Garden Books & Horticulture Est. 2015 An Independent Press

A complete guide to the crevice garden — a new approach to rock gardens that mimics alpine conditions, with planting, construction and plant selection.

Cover of The Crevice Garden — Kenton Seth & Paul Spriggs
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The Crevice Garden

How to make the perfect home for plants from rocky places
By Kenton Seth & Paul Spriggs
About the book

A crevice garden is a rock garden of tightly packed stone and free-draining soil that recreates the lean, sharply drained conditions plants meet in the wild — the narrow fissures of alpine screes, deserts and rocky coastlines.

Mountains, deserts and coastlines are home to some of the most interesting plants in the world and a crevice garden with its closely packed rocks and free-draining soil media provides the perfect environment for them. This book offers in-depth guidance on the design, construction, and planting of crevice gardens of all kinds including those suitable for containers, small gardens and public parks and features over 250 recommended plants from easy-going succulents to discerning alpines.

New to crevice gardens? What is a crevice garden — and how to build one
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“The Crevice Garden is an instant classic and an essential addition to any rock gardener’s library.”

— Joseph Tychonievich, North American Rock Garden Society

“In a world where water is increasingly scarce, these rock gardens are not only pretty, but surprisingly resilient.”

— Margaret Roach, The New York Times
Inside the book

Sample pages.

Press

What reviewers said.

  • Seth and Spriggs share their hard-earned expertise on the design, construction, and planting of their wonderful rock-and-plant installations... We learn how crevices address urgent environmental concerns, beyond conservation of rare plants, by re-using waste materials such as concrete, creating wildlife habitats and making permeable, plant-friendly alternatives to solid retaining walls.

    — John Manley, The Irish News

  • This is one of those books that makes you want to rush out and create your own crevice garden!! The photographs alone are stunning and help paint the picture of just what it is to be a crevice garden, and alongside that the enthusiasm of the authors is infectious as they explore different aspects of this aspect of gardening.

    — Karen Mace, Booksandme

  • Do you suffer the misconception that a well-designed rock garden is simply soil accented by boulders? Kenton Seth’s and Paul Spriggs’ The Crevice Garden shows otherwise by exploring the unique engineering of nature’s rocky places and their plants.

    — Shannon Young, Northwest Perennial Alliance Memberships Director.

  • This book is immensely detailed and if you’ve ever had an interest in crevice aka rock gardens, or indeed have not but are curious, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the types of plants suited to growing in this style of garden

    — Sarah Wilson, Roots and All Podcast

  • This book is about creating environments and environmental change. It is about adapting your gardening to the changing environmental conditions, about using waste materials and creating the ideal places for plants to thrive.

    — Blackberry Garden Blog

  • As well as the authors I will congratulate the designers, Studio Noel, and Publisher, Filbert Press, for delivering such an attractive well laid out illustrated book that inspires, guides and educates the reader.

    — Ian Young, Scottish Rock Garden Club

  • The Crevice Garden sets out to persuade us all to try a refreshingly accessible form of rock gardening, suitable for the beginner upwards and for the smallest outdoor space.

    — Non Morris, The English Garden

  • The Crevice Garden by Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs would be an excellent handbook for somebody setting out on a rock gardening project.

    — Paddy Tobin Irish Garden Plant Society

  • In a world where water is increasingly scarce, these rock gardens are not only pretty, but surprisingly resilient.

    — Margaret Roach, The New York Times

  • The Crevice Garden is an instant classic and an essential addition to any rock gardener’s library.

    — Joseph Tychonievich, North American Rock Garden Society

  • This complete guide is destined to be a classic.

    — Susie White Garden Design Journal
About the authors

Kenton Seth.

Kenton Seth

Kenton J. Seth is a Grand Junction native who spent a decade in public horticulture and the nursery trade before founding Paintbrush Gardens in 2013, working out of the canyon country of western Colorado. His reputation rests on three overlapping specialisms: native plantings, dryland meadows, and the unirrigated crevice garden — a form of rock garden that mimics the cracks and seeps in which alpine and steppe plants actually grow.

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About the authors

Paul Spriggs.

Paul Spriggs

Paul Spriggs has been rock gardening for more than two decades and building crevice gardens for the last sixteen years — learning much of his craft directly from the Czech innovator Zdeněk Zvolánek, who spent a number of years in Victoria and was a fixture of the local Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Garden Society. Spriggs runs his own landscaping practice out of Victoria, British Columbia, and has served as a past president of VIRAGS.

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Listening

Related audio & video.

Book details

Binding Hardback
Extent 224 pages
Dimensions 208 × 268 × 21 mm
ISBN 9781739903909
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