Late Summer

A strange time we are having in the garden, with such a mild year, the garden has rushed ahead of itself. The gales have arrived early so that August felt like September. It appears that we are in for a week of settled weather and I'm looking forward to it.

Actually I'm looking forward to winding down....our last group visit came yesterday so that we can now relax a little and plan ahead. I want to extend the prairie border to the very top of the lane - not an easy task in that it is quite steep and rather rocky but sure we'll give it a go. 

We are also going to put in a pond between the laid hedge and new trees in the "top field". Before that, we have a LOT of meadows to cut, acres in fact, and the machine that we need to hire (rough cutter) is being repaired at the minute. On the plus side, the delay means that there are still lots of seedheads for the birds and lots of knapweek and hawkbit for the bees!

   
Hydrangeas in the "old" autumn border.

   The prairie border.

   The hot bed in the cottage garden.

Happy Gardening!

Autumn Border Update

The border that we started last October, to mirror the old autumn border, has been filling out nicely. We made the border the lazy way, with no digging see here and then left it to stew all winter.

In March, we started planting bits pinched from other parts of the garden - crocosmia Emily McKenzie, anthemis EC Buxton, campanula glomerata, various geraniums, astilbe Purplelanze, oriental poppies, salvia nemorosa caradonna, iris Gerald Darby, hemerocallis, persicaria, hydrangea Magical Amethyst and dahlias Painted Girl & Blue Bayou.

We also sowed some newbies from seed - lupin The Page, verbena hastata Blue Spires, veronica longifolia Antarctica, achillea Summer Berries, sanguisorba menziesii, echium Blue Bedder and various annuals to fill gaps - cosmos, lavatera (disaster...far too big for an exposed site).

Yes we have filled the border pretty well but it's a bit mishmash - we need to link it more to the "old" autumn border which has a good deal more shrubs - hydrangeas, fuschias, grasses. It's quite difficult to strike a decent balance of permanent shrubs / grasses and perennials - not many shrubs like to be surrounded by perennials. For example, conifers will resent it, turning their foliage brown but shrubs such as berberis can hold their own and sambucus can be useful, either cut down hard each spring or with a raised canopy. 

For background, red stemmed dogwoods, rosa glauca, deutzia and physocarpus are good choices (we have 5 physocarpus Darts Gold already planted). Focal shrubs could include coloured berberis, cotinus or clipped golden euonymus to make a full stop at a corner or end of the border. Choice of grasses depends on your soil type and personal preference but I would avoid ones that run and choose gentle self sowers like the lovely hordeum jubatum which will gently fill gaps through your perennials without taking over.

All in all, the one thing that I have learnt when planting a new border is that most plants don't mind being moved so don't be afraid to experiment and.....enjoy!