Reworking a large flower bed

Reworking a Large Flower Bed

Now we'll build on the previous lesson with more on how to choose and place plants, how to adjust existing planting and the importance of a planting plan.

The mixture of practical gardening with thinking about the history and art and craft of gardening is what makes it so enjoyable for me

There's lots to take out of this border but also think about what you want to put back in.

1. Start with keynote plants, which the rest of the scheme will pivot around - in this case, roses.
2. To try and visualise the shapes that I want to create in the flower bed, I use bamboo canes and paper bags to create a mock up of the shape that will fill the space so I get a really good idea of the shapes that I will be creating.
3. Place plants in a way that creates balance.
4. Even better, form an idea of what you want with a plan before you start.

• We had the whole garden surveyed and have plans of all the beds on AutoCAD that we can print off to scale, which is really useful.
• If you can't do that, measure your bed's length and width with a tape measure and plot it out for yourself.
• I find 1:25 to be the most useful scale for planting plans, to be able to include the bulbs and annuals.
• I put colours and marks onto the plan during the year based on observations of what we want to add or remove.

Define Criteria for Choosing Your Plants

This is a long, south-facing border that's getting drier, so while staying true to the history by keeping Vita's rose cultivars, I'm thinking about:

• plants that are resilient in dry conditions - the right plant, right place, is important
• plants that will flower in August, when there's a dip in interest after the roses peak in June.

How to Make a Planting Plan

1. Write a list of plants you think will give the right feel and also enjoy your conditions.
2. Whittle down the list to plants that are available and remove any you think aren't suitable after more research, to around a dozen plants.
3. These will be your filler plants. I'm using it to fill the spaces around the roses (keynote plants)
4. Think about how big you want each group of plants to be and where to position it in the border. Static clump or linear clump with movement?

You can do all this on paper, but you might also want to refine it in situ when setting out plants or smaller sticks that represent plant positions.

• This can be easier than working from a rigid plan and more achievable.
• A plan is a starting point that gives you the background knowledge that allows you to be more instinctive when actually setting out plants.

Adjusting Existing Planting

1. Remove anything that doesn't work with the conditions or the character. You can often use these elsewhere in the garden. I'm removing:

• Verbena bonariensis - does perform late in the season and is resilient to drought, but doesn't feel right with the character of Sissinghurst, as it's used a lot in contemporary planting
• Leucanthemella serotina - likes moist soil.

1. Edit self-seeders. For example, the campion (Silene dioica) here is lovely but too thick, so we need to thin it out to give each plant some space.
2. Remove anything that's died. Some of the roses here have died and need digging out.
3. You'll see spaces opening up, and then you can start putting in your new plants.

• I'm putting in plants that will enjoy the south-facing conditions: Achillea, Monarda, Erodium, Lychnis, Nepeta, and bearded irises.
• We have a historic collection of bearded irises, so in this bed I'm growing:
• Iris 'Senlac' - bred in England by Arthur Bliss
• Iris 'Melchior' and Iris 'Shannopin' - both bred in America in the 1920s.
• Think about what plants you want to display in prime position, e.g. we want Iris 'Senlac' in prime position as part of our historic collection.

Really Observe Your Borders, Then Edit

It's the thought process around the history that makes gardening here special. If you've inherited a garden or you're starting again with your own, do two things:

1. be observant - look in detail and take in all the things that are going on and the way plants behave, when they do different things - helps build a picture of the border and the changes you might want to make
2. once you've got to know a border, edit things out to create space for new ideas, don't be afraid of getting stuck in and changing things.

Gardening isn't fixed - gardens change by their very nature. Get in there and get stuck in, and it's only by doing that that you'll reap the rewards into next year.

Glossary

AutoCAD

Computer-aided design software for drawing and editing digital 2D and 3D designs.

Plant Directory

Achillea species and cultivars

Yarrows

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Asteraceae

Erodium species and cultivars

Storksbills

Hardy or half-hardy annuals, perennials or subshrubs, some evergreen

Geraniaceae

Iris germanica species and cultivars

Bearded irises

Hardy herbaceous perennials from rhizomes

Iridaceae

Iris 'Melchior'

Tall bearded iris 'Melchior'

Hardy herbaceous perennials from rhizomes

Iridaceae

Iris 'Senlac'

Tall bearded iris 'Senlac'

Hardy herbaceous perennials from rhizomes

Iridaceae

Iris 'Shannopin'

Tall bearded iris 'Shannopin'

Hardy herbaceous perennials from rhizomes

Iridaceae

Leucanthemella serotina

Autumn ox-eye

Hardy herbaceous perennial

Asteraceae

Lychnis species and cultivars (now classified under Silene)

Rose campion, catchfly, Maltese cross, etc

Hardy biennials or herbaceous or evergreen perennials

Caryophyllaceae

Monarda species and cultivars

Bee balms

Mostly hardy herbaceous perennials; some are annuals

Lamiaceae

Nepeta species and cultivars

Catmints

Hardy herbaceous perennials or occasionally annuals

Lamiaceae

Rosa species and cultivars

Roses

Hardy deciduous shrubs or climbers

Rosaceae

Silene dioica

Red campion

Hardy semi-evergreen short-lived perennial

Caryophyllaceae

Verbena bonariensis

Purple top

Hardy herbaceous perennial

Verbenaceae