PLANNING BEDS AND BORDERS For Your Gardens
BESIDES HOUSING PLANTS, beds and borders serve to surround and divide garden arcas. “The height and bull of the plants protect you from wind, screen you from neighbors and even help to muffle traffic noise or children playing nearby. Frequently, borders are backed by a boundary or internal hedge or they run alongside paths.
What is seldom seen in photographs of grand country-house herbaceous borders, which appear so completely of a piece with the backing, is that a narrow service path runs between the hedge and the flowers. The hedge can be clipped without the plants being hurt, root com- petition is reduced and the border itself is easily maintained from both front and back. Even in a small garden the virtues of such a path hold good.
Similarly, in the country, garden borders frequently back onto pasture and people go to great trouble erecting barri- cades to prevent animals from browsing on their choice shrubs. Failure is frequent. It is much better to bring the border forward by, in effect,taking a yard or so off the lawn in ) front and slipping it in at the back. Maintenance is helped weeds from the field no longer creep in and animals cannot reach the plants
ACCESSIBLE ISLAND
PLANNING BEDS AND BORDERS
An island bed does not have to follow a path or boundary, so it can be a more flowing shape. Cut two, three or more areas out of the lawn, and the arcas between double as paths allowing passe for maintenance and appreciation The size of island beds is determined partly by the scale of the garden and party by what you want to grow in them Sweeping, showing edges are more difficult to mow or to provide with a mowing strip, so aim for gentle Curves. As with curved lawns, avoid irrational, fuzzy wiggles and swirls.
First sketch shapes of island beds on paper. Use a garden hose or a piece of rope to try out the shape on the ground before you do anything irrevocable. When you are cutting beds Out of an existing lawn. You can help soil fertility by digging the turf in face down to rot gradually. must remove some soil so that the final bed level is not much above that of the grass. Mounded beds are seldom successful; soil is apt to be washed down in periods of heavy rain.
Grade the height from the edge to the focus of the bed with plants. Island beds have clear advantages – as they are never backed by higher hedges or fences their plants are less likely to become drawn’ and leggy. This virtually does away with the need to stake herbaceous perennials, especially when you choose plants with robust stems rather than the dwarf varieties which often lose the typical form and charm of the species.
An island bed looks all ways but has an open position. There is little need to be concerned with aspect unless its central plants are large enough to cast considerable shade. There is scope for surprise too. Break a too even grading of plants by placing some taller ones to- wards the front; make the choice from early-flowering plants so that, when they are over and clipped back, a shorter plant behind comes into view.
VISTA BORDERS
A view from a door or a window often needs framing so that the eye is led away – for a few strides or a hundred -to an eyecatcher at the end. That framing is wonderfully executed with a pair of narrow borders flanking a walk. The walk itself, regardless of the size of the garden, is unlikely to be less than 4ft (1.2 m) wide, but the vista borders can be of any width. Narrow ones might hold iIst a single line of Hidcote lavender or. for August and September effect, Caryopteris Kew Blue’ thickly under- planted with crocuses and Scilla siberica for spring.
As with island beds, the open aspect of double-sided borders reduces the need for staking, especially where the central walk is hard and mowing strips on the outside edges act as a catch-all for front-row plants that flop forward.
PAY HEED TO THE ASPECT
Formal straight borders face a particular way. The aspect determines the range of plants a border is to hold. Borders which face south, especially where soil drainage is good (and it is well worth ensuring that it is), call for sun-loving plants.
Choose species fromwarm, Mediterranean climates such as
cistus, the tree poppy (Romneya coulteri)
from California, red-hot pokers from
South Africa, as well as spring bulbs. A north-facing border is the mirror image. When the soil does not dry out, it provides a happy home not just for all the subtlety beautiful plants that accept shade but also for water-lovers, often thought of as the prerogative of gardeners with a pond. Waterside marginals such as prim- ulas, rodgersias and astilbes flourish. West-facing borders have many of the advantages of south-facing ones but never get as hot since the sun comes in mid afternoon. Plant sun-lovers such as Jasmimm oficinale and camellias. There is no need to restrict your choice to drought-resistant, Mediterranean types.
East has the chill of the north border but alleviated by morning sun which passes off before the full heat of the day. Plants to avoid are those that bloom carly in the year such as peonies or camellias. Frosts may grip first thing in the morning and on frosted plants browns them. A clematis such as Ernest Markham with magenta flowers in summer is suitable. Fortunately, many garden plants will flourish in a wide range of conditions.
However, no rhododendrons or camel- lias do well on chalk or limestone, and no sun-loving Mediterraneans thrive in ill- drained clay. Apart from basic concerns like these, the choice is up to you.
SHRUBS FOR THE BACKBONE OF THE BORDER
Develop your ideas bearing two points in mind. First, in Britain’s climate no plants flower continuously. Second. green is a color, not simply a backdrop. Accept that the form, texture and foliage effects of permanent plants often offer more to the garden scheme than masses of temporary color.
Wonderful effects can be obtained with the formality of the simplest materials such as walks, hedges and topiary. Keep vibrant color to annuals in pots, as in southern European gardens. The most permanent of border plants are woody shrubs. Usually vou makes a choice because of the beauty or brilliance of flowers-for instance, golden forsythia for spring, the heavily scented lilac or mock orange for early summer, buddleia for later.
The transient season of each is part of the joy of the garden – one plant’s moment of glory leading onto the next – but what about lHac or mock orange during the other 1l months of the year? Consider whether an alternative would carn its keep for more of the year – a shrub such as Mahonia aquifolium with its glossy evergreen leaves which bronze in winter, and the bunches of purple fruit that follow the yellow flowers, gives 12 months of interest.
CHOICE OF A COLOR SCHEME
Begin planning a bed by listing must haves’ and their color or ticking off irre- sistible plants in a catalog. If you have no preconceived idea of the desired look.study the list to see if any theme suggests itself – maybe a white border or a blue and gray bed.
Perhaps there area number of yellow- flowering plants – forsythia, CytisusX praecox, Rhododendron luteum, Spartium jnc eun- and a couple of pink or red shrubs such as weigela or Rhododendron Mars’ on your list.
It is now a matter of choice whether you keep the happy miscellany or form a deliberate scheme. For instance, you could hold onto the yellows and instead of the pink flowers bring in Cotinus cogGygria ‘Royal Purple’ and Rosa glauca to build up a picture in gold and purple. Continue such a theme by adding gold and purple herbaceous perennials to bulk up the scene at a lower level- still remembering the value of foliage.
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You might consider Acanthus spinosus, gold-variegated Yucca filamentosa or the late-flowering purple-leaved form of Cimicifuga racemosa to put with a Michaelmas daisy or two. Provide spring interest with golden daffodils, coming through purple Auga, and Apricot Beauty or Black Parrot tulips above lysimachia nummularia Aurea’. Plant the bulbs deeply to remain as permanent plants. A similar story can be pursued through any choice of colors
BRIGHTENING THE BORDER IN THE FIRST Two YEARS
The early days in a border’s life can seem interminable before that mind’s-eye pic- ture starts to show, so temporary plants are the answer in the first two years.
Spring hardly lives up to its name in the garden without wallflowers (Erysimum), sweetly scented as nothing else. Harpur Crewe fits the bill to perfection. Choose polyanthus and primroses at the same time; they stay in flower for months if deadheaded regularly.
CONCLUSION
Brompton stocks (Matthiola incana) overlap with wallflowers and last into June. Like all true cottage garden plants they are strongly scented. In late summer perennials such as rudbeckia and sweet peas can take over.
