mind-boggling — a fantastic example resides within this rhubarb (its flowers are hidden under big protective bracts).

Unless we are experts, with fantastic skills and landscape installations, these plants do not actually adapt to cultivation at low elevation. We may look but not lust after them.

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Let us stay at a slightly lower elevation, then, and observe how plants are often concentrated in nooks and crannies, making the most of the sheltering effect of a boulder, for example. This pattern of supply — irregular yet different — can serve as inspiration for the layout of plants at a garden setting. Plants shouldn’t be scattered around; they ought to be positioned thoughtfully, like in this persuasive case which includes stonecrop.

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There’s no escaping it : Since hills are huge piles of rocks, rocks are welcome, if not absolutely necessary, to make an alpine-inspired backyard. The rocks have to be sizable — like these planted with golden creeping jenny — and may also be used structurally to hold a slope or make steps. You are able to achieve the positioning of those rocks by trial and error, after close observation of natural examples — or by hiring a specialist.

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Small-leaved deciduous shrubs and conifers, prostrate to upright, abound in alpine environments, but none more so than pines. Among the numerous species, the mugo pine revealed here (Pinus mugo cvs) excels in cold to mild climates. Dense and rounded, it’s ideal to make structure in most compositions and include year-round interest.

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Once we’ve laid out our mountain-inspired garden area — if a little distance off the front stairs or a full-on rock garden — and planted its bones, it’s time to have fun and include perennials and bulbs. Although most plants will bloom early in the summer, similar to this carpets phlox, a cautious choice will ensure prolonged interest.

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Bulbs predominate in the rock garden — that the well-drained dirt suits them perfectly. We ought to focus on the wilder cousins of the cultivated types, similar to this petticoat daffodil (Narcissus bulbocodium, zones 6 to 2), those with smaller stature and flowers. They are usually longer lived and won’t conquer the surrounding alpine plants.

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After some experience with alpine gardening, we may then indulge in some delicate yet oh-so-charming treasures in this way sky-blue gentian. Tucked between rocks, these will most likely become our pride and amazement visitors.

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Still, despite all of the alpine plants we may find and successfully cultivate, nothing very manages to evoke the feeling of grandeur felt high up on the road. Weekend escape, anybody?

More in this series: Shape a Sea-Inspired Garden | Suggestions to get a Woodland Garden
Grasslands into Garden | Devise a Desert Garden

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