Actea rubra
My poor garden has been suffering from neglect and a lack of enthusiasm from its owner. I was unwell at the beginning of September – a mixture of stress and exhaustion and then two weeks ago my mother had a stroke. It was one of those awful things when the phone wakes you from a deep sleep and you enter that strangely timeless world that is the hospital A&E department at night-time. I am pleased to say though that she was home within the week and although she is having to learn to speak properly again and has a weakness in her right hand she is in high spirits and very determined to overcome things. Last weekend, the first one she was home, I was so shattered after numerous visits to the hospital, as well as a stressful week at work and worrying about my Dad who himself isn’t well that the most I managed was to weed the driveway. I nearly posted a picture of the weed-free gravel which would have been very sad but I was so pleased to have done something which left an obvious change to the appearance of the garden after weeks of little activity!
Bulbs have started to arrive
This weekend I have trekked to Plymouth to take my youngest back to University. This involves a 3 hour drive each way and an overnight stay in a hotel. I don’t sleep well away from home so tiredness continues! Anyway, I was determined that I needed to make myself re-engage with the garden as I have boxes of bulbs arriving and this really isn’t the time to pull the curtains and avoid the garden completely. I have been waiting for some months for the weather to cool down and for some rain to make the ground more workable that there is now a ridiculously long list of plant moves that are needed. I suspect the period of inactivity in the garden didn’t help with my enthusiasm as I am someone who needs routine and if I stop doing something then I struggle to start again.
So today I started to tackle the very top border. I needed to clear this area in order to relocate a Euphorbia which needed to be moved from the new Cottage Border before I can plant bulbs in it. I have been struggling for some years now with the top border. It runs along the very top of the slope in front of the fence and about 3 years ago I planted some bamboo in it to provide a light screen and to mask the house behind. Back in spring I planted Pyracantha along the fence and painted the fence dark brown which shows off the plants better. I have decided that this border will have a foliage focus, this is an approach I mentioned a few weeks ago where I am planning to try to create interesting foliage borders along the boundaries and then focus the very floral planting in the middle of the garden. I dislike this border so much I rarely go up there so it makes sense to plant things which are robust and bulky with good foliage.
The re-planted driveway border
The bearded irises that were in the top border have been relocated to the front garden. I have rejigged the border along the side of the driveway and increased the amount of irises in it. I am trying to reduce the range of plants in borders and planting more of the varieties I choose so there is a more cohesive effect rather than my usual dotty approach. The top border was cleared aside from the bamboo, a hydrangea, a syringa (I think) and the fence planting. I have now added the Euphorbia, Aralia Cordata ‘Sun King’ and Sorbaria Sem (both bought from my HPS group a couple of weeks ago and featured on the Foliage Follow-up post on the 16th), a Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Boulevard’, a couple of large-leaved geranium seedlings and also Impatiens omeiana. I think I still need some smaller ground cover plants at the back of the border but I am planning to top-dress with wood bark which I think will help.
The replanted top border
I am really pleased with the result. I was surprised yesterday when I was reading Carol Klein’s Favourite Plants that I had the majority of the plants mentioned in the book. I found myself wondering why my garden doesn’t look as amazing as Carol’s. Aside from the fact that I have a demanding full-time non-gardening job I think this has shown me that I have the material to hand to create a wonderful garden but I need to combine the plants better and work harder on day-to-day maintenance; I am finding the combining of plants fascinating at the moment.
