Border Patrol – December 2019

What I have at the moment is a Ghost Garden. Everywhere are the remains of now-dormant plants, bits of stem, translucent leaves, sometimes just the grave marker, the plant label.  Much as I’d love to have a four season garden, I think it would be a compromise in the space I have. I am content to have the whole garden be good for three seasons, pretty much, then fade away for a few months. It’s a good opportunity to see the shape of things. I am looking at quite a large expanse of lawn and seriously considering doing away with it to make the shape of the border more pleasing. What?  So I can fit in more plants? How very dare you, a scurrilous accusation, such a thing never occurred to me. Honest guv.

Let’s see what is going on, or not, as the case may be.

Rear Garden

First the aerial shot, taken by Santa’s reindeers as they passed overhead on Christmas Eve.  The lawn looks like it is badly in need of a de-thatching.  If you’re interested, the bit of lawn I am eyeing up is the duck’s beak. I would roughly take the line from the left of the amalanchier circle to the furthest edge of the border, roughly level with the washing line. That would increase the available real estate in one of the sunnier corners of the garden. Just a thought…

Patio Border – Freshly mulched just prior to being snapped here. I nice thick layer of rotted horse manure will go on as much of the garden as I can.  I have soil structure in mind. The cats will have fresh latrine in mind.  I will soon plant a bunch of tall allium ‘summer drummer’ in here, to give some back of border punch. They are currently brewing away in the greenhouse in 9cm pots, doing very nicely.

Sunny Border – Quite the misnomer in recent months, but still, we live in hope.  Towards the end of January I will get in to the back of this border and cut back the clematis and tidy the roses up.  I also really want to cut back that salvia hot lips. I am considering moving it to a large pot on the patio. I most appreciate the lovely pong that emanates from the leaves as you brush past and that doesn’t happen where it is now.

Wisteria Border, incorporating the Eye of Sauron.  Not much to speak of here, except to say that I must prune the wisteria, it badly needs a short back and sides.

The Lilac Border – That brown clematis ‘rebecca’ is begging to be cut back, and that wayward wisteria can be seen probing about here too.  The underplanting is all up for review once it pokes its head through again.  I keep finding footballs in the borders. It has been several years since the boys were small enough to play football/destroy plants so where are they all coming from? Perhaps they are long resident.

The Shady Border – I have still only planted 1 of 3 ferns I have to go in here, I also have a bergenia waiting to go in the ground. The cornus has been a big disappointment this year, I think it might be time for it to come out entirely.

The Hibiscus Border – This border looks a lot better for having been mulched, but you’ll have to take my word for it! Alliums a-plenty will find their way into this bit of ground over the next couple of months.  That big geum could probably do with dividing, but that usually results in the divisions sulking until the following year. I’ll probably put it off.

Front Garden.

I finished the mulching.  I need to get some more bark for the path, the line of which can be seen clearly, unmulched as it is.

 

I’m looking forward to stuffing yet more plants in here next year.

That’s yer lot for now. I’ll be back in a month for another Border Patrol.