Make big plans doable by breaking them up into chunks
Undertaking a big gardening project involving hard landscaping can be daunting and expensive, but the key is to break it down into smaller tasks. You can see progress and get a feeling of completion (even if the overall thing’s still a building site).
This is the diary of one of my garden’s bigger projects. It involved ditching the old concrete drive and hardstanding, replacing it with permeable gravel, raised beds and planting pockets. The timescale is from February to October. It continues to change, as plants outgrow their places. Read more about my raised pond project built out of recycled materials.
February – solving an L-shaped hard landscaping dilemma
My long, narrow, L-shaped garden will be familiar to anyone living on the end of a street. How do you disguise the shape without it looking like two chunks? The easiest method was creating a continuous surface. There had been a brick-edged border, against an expanse of concrete, then paving slabs, all of which reinforced the straight lines. All of this was ripped out and replaced with pea gravel. This is cheap and creates a permeable surface that rainwater can drain through naturally, unlike concrete, which creates a problem with run-off.
To break up the gravel, there’s a curving brick path leading to the patio doors, which echo the brick raised beds. Planting pockets soften the hard edges. The drive border has been incorporated into the pond area, so the whole area flows around the corner.
The original planting is as follows (this has gone through changes since):
- The big Fatsia japonica, Spiraea japonica, and the old apple tree stayed put.
- A cream repeat-flowering climbing rose, Claire Austin, was added to climb the tree.
- Weigela Bristol Ruby, Sedum Autumn Joy, Helianthus Lemon Queen, Coprosma Pacific Sunset, Campanula carpatica, Achillea mollis, Eryngium The Hobbit, Lysimachia, variegated lemon balm and Aquilegia were moved and/or divided.
- Additions included Angelica gigas, Cobaea scandens (cup-and-saucer vine) in a huge blue ceramic pot, a giant Himalayan lily (Cardiocrinum) and Sambucus niger.
Early March – making the new raised bed work
The fence blowing down in October prompted the hard landscaping change. After the builder replaced the fence and the new raised bed, I filled it with a rotted-down turf/Dalefoot Compost/grow-bag mixture. It was time to think about planting. Clematis montana, a Buddleia and an everlasting pea survived. I tried to restrict myself to a pink/blue/purple/white colour scheme, with some gold. Two climbing James Galway roses (www.davidaustinroses.com) form the centrepiece. The flowers are warm pink in the centre, fading towards the edges, with a medium-old rose fragrance. The stems are almost thornless and grow up to 2.5m.
The spineless variegated holly (Ilex x altaclerensis Lawsoniana), a female with bright golden variegation, clipped to lie like a flat pyramid and makes an excellent winter structure.
For foliage accents, there’s a globe artichoke (which has ended up being the header picture of my site) and a golden hop (Humulus lupulus Aureus). However, the latter turned out to be hugely invasive and swamps the roses by July! Sweet pea mix Royal Family (pinks, purples, white) climbed up the fence, along with a bit of everlasting pea that didn’t deserve to be there. Golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia Aurea) underpinned a couple of Rodgersia divisions at the shady end.
Spring update: The shady end now has honeysuckle in the bed, rather than in the pot, along with ivy, trying to cover that end of the fence.
Late March – the perennials soften the hard landscaping
The perennials came from the now-defunct Plant Me Now.
- 6 x Shasta daisy Aglaia: white, frilly daisies, yellow eye, flowers May-October (height 1m).
- 3 x Veronica Atomic Silvery Pink Ray: spikes of pale pink flowers from June to September (h. 40cm).
- 3 x Heuchera Silver Blush: silver foliage, purple veins and undersides, feathery sprays of pink-white flowers, May-July (h. 30cm).
- 4 x Geranium Rozanne: voted RHS Plant of the Century. Sky blue flowers from May to October. (h.45cm).
- 3 x Euphorbia polychroma Purpurea: purple foliage and stems, lime-green flowers from April-June. (h.40cm).
May – annuals and planting pockets
- Sweet pea Royal Family Mixed and Antirrhinum Purple Twist F1, flowered from June until the first frosts.
- Various nasturtiums joined them later in the season (they had self-seeded into the recycled grow bags).
- The rejuvenated Clematis montana now takes up the sweet peas’ space.
- Planting pockets were created in the gravel at the shady and sunny ends of the new bed, to soften the brickwork a bit (lovely though it is). These now house soft shield ferns (Polystichum setiferum), hosta Big Daddy, foxgloves and Dianthus deltoides. They’ve been planted with plenty of homemade compost and loam.
- At the sunny corner, there’s Stipa gigantea (a foolish place, but there you go). Surprisingly, they all seem reasonably happy.
Hard landscaping project in August-October – full bloom!
A bare patch of ground can be daunting, but the new bed filled up in just four months, thanks to a mix of new herbaceous perennials, divisions, plus a few survivors that shouldn’t have made it from the rebuilding work. The two most remarkable are the pink everlasting pea (a piece of root must have been left in the concrete under the bed – it burst forth in May) and the Buddleia, which wasn’t in a pot and was hacked to a stump. Even the old Clematis montana has sprouted again.
Divisions of Rodgersia, golden creeping jenny, golden hop and a globe artichoke have come up trumps at the shady end. Annuals to bump up the display, Antirrhinum Purple Twist F1 and sweet pea mixture Royal Family have earned their keep. In the other bed, divisions of Helianthus and Angelica gigas were the stars.
