The summer months have been lovely – and busy. Far too lovely and busy, it appears, for me to spend time writing my blog! So, what new projects have I done this summer?
In the courtyard, the grass swept down in front of the large shrub border to the entrance gate. We liked how it looked but wanted to make the courtyard feel a little more private. So, I created a small bed across the grass, backed with trellis, to separate the drive from the courtyard. A climbing rose (Malvern Hills) will hopefully scramble over the trellis in future years and evergreen clematis armandii, and ceanothus will create a screen.
At the end of the trellis there was a rather overgrown escallonia bush, full of ivy and a lot of old wood; not attractive. Behind it were hiding some of the shrub border’s ubiquitous herbaceous plants – geranium, red-hot pokers, perennial cornflowers, and more importantly the view of the hills beyond. I decided that the old escallonia needed to come out; easier said than done, but after a good deal of work we now have a sheltered place to sit and enjoy the view of the surrounding hills.
In the main garden I continue to develop my ideas: the area bordered by the rose hedge, copper beech and the fence, will – I think – be a paved area with central feature (raised bed? seat? statue? herbs? Not sure as yet, nor what to call it) but I had decided to square off the space by creating a triangular bed which, as it is in full sun all day, I planted up to be a ‘hot’ border: yellows, oranges and reds, mostly herbaceous but with a few shrubs. Early days but most have established well.
At the far north-west corner of the garden one of our first trees, acer pseudopatanus spaekhii, is healthy and growing, albeit slowly. This was an area of the garden where my initial plans for a swathe of coloured bark willow had not been successful and so I thought again. It has a lovely view looking back up the garden to the house and the end of the Wenlock Edge – it had to be a place to sit. At a sale at our favourite nursery, we purchased a number of small but vigorous shrubs: mahonia Charity, cornus, weigela variegata, weigela Red Ruby, continus, virbumnum davidii, and splashed out on three more choice shrubs: azalea knaphill Jolie Madame (gloriously pink), rhododendron Nova Zembla (rich red) and physocarpus opulifolius Lady in Red. We planted these shrubs in an arch around the maple, to ultimately create a shrub backdrop to the seating area. As our soil is neutral, I shall have to top-dress the soil around the rhododendrons to help them thrive. So far the shrubs are growing, but this is planting for the long term and it will be a some time before the ‘maple grove’ of my imagination is formed.
