The light is terrible today so it was difficult to take decent photographs, but I wanted to catch the garden as it is now, roughly a year on from when I first planted it – the photograph below was taken on the 8th May 2011.
As you can see the paving at the bottom of the garden, which looks so pristine in the second photo, really needs some attention – we laid it ourselves, very badly and in great haste, but I have just finalised a plan for that section of the garden and so it will be done properly when work starts in September.
In the meantime there is quite a bit of editing, re-thinking and general tinkering to be done. I love this aspect of gardening. Above, the Stipa arundinacea, Sisyrinchium striatum and Geranium pratense ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’ were my solution for the bed beneath the four Amelanchier I planted earlier in the year. Although now, having recently been introduced to Libertia, I am thinking that perhaps this would have worked better. I’ll see how I feel about it at the end of the summer when the bed has knitted together.
You can see the Mrs Kendall Clark in flower alongside Alchemilla mollis above, and below, alongside a billowing bank of nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ – both are combinations which I think work well, and I am hoping that the Alchemilla will self-seed.
At the moment the main problem is lack of height in the righthand bed on the second level down. I think a small shrub or tree is what I need, and whilst I am tempted by exciting and beautiful plants at various nurseries (most recently a Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’), I’m managing to be uncharacteristically restrained. I want to think it through properly. This morning I settled upon a wigwam of runner beans as a good temporary fix.
It should look lovely once the beans, White Lady, are in flower, and I have another wigwam further down on the left hand side which will mean it doesn’t look too lonely.
Vegetables came to the rescue last year when I felt the left hand bed was lacking architectural interest – the artichokes I planted are doing incredibly well, so well in fact that I can’t quite make myself pick them. Although as my sister-in-law is staying tonight we might cut a few heads in her honour.
