Wisley's Alpine Diary

Wisley’s Alpine Log

By Paul Cumbleton 

2010: Log 20…01 December

The last log ended with the position we had got to by the end of day 3 of constructing the crevice garden. Zdenek and the team of helpers continued to make rapid progress. This picture shows the next day and one of the service paths is obvious:

By the 6^th November (day 4) almost half the area was complete:

The remaining half would take longer to build as the intention was to raise it quite high to add drama. This was the position by the 10^th of November:

During the second week of the build we had extra help from another Czech man, Zdenek Valkoun, A second Zdenek! He normally works at the Dorothy Clive Garden in Shropshire (see http://www.dorothyclivegarden.co.uk/ ) but was loaned to us for a few days as he was keen to come and learn about this form of construction. The two Zdeneks got on famously and work progressed quickly. The original ZZ said the pair of them now should be referred to as ZZZ !

The 15^th of Nov was ZZ’s last day with us. All the major aspects of the build were complete as can be seen in the following selection of pictures. In the first one you get a good impression of the height of some of the ridges:

The next two pictures show ZZ and Chris Allan manoeuvring one of the final stones into position:

ZZ’s final job was to demonstrate to us how to close the end walls using small slivers of rock hammered into place and secured with a little clay: This is a task we will complete after he has left us.

Of course before ZZ left we had all to pose for a final group photo:

With ZZ gone, we are left with some things to finish off; the service paths needed stone put in which Chris Allan has recently completed. The end walls are still to be closed. We aim then to leave it through until early Spring when the real fun part starts – the planting! We are so grateful for the time and effort Zdenek has put into creating this fantastic new feature for us – thank you Zdenek!!!

The above photo shows Zdenek Zvolanek on his last day with us.

We are really pleased that all of this was completed before this happened:

The weather had overall been quite kind to us during the construction, with just a few odd days of rain. Snow hit Wisley yesterday (30 Nov). But to lift our spirits I will end with colour – just one of many lovely things currently on show in the Alpine House: Oxalis versicolor