So this weekend the Sunny Border was completed!
Flâneur Gardener digging away merrily
The last fiddly bit towards the covered terrace was finally cleared of turf, and a few perennials were rescued from in-between the grass. This was mainly my project, while my husband busied himself around the garden, cutting back the poplars towards one neighbour and the hazels towards another and lopping off a branch of the red-leaved cherry plum tree.
Then we installed that nasty-looking plastic barrier towards the lawn, and it turned out as invisible as I’d hoped for, so that was good, and finally I could start loosening the soil so we could add some compost (the birthday present my husband got from his mother).
Flâneur Husband shovelling compost
We also did a bit of tidying up, moving piles of branches out back and generally trying to make the place a bit more presentable, though it’s still too early in the season to mow the lawn. (And it desperately needs a haircut!)
The result
It’s just a clean slate right now, or almost, but I think it will end up looking great. I put back some perennial sweet peas and a geranium that had been struggling in the tall grass up against the wall, and then there’s a line of stepping stones before the larger part of the border where the roses and larger perennials will go. I put in a few clumps of iris from my mother’s garden, because I think they will look great in front of the roses what will eventually go in beside them, and at the far end I moved some Japanese anemones (also from my mother’s garden).
I do need to be careful not to cram it full of everything that will fit in there, because I suspect some plants may want to grow a little over the summer, but so far it definitely has great potential.
My husband keeps saying he doesn’t want it to look too twee, so his knee-jerk reaction when I talk about planning the planting and coordinating colours is that he’d prefer something much more random, but obviously I’m not letting him have his way here. The colours will be mainly blues, purples and reds, ranging from light to dark hues, and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to have flowers in the border from May/June to the first frost.
I’m really rather excited about this!
Next weekend the plan will be to start tackling the vegetable beds. They’re terribly overgrown, and one of the beds has been used as a depository for dried perennial stalks that need to be cut up and go in the compost bin. And perhaps put in an effort to do some weeding in the Ambitious Border…
Wonderful bed and my thoughts drifted to lovely pictures as you described the plants…so lovely to have plants from your mother’s garden…I have not gotten the back gardens cleaned up yet…knee issue, then rain…now cold…it will happen eventually.
I see the clusters of flowers, just thinking about it! I won’t exactly be “massing” the flowers, since the space is just too small for it, but there will be one square meter of this, one square meter of that, so it shouldn’t end up looking too ragged or messy.
It is one of the gardening projects for 2012 done (the actual planting and sowing will be fun, so that doesn’t count as a “project”), and now it’s time to plan the next one!
I can see why you’re so excited, I can’t wait to see the photos as the plants get established. It’s a good feeling when you feel like you’re getting somewhere with your plans. The weather here has been so good we’ve had another exhausting weekend of crossing things of our to do list.
I just love having “plantable areas”! I know the perennial sweet peas will be fine, since they grow like weeds, and I have no doubt that the iris from my mother’s garden will be more than fine, since it doubled in size while being stuck in a hole in the lawn for the past year and a half… As for the geraniums, they used to struggle through tall grass, so I expect they’ll also be happy!
The most exciting thing, though, will be when the roses are in… They’ve been ordered from a reputable nursery with a great return policy so I expect the quality to be ACE!
I agree Soren it is soooo nice to get and area of turf to a plantable stage, your soil looks as heavy and wet as mine,
love that you have plants from your mothers garden I have plants from my parents garden and they are special,
you might find that plants not only thrive in the grass free area but will self seed giving you free plants, I look forward to seeing it all grow in the coming seasons, Frances
Given that the iris doubled in size while being “stored” in the lawn for 1½ years I’m quite sure it will absolutely go crazy in a piece of well-groomed soil with no competitors…
But yes, plants from my childhood garden ARE special. And I’m fortunate enough to have been given shares of the plants that mattered most to me; the iris, goldenrods, Japanese anemones and rudbeckias. They’re large, brash, self-catering plants that make a statement without making a fuss.
As for the soil being heavy? 8 inches down my soil turns to blue clay… So first you dig through lawn-soil – compacted and hardened over years – and then you get to pure clay… (And sediments from when the garden was sea bed… There are an awful lot of oyster and mussel shells in the clay sediment!)
awful lot of shells, might make a good path surface with a sense of place.
The shells, though, are centuries or millennia old, so they are of no use except as a source of calcium in the garden. (Also, we don’t really have any paths in the garden, but that’s clearly a mistake… I just have to convince my husband that a lawn isn’t a garden!)
It looks fabulous! And having help really does make the work go twice as fast. Roses and irises sounds beautiful. Good luck with the vegetable beds now!
We got a lot done, and not only did we do it faster – obviously – than if I had been alone; it was also much more fun.
The vegetable beds are small, though, so they are much easier to take on single-handedly.