Alpine Garden and Hardening off Perennials

As if gardening in zone 1 wasn't enough, last summer I convinced resident-lawnmower-man that an alpine garden was needed to increase the interest and variety of plantings in our yard. The alpine bed was finished just-barely-in-time last fall. Fortunately, all the plants look quite good this spring, and I even see some narcissus greens poking out of the soil.

The alpine bed, containing dwarf evergreens such as dwarf balsam fir, nest spruce, and dwarf mugo pine as well as a variety of alpine perennials:

There are some interesting hardy succulent plants that you can grow here. Sedum, Sempervivum (Hens and chicks), Jovibarba, and Delosperma are all looking healthy after our long winter.

Here are some tiny Jovibarba, which I find hard to distinguish by appearance from Sempervivum. I've never seen these plants in a store, but they were easy to grow from seed.

Sempervivum (Hens and Chicks). These are a "green" variety, though most of these succulents will change to nice red colors for the winter.

Delosperma nubigenum (yellow-flowering) looks fabulous after the winter. I also bought a pink-flowering one from Wrightman alpines this spring.

The hardy perennials from the basement light garden are experiencing their first holiday in the great outdoors, in a process otherwise known as "hardening off". I hope to get these planted outside in a few weeks. However, the annuals and other tender plants will be waiting till June to be planted out. It's also time to get my poppy seeds planted too!