Above is a photo of the Official 30th Anniversary Punk Rockery I recently completed in the garden of Mr Johnny Rotten in California, America. This particular Punk Rockery was commissioned by A&M Records to celebrate 30 years since the birth of Punk - & their diversification into the horticultural market. A&M hoped that the gesture would not only heal rifts with Mr Rotten that have grown ever deeper over the ensuing 3 decades - but also help launch their range of commemorative Punk Rockeries designed by yours truly.

In the grand tradition of all things Punk, you don’t have to personally commission me via A&M Records (Horticulture) PLC at a cost of £10,000 per rockery (still, I might add, somewhat cheaper than a copy of “God Save The Queen” on the same label) – you can always do it yourself (DIY). With that in mind, here’s my handy guide to constructing your own 30th Anniversary Punk Rockery (small or large).

Alan Shitmarsh’s Guide To 30th Anniversary Punk Rockeries.

Small Punk Rockeries: In some cases gardeners are happy to maintain a Punk Rockery, enabling far more species to be introduced as each plant is then 'helped' to try and behave itself. Many form attractive cushions and more are non invasive, often on a deep no spreading tap root. Wildflowers can also be grown as alpine Punk Rockeries where we tend to use alpine wildflower plants, but the range of species suitable or available is limited. If you want me to recommend a list of species suitable for Punk Rockeries, sorry, but Punk Rock’s not like that. Here’s a plant, here’s another – now go form a Punk Rockery! I suggest you use the 'species data pages' in England’s Dreaming for further information.

Large Wild Punk Rockeries (1000 square metres): I suggest you use many types of wild flowers, and plant them in a Punk Rockery situation to spread and move and establish a natural succession, which if cut and raked, as per a wild meadow, is easy to manage. At A&M Records (Horticulture) PLC we have built Punk Rockeries with boulders the size of cars. Punk Rockeries that run into the distance stretching hundreds of metres, these we plant with wildflowers to compliment shrubs and small trees. The best species to use on a mammoth Punk Rockery are plants such as Greater “Guy” Trefoil, GW Bush Vetch and mixtures containing seeds of Bladder Campion, Bedstraw and Hypericum, which not only thrive in such situations but provide 'Mohican shocks' of bold colour. For the really adventurous wildlife gardener, Coltsfoot can be used to cover large areas and its foliage acts as a good summer foil until the summer blooms takeover and the Coltsfoot is forgotten (NOTE: Coltsfoot is not for the faint hearted and is a rampant grower!).

For more information on A&M Records (Horticulture) PLC’s range of 30th Anniversary Punk Rockeries – or to commission me, Alan Shitmarsh, to design & build your own unique installation: www.interscope.com