All About Magazine - Issue 16

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Dream borders
by Martin Blow -
The depth of winter is when I take time to dreamabout
the summer and imagine how the garden is going to
be when I’ve got it “just so”. Of course the great thing
about gardening is it’s never completely finished and
there’s always one more tweak to be made.
I’ve always loved the traditional herbaceous borders of
our British stately gardens and this winter I’ve been
thinking about how I might plan and plant one on a
smaller scale.
Firstly, aspect: the border will need some sun during
the day or your choice of plants will be severely limited.
Youmay be able to let more light in by pruning back or
removing overlarge shrubs.
Next the backdrop: traditionally a large, sheltering
hedge or wall. These are fine but don’t forget that
hedges take moisture and goodness from the soil and
walls cast a rain shadow. Fences, or shrubs are just as
good a backdrop, or dispense with one completely
and plant an island bed instead. A border along a
path with a lawn to the other side is just as traditional
and you can make this backdrop so much better by
edging the lawn to produce a neat, sculpted shape .
Its a common “mistake” to dig a narrow border in a
small garden. To my mind it looks like the plants are
scared to be there and are cowering against the fence.
Learn from the grand gardens and give your borders
some depth.
The next point to consider is colour. Some people get
technical about it and others think it doesn’t matter. I
think the key is to choose one or two key colours for
the border. In traditional borders these key colours are
repeated at intervals along the border. This repeating
colour theme gives rhythm and visual structure to
the planting and is probably more important than
matching colour shades and tones within the planting.
Pick some tough plants, that quickly bulk up, are easy
to divide and flower again rapidly after planting as
your rhythm section. I like Silk Flower (Sisyrinchium
striatum) with its sword-shaped leaves and spikes of
cream flowers. It is easy to divide and establishes a
good clump quickly.
The next consideration is season of interest. It would
be lovely to have a border in full flower all through
the season but in reality this doesn’t happen with
perennials. There are lots of things you can do to
extend the season though.
Its tempting when you go to a plant fair in spring or
autumn to buy a selection of plants in flower and dot
these around your garden to give you some colour
everywhere. But this lacks impact, and grouping them
together in a block or strip in the border or bed packs
a real colour punch at lean times of year.
Think of plants with lovely buds or young leaves to add
interest early in the season. Oriental Poppies (Papaver)
and Bearded Iris have short flowering season but the
buds of the former and sword-shaped leaves of the
latter start looking good weeks before the flowers.
Giant Scabious (Cephalaria) always have delightful
and very visible buds as do Cornflowers (Centaurea).
Cupid’s Dart (Catananche) is another with lovely, long
lasting buds before the blue flowers open.
Traditional borders are planted with tall plants at the
back and shorter ones at the front but also think about
“spot plants”: upright, architecturally shaped plants that
are taller than those around them. Good perennials for
this areVeronicastrum, Bugbane (Actaea), RedHot Poker
(Kniphofia), Mullein (Verbascum) and Delphinium.
Planting distances vary but a good rule of thumb
is around 2ft / 60cm apart for large or very vigorous
plants and 1ft-1ft 6in 30-45cm for others. Don’t forget
to water plants even if it rains until the plants are
growing strongly – don’t drown them though!
Enough dreaming, it will soon be time to sharpen the
spade and get digging for that dream border.
ALL ABOUT MAGAZINE | FEATURE 43