Show #30/2904
River, Boats And Gardening

Showcasing Plants

HERE THE BEGINNING OF THE BED IS ABOUT A FOOT HIGH, WITH THE SOIL MOUNDED UP. What the gardener was trying to do here was to show off the plant material from the river while visitors were taking a boat ride. He brought the soil all the way up, rounded it off and created different designs with plants. This is an excellent example of mound planting. When doing this one must be careful to retain the soil on the sides, it should be skirted with something. Here they've used Loriopy to keep the soil in place. That's a good tip at home. One can get the raised effect but it is very important to keep the soil from washing away. A big reason to mound is to showcase a plant that may not be as big as one might like. Build up the soil in the middle, it creates the illusion that the plant is bigger than it is. Another concern is one Joe voiced earlier. The mounding here is over tree roots. However these trees are Bald Cypress and they oftentimes grow under water. So the fact that they have a lot of topsoil on top of their roots is not much of an issue. Plus this soil is very light and airy and that is very important when planting over tree roots. But the rule of thumb is to keep the soil on top of tree roots no more than 3 to 4 inches at most.