 |
| Anemone 'September Charm' |
Another thing about planting close, I find, is that the plants act as their own mulches, covering bare ground and suppressing weeds. If you have a lot of bare patches in your garden, don't be surprised if weeds appear in it.
 |
| Spring and summer flowering perennials growing closely together Heucheras, potentillas, malva moschata, penstemons, hesperis matronalis |
The end of May might not be the best time to transplant perennials - I often read that this should be done in autumn or spring - but I have chosen today (because I have the willpower and energy today) and it is relatively cool, the sky is bright but the earth is damp. The plants I have moved are not yet in bud or flower and I dug them up with as little root disturbance as possible and put them immediately into a hole the same size elsewhere, watering them straight away. Did I feed them or make special preparations for them? No, but I will keep an eye on them that they receive plenty of water to give their roots time to re-establish themselves and the soil they are in is good. I never waste compost from hanging baskets and containers. It all goes onto the garden borders and when I hoe weeds, I chop them and leave them to rot back into the soil. It's all good stuff, except for weeds like dandelions.
Another 'rule' is that we should plant in groups of three or five of the same plant. That's all very well if you have a whopping great border in a whopping great garden, or have a wish to pay some garden centre for three or five of the same (expensive) plants which you could probably achieve quite easily within a year or so by propagating them yourself. My border is relatively small and I'm happy to grow plants individually. When I look at how Mother Nature plants her plants, it's often a free for all with a mix of different plants in a small space. If it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me. I also propagate my plants when they are big enough, usually by division. It's one of the few times in this modern world when you actually get something for nothing.
A big mistake I made when replanting my border - I'm referring to my south-facing border - was to plant perennials without leaving a proper pathway between them and the climbers on the face. Alfie, my cat, has trodden a meandering path around the plants (bless him, he knows not to damage them) and I've just dug a few out that were in his, and my, way. When the perennials grow, this narrow little path won't be visible from the garden and it will make my life easier for attending to the clematises, the jasmines, and the solitary climbing rose that has survived my rose 'genocide'.
I should mention that my north-facing border pretty much gets by without much interference from me. It's narrower and a jumble of climbers (jasmine, roses, honeysuckle) and shade-tolerant perennials.
I've lost quite a few plants this winter, which I didn't think was particularly harsh. A couple of the campanulas show no sign of appearing from below ground level, and there are several other types that are lost and have left gaps.
 |
| Anemone 'Whirlwind' 2014 |
Anemone 'Whirlwind' was in danger, this year, of being buried under the leaves of the Malva moschata 'Rosea'. 'Rosea' gets a lot bigger than I thought it would and I have to stake it. Actually, I have two Roseas. Interestingly, the one at the bottom of the sloping border where the soil is more moist and it gets partial shade, grows bigger than the one at the top of the border that gets more sun and where the soil is somewhat dryer. It just goes to show that plants do what they want to do and not always what is written on the label. Whirlwind has now been brought forward to the front of the border and I'll see how it does there. The white flowers on the proud stems will stand out among the crowd. I like a spikey, unregimented, style of garden.
 |
| Malva moschata 'Rosea' |
Below are photographs of my old garden.
