A new face

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A few days ago I blogged about the small town garden. Well I returned today and have hopefully some better pictures to share. I will also show how the tiny frontage looks.



First up though a picture from today, right after Photinia 'Red Robin' has had a light prune.

Photinias don't always have a good press and I think that is rather undeserved. Yes, they can be commonplace but in their defence I have to add that they have year round colour, the new shoots are of a magnificent, deep and vibrant red, they can be grown to just about any size you like, are fairly pest and disease free and not particularly fussy about soil and water conditions. 

But back to the front of this house. About three years ago it looked like this:

I think the nicest thing I can say about it is that the slate is plentiful. Of course it would not suppress the weeds because it is not spread thick enough and of course no landscape fabric has been used to suppress weeds but ... black bin liners. Best of British builders? Please forgive my sarcasm but this kind of shoddy workmanship makes me angry.

After the completion of the garden at the back my client asked me to come up with an improvement for the front. She also showed me and sundial a friend had made for her and that she wanted to use at the front.
I sketched two very different proposals; one for a very low box parterre type design with a stone plinth for the sundial and one for a tall planting scheme which would sway in the wind (of which there is plenty) and an oak post for the sundial.

My lovely client chose the latter and I set to work. First of all I rescued all the slate. I put down a heavy duty waterpermeable membrane between the raised beds and the fence at the back and topped it about 2 inches deep with the slate.

After a thorough weed oak post was concreted into place and the site was planted up. I have to say that after moving three or four tons of topsoil into the back garden, it was a doddle to mix in the half ton of soil improver.

The planting scheme itself is one of three very different faces:

By April/May the tulips are glorious

The simple random pattern of purple 'Queen of the Night' and white 'Maureen' is stunning planted en masse. The are nearly of the same height, flower at the same time and despite being two foot tall are very good in the wind. This tiny plot has been planted with 30 tulips of each colour and any less would have just been mean.

I thought about lifting the bulbs for autumn but my concern for my client’s wallet

laziness prevailed. The concensus after consultation was to foliar feed after flowering, to let the foliage die back naturally and for her to live with yellowing leaves and to monitor bulb performance the next year. Two years later the bulbs are still glorious, possibly a tad shorter stems but still a stunning sight. Yay for the lazy gardener!

Just when the tulips are fading by June, Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation' are stealing the show. By now the grasses are having a growth spurt, too.

By July all Spring foliage has been cleared away and suddenly there is lots of lush green with flecks of white, pink and purple:

A selection of grasses, Veronicastrum Album, Verbena bonariensis and Gaura lindheimerii 'Whirling Butterflies' are gently swaying in the breeze. Last year Dierama pulcherrimum also flowered for the first year. This was my mystery plant and I was not sure whether it would be happy in its spot not far from the front door for maximum impact. This plant is borderline hardy and likes moist soil. Luckily a thick mulch before winter has meant it is still around and this year graced the front garden with hald a dozen flower spikes. You can just about make out some pink bell shaped flowers but if you are not familiar with this plant here is a close up of a mature plant:

Dierama pulcherrimum (photo credit: RHS)

It really is the prettiest sight!

By autumn this plot is dominated by purple and white; the gauras and verbenas will flower until first frosts and the grasses now sport plumes. The height of the grasses is determined by how wet the season has been, a dry spring and summer means that the grasses grow to about four foot. Wet weather means grasses up to six foot.

I tend to give this border a good tidy in late autumn, cutting back the verbena, veronica and gaura and thinning out verbena seedlings. I also mulch the less hardy plants with compost and apply a thick mulch of cocoa shell mulch. It does help a bit with the nearly feral feline population. Otherwise, the grasses get cut back in February/March, together with a careful weed around the emerging spring foliage. This plot is a late starter, so it is important that weeds do not spoil the blank canvas in February and March. Organic slug pellets are a must, otherwise this bed is remarkably troublefree.

I really hope you like this new frontage as much as my client and I do.