Black Lichen Stone
black lichen wall detail
The wall stone in the header is called black lichen, a stone from Oregon. We planted erigeron (S.B. daisy) and woolly thyme in a few of the joints. Erigeron isn’t one of my favorites, but the client liked it, it was already in the yard, and it has the toughness to thrive in a wall. She said in Switzerland it’s called “thousand beauties.” I ‘m skeptical of Santa Barbara daisy, but I guess I am willing to plant “thousand beauties.” More details from that wall below.
The section of wall visible from the sidewalk. We had used up all of the stone in the yard at that point, so the prime contractor on the job bought us some more, which had a little different look, a bit redder and more like the typical moss rock you get around here. The neighbor’s ivy has probably covered over the stonework by now.
The upper section of the wall along the walkway with more “thousand beauties cascading out of one joint, a succulent at another, and woolly thyme in cracks between the foundation stones and the junky concrete of the walkway. The concrete was poured against the original wall, so the walkway had a raggedy edge. We planted the thyme to run along the front of the wall and hide the ugly union between stone and old concrete. Gotta respect a plant that can grow and thrive planted in the gravel foundation of a wall with just a bit of clay soil around its root ball.
There was a lamp that needed an electrician to move before the top of the wall could be finished and we’d run out of stone again, so we never completely finished the wall; the client’s gardener laid the top stones a few months later. It was frustrating to run out of stone and then be unable to get a get an electrician in time so we could finish the wall ourselves, the type of thing that sometimes happens when I’m a hired gun instead of working for myself as BuenoLuna. It was strange to go back and see someone else’s stones on our wall, but the client was happy and it’s a nice rustic wall, and that’s what matters.
ryan 11/28
Tags: black lichen, erigeron, header
This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 2:59 pm and is filed under stone, walls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
