Slatted bed

In the area of the Botanical Gardens, an area has been set aside for rock beds since the first sketches of Bangsbo Botanical Gardens were made in 1989. It has not been decided how the rock beds should be established, but since the expansion of the Botanical Gardens began in 2006, several proposals have been on the table.

However, one thing was certain about the rock beds – they would of course be planted with alpine plants, and for these plants to thrive in Denmark, there are some very basic requirements that must be met. Therefore, it was decided that the rock beds would be built as slatted beds.

What is a crevice bed? It's actually quite simple, as the stones that you would normally use to make a rock bed are laid vertically and closely together, so that there are some deep and vertical crevices in which the plant roots can find both moisture and coolness.

To meet the plants' drainage requirements, the bed was built from a core of washed sand. All the stones are oriented east/west, which provides good opportunities for the plants to get the right growing environment in terms of temperature. The bed is divided into continents, as shown by the plant signs.

The slatted bed in the Botanical Garden was created in collaboration with the Czech Zdeněk Zvolánek, one of the world's leading experts in the field. Zdeněk Zvolánek started the work together with the Canadian Joyce Carruthers and with volunteers from the Garden's Friends' Circle and Bangsminde Machine Station on May 11, 2009. Zdeněk and Joyce worked in the Botanical Garden for two weeks, after which the Garden's employees and volunteers completed the work.

Approximately 200 tons of limestone were used, originating from a quarry in the small town of Marktrodach in southern Germany.

Zdeněk has subsequently been back in Bangsbo several times and helped plant a large part of the approximately 3,500 plants that are now in the large alpine facility.

Video from the garden