Nathan wrote >My wife and I recently lost our ceramic studio space and had to move >it all home. Among other things, we have a few hundred pounds of >dried ceramic clay. I've been running my reclaim through a plaster >bat and firing them as ceramic "rocks" that I'm using to build rock >garden features and stepping stones. I was planning on sending all >this clay through that process as well. Then my wife suggested just >piling it up and turning it into a clay bed. That's an >interesting--and less labor- and time-intensive--idea. Such a bed >would be much like how I envision the much-maligned gumbo clay that >some east of the Rockies must endure. While most of us grow our >plants in some mixture of gravel, there are other worthy plants that >don't grow in gravel, but rather in heavy soils, even heavier than >the alluvial silt-loam here in the Willamette Valley floor. I have >two questions to pose to this list: >-Should I attempt this? >-If so, what plants should I consider for this kind of substrate?
Nathan, I really wouldn't do this. I don't know gumbo clay, but being from California I do know adobe clay, and even that is not as dense and fine-grained as ceramic clay. While it's true that there are plants that grow in adobe, they tend to be either annuals and grasses, or very deep-rooted shrubs and bulbs that are dormant during the long, hot summer. I think you'd be wasting time, space, and energy to try to grow anything in ceramic clay. Jane McGary Portland, oregon, USA _______________________________________________ Alpine-l mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.science.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/alpine-l
