The year - and the blog posting - is getting away from me. When I moved into my house it came with a deck, chunk of lawn, slightly
past it rectangular swimming pool and border of boring traditional
shrubs. The pool was obviously going to become a formal lilypond but the shrubs and lawn had to go. I took out the lawn last year and
put in a mix of perennial wildflowers of the type you'd see in the "new
dutch perennial style" - I like everything about these, they're easy to
grow, colourful and longlasting and they are such great pollinator
attractors that the garden literally comes alive - and also one or two
more exotic things (Agave american medio-picta, a trachycarpus palm, Musa
sikkimensis, some kniphofias) with two aims. Firstly I wanted to create a
lowish bed I could half see the pond through and secondly I wanted to
create a kind of tropical prairie look of the kind I'd seen in South
Africa, Aus and bits of south america where spikeys and fleshy tropicals
mix with simple flowers and grasses. Its gone OK......
The
Verbena bonariensis never really stopped growing. It will need chopping
back hard this year and maybe the amount of it in action will need
reassessing. There are a few weeds but you'll have to pretend you can't
see them. This was June....
Salvia hotlips dominates a bed at the end of the shrub border....
One of my other Salvias is selfseeding. I love free plants.
Echinacea paradoxa
I've
always liked the squat
Agave parryi so couldn't resist this one at a
local garden centre even if it is dwarfed by the nearby
Echinacea...
1 comment:
I haven't had the privilege yet of visiting South Africa, Aus, or much of South America...but your garden is very much alive with vibrant colors. I love the purple flowering bush near the water feature. Gravel is a nice approach...here in the states, everyone uses mulch, pine straw or turf grass...and most often, the gravel used (at least what I've seen) is rather unkempt. You've done a beautiful job. Happy growing!
Post a Comment