Shades of Green Garden Design

2010-09-01 07:24:00


My garden always looks at its best in the summer as the herbaceous planting reaches it's peak, and in the front garden the architectural planting was looking magnificent towards the end of August. Here area some of my favourites:


Echinops ritro - a fantastic plant, much loved by bees and butterflies.  My clump stands about 1.8 m tall and nestles around the bright white trunk of a Himalayan birch





Barbara Cartland, eat your heart out!  The oriental lily 'Stargazer' - big, bold and fragrant and giving a tired section of the garden a real late season zing.  White flowered Lilium 'Siberia' are doing their thing in the opposite border, almost knocking you over with their combined scents.





Inula magnifica - another late summer show stopper, much loved by the insect world.  Tall and robust, this beauty flowers well in both sun and shade.





Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' (purple fennel) - growing to 2 m tall over the course of the season this spectacular plant stands tall all winter, looking fabulous when rimed with frost or covered with snow.  Best of all, all parts, including the bulb, are edible!

My fennel moves around the garden, with seedlings popping up in unexpected spaces but always looking just right.


Next to the fennel is a mix of plants, some new this year, some old friends.  The colour scheme clashes a bit, but I can sort that out in the autumn.  Here we have Acanthus spinosus (spreads when happy), Eupatorium 'Phantom' (a dwarf form of the much loved giant at only 1m tall), Monarda (at the front - I can't remember which cultivar) and the late summer stalwart, Helenium 'Moorheim Beauty'.  I always smile when I walk past this grouping :)


2010-08-30 02:11:00



This summer I was in central France, on a town twinning exchange, and I was amazed by the quality and variety of planting styles that I came across.  These are just a few of my favourites:

A municipal border in the town of La Ville aux Dames (twinned with Dollar). This style of exuberant mixed planting was in evidence in many of the towns.  The combination of perennials, ornamental grasses and annuals create a fantastically energetic display - so different from many British municipal bedding schemes!




Just look at this fantastic container!  This stone trough in the medieval town of Chinon is typical of summer displays that I saw throughout the Loire valley towns. The airy forms of fennel, Verbena bonariensis and Pennisetum are some of my favourites for both borders and containers.




After a week in the Loire region it was on to Paris, where the use of containerised planting to enliven and define the outdoor cafe spaces was a sight for sore eyes.  And don't get me started on the fantastic street trees ...!







Houseboats on the Sienne - with gardens, of course.  In this one I particularly like the 'turf' table and benches ... although I do wonder if the wine glasses topple over on the sward...





Last, but not least, a reminder of the informality of the rural areas.  This cluster of cacti were nestled against the sunny wall of a gite ... a simple yet artful grouping that sums up the relaxed informality of our French hosts.

I am already planning the next visit!
2010-07-21 06:20:00




I love my garden in the summer, when all the herbaceous perennials are doing their thing and my three cats spend their days playing hide and seek in the borders.  Here are some of the plants that are looking good in my garden this month:

Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant' and Briza maxima (an annual grass with fabulous pendant seed heads - I shall definitely grow this again).

Nepeta  (cat mint) also makes a great path edging, but choose one of the smaller varieties such as 'Walkers Low' which flops gracefully without totally obscuring the paths!



Hemerocallis (day lily) - I am not sure of   the cultivar as it was gifted to me by a neighbour.  It sits in front of a huge clump of Crocosmia 'Lucifer' (you can just see the pleated leaves in the background) and the pair of them create a blaze of colour in July and August.





Astrantia major - I think this is 'Roma'- another of the 'good do-er's that bulks up quickly, flowers all summer and is good for cutting.  I also have a large clump of A. major 'Sunnindale Variegated', whose fresh new leaves light up the border in springtime and look great with minature Narcissi.





Where would I be without ornamental grasses? This border contains massed Deschampsia cespitosa, intermingled with Allium karavatiense (spring flowering), Allium sphaerocephalon (just about to burst into flower now it is July) and Sanguisorba 'Pink Tanna'.  My office window is in the background so I get pleasure from this planting combination on a daily basis.





Anthemis tinctoria. What a cheerful plant! There is something about daisies that brings out the inner child in me.  I also have a yellow flowered cultivar, with the delectable cultivar name of 'Sauce Hollandaise', but I think I like the white form the best.






Thymus vulgaris (culinary thyme) forms fantastic floriferous cushions in my drying area and is an absolute bee-magnet.
2010-07-15 09:38:00
I have finally made it into the blog-o-sphere, after months of procrastination ... don't have time to fiddle about creating a template ... don't know what to post ... and other lame excuses made by a somewhat technophobic busy person ... but I am here now and I thought I would start by sharing some of the advice I give to my clients about choosing garden containers...



Rule Number 1:  Bigger is better
Rule Number 2:  Repetion creates real impact

All too often I come across gaggles of mismatched, small pots, collecting dead leaves and who knows what else, clustered on steps or on the patio, with similarly mismatched contents.

These lovely big glazed pots containing Stipa gigantea are in my sister-in-law's garden in Seattle.
  













Rule Number 3:  You can grow just about anything in containers, and in any combination.

These big galvanised aluminium troughs on my patio contained a mixture of edibles and ornamentals last summer, following on from Iris reticulata in February, Narcissus 'Tete a Tete' in March and massed tulips in April/May.

Rule Number 4:  Space fillers save on compost - filling up the bottom third or half of the container with a space filler such as stones, crumpled up newspaper or recyled packaging material reduces the amount of compost you need to use (good for the planet and good for your wallet.)












Rule Number 5: Containers don't have to be expensive - a little imagination goes a long way.

I saw these metal dustbins in a garden in Edinburgh - they are just the job for small trees or large shubs, in this case Camellia - and the wee bit of rope makes all the difference!

Here are a few of the quirky containers that I have come across in my travels - anyone found any other good ones?






I think this would count as a totally blocked toilet!

(seen at RHS Harlow Carr a few years ago)






Old garden boots never die....all sorts of smaller containers can make great homes for succulents and alpines.

(also at RHS Harlow Carr, in the alpine garden)













One of my favourites - a recycled drinks cooler outside a 1950's style diner on  the west coast of the USA, snapped during a road trip in the summer of 2008.  Could it be that it is the memories that this brings back rather than the thing itself  that makes it a favourite ...?


I could go on, with rules about mulching to keep the moisture in, standing pots off the ground to improve their drainage, regular feeding and watering ... but if I start on horticultural tips we will be here for ever!