THE NEW ALPINE SAND GARDEN

摘要

It's a long time since alpine and rock plants have been used seriously in garden design. Gardener and grower Tim Ingram argues the 'sand garden' is the simplest yet most effective way of growing alpinesALPINE GARDENS are not fashionable - and haven't been for a long time. The celebrated American gardening writer Elizabeth Lawrence said that "all rock gardeners are snobs". She went on to say that "all gardeners eventually become rock gardeners". 1 am not sure this was meant literally as her book was entitled A Rock Gardener in the South, but the enchantment that alpine growers find in the individual nature of plants and their origins is much less evident in other areas of gardening and garden design.Alpine plants in particular do seem to occupy a gardening territory that only few, discover. Whether this is due to their historical associations with the large rock gardens of the over-indulged or, at theother extreme, the arcane skills of the exhibitor, few people think of gardening with alpines these days. As someone who has loved these plants since childhood - but not at the expense of many others - I am convinced they really do deserve a bigger audience. But this is only likely to come if they find their place in the garden designer's canon. And for this to happen there needs to be archetypes that appeal to new gardeners who haven't yet appreciated how wonderful these plants are.