A low stone wall is a major aesthetic asset in a garden. To stage it or simply to give it even more cachet, the planting of a few plants with long flowering periods is essential.
Specificity of growing conditions
The selected plants will have to be adapted to the very particular conditions encountered in such a biotope. The plants will have to make do with little soil and reduced watering. Exposure also comes into play, a low wall exposed to the shade in a humid area will not flower in the same way as a low wall in full sun.
The different types of low walls
The dry stone walls, which are quite old and not masonry, are the ideal support for planting plants. Cracks are numerous and will become as many pockets of culture.
On a new low wall, it will be necessary to think about creating a few places dedicated to planting as soon as it is built. If the low wall is completely masonry and jointed, the operation becomes more complicated; only the top or the back of the low wall can then be flowered.
Adapted plants
The choice of plants will be made towards robust plants that are content with little. An addition of topsoil and garden soil may be necessary if the humus accumulated over time in the interstices is insufficient. Afterwards, you can choose to install plants in buckets or simply sow them, which is even more economical.
Among the plants most used in full sun, let us quote the aubrieta which will fall in pink, bluish, red or mauve cascades, the alyssum golden basket whose yellow flowers will marry perfectly with the mineral, the odorous alyssum forming true white, pink or mauve cushions releasing a soft smell of honey and the bellflower of the walls with the tender bluish color.
Less used but just as beautiful, some plants will complete the decor. It is the case of the ereron, forming small cushions covered with delicate white daisies with a golden heart, the violet with an old-fashioned charm and an evocative perfume, or Raoulia australis which will quickly colonize the slightest crevice covering your wall with its small white flowers.
Certain succulent plants can also be used, it is the case of Crassula socialis, ficoïdes, but also multicolored purslane.
In the shade we prefer to introduce small varieties of ferns, buggles, or even variegated mint that will unfold in majestic waterfalls.
When your low wall is built and holds an earthy area, there is only one solution: flower the upper part and lead the flowers in cascades. All the plants mentioned above will be perfectly suitable. The volume of earth being more important at the back of the low wall, we can add to it the antemies, the osteopermums but also the strikes, why not a falling rose, a rosemary, a crawling ceanothe or a clematis!
A refuge for small animals
The stone wall is appreciated by the small animals in the garden who find protection in case of danger or who find a shelter for their young or for wintering. This will be the case of the lizards of the walls, the toad but also many insects.
