New Year

Having started planning the allotment, greenhouse and containers my thoughts are moving on to the rest of the garden. When I moved in the garden was rather neglected, the lawn was regularly mowed but weeds were rampant around the edges and fast encroaching on the lawn & paths. Where the two greenhouses now stand was once a thicket of nettles, wild hops and Alexanders with a couple of choked trees. Nettles and Alexanders were everywhere (OK my youngest is called Alexander so its become a joke in the garden!). After a lot of weeding I'm starting to create flowerbeds but I still have a long way to go.

 

I brought three special plants with me from my last home, one is a lemon balm which was given to me by a close friend many years ago, whenever I have moved I have taken about  half of the plant with me, leaving a patch of lemon balm behind but always having some to take to my new home along with the memory of my friend. I also have two Buddleias which took some tracking down. One is the very pretty Buddleia Alternifolia with its arching branches of small leaves which are covered in tiny pale lilac flowers in early summer. It is not as fast growing as Davidii so I had to dig it up to bring it to my new home. The other is Buddleia Davidii Harlequin with its variegated leaves and magenta flowers, so far this does not seem to be as fast growing as usual Davidii but now it is settled it may take off. There is already a well established Buddleia White Cloud near the back of the house but it tends to get in the way of the path so I hope to strike some cuttings and establish a new shrub up with the others in the border. To finish off my collection I would like a Buddleia Black Knight with its exquisite deep purple blooms.

To make room for these Buddleias I shall have to severely reduce a very invasive Spirea Billardii which has been growing unchecked for some years. It puts out lots of underground suckers, some of which have been coming up in the lawn. I shall take it down to about half of its current size and try to contain it by lining its hole with wooden planks. I do not want to get rid of it completely as it attracts insects.

The border is south facing and I plan to try and keep it to shades of blue/purple and yellow, so the pink Fuchsia may have to move (it wont like that much) and I will have to resist re-homing the poorly plants from work. As much as possible I want to use plants for wildlife, particularly bees & butterflies but also for moths. Having had a look through my rather old Garden Expert books I have drawn up a shortlist of possible contenders. In the perennials section the nominees are Delphiniums, Echinops, Liatris, Evening Primrose (Oenothera), Penstemon, Phlox, Scabious and Veronica. These all range from one to five feet tall and are coloured from white through to deep purple. I also have a hankering to try and grow a Foxtail Lilly (Eremurus) but I'm not sure how well it will do because although it is south facing it has its back to the north, we are about a mile from the sea and there is nothing between us and the north pole so the winds can be decidedly chilly to say the least, which Eremurus wouldn't like. To fill in lower down and add in some brighter yellows I have nominated a few annuals ranging from four to thirty inches tall. The nominees are Calendula, Bartonia (Blazing Star), Ageratum (Floss Flower), Mesybryanthemum, Schizanthus and Scabiosa Paper Moon. What I end up with depends on what is available in the local garden centres, although I think some of the annuals will need to be grown from seed.

Next I shall turn my thoughts to the 'difficult areas' of the garden......