It's been a while - new border in back garden

18 comments

Well, it’s been a while since I wrote down how my garden was progressing, I have been really busy gardening and I got myself a job which on top of family life keeps me from logging on!
I ventured out into the back garden armed with a husband and mini digger and early Spring saw the beginning of the planting.
This is how the Antipodean bed started out- yes I know that’s a Mexican Weeping Pine over the top right of the picture, my Geography is a bit awry, but I love it, very tactile for a pine.

The tree fern has an acacia longifolia growing from the bottom, this little seed must have fallen into the tree fern when it was very young and rooted and grew. Now it is in the garden, getting nutrients and water, it is romping away. I’m not too sure at this time whether the tree fern will suffer, this may be a very expensive experiment!!

This is how it is looking now! There is still a lot of work to do like the edging around the borders

Here are some of the shrubs I have chosen, the majority of them are antipodean, from Tasmania, New Zealand and Australia.
Coprosmas – One of my favorite shrubs at the moment and as I live on the Isle of Wight I have a pretty good chance of getting them through the Winter.
This one is called Fireburst, I love this when you water it, the foliage completely lights up. Coprosmas are also known as ‘mirror plants’ and more varieties are creeping over to Britain as we push the boundaries of hardiness

This one is one of my favorites and is known as Kiwi Red, beautiful dark green/black shiny leaves

This one is called Painters Pallette, similar to Rainbow Surprise

Also the back of the border as you go through the arch, which will soon be covered in rambling rose, is where i wanted a moss path with stepping stones running through it. Live moss, in the quantities I require, is harder to get hold of than I thought! I have been researching alpines and other plants with tight spreading low habits. Scleranthus uniflora is one I’ve considered and it’s from New Zealand! Bonus!!

Now this is number 1 on my favourite shrubs list – Acacia Baileyana Purpurea
The foliage is a glaucus blue with the new shoots appearing as purple. In the Spring, the flowers are yellow, it is evergreen and beautiful


This is Grevillea ‘Mount Tamboritha’. Grevilleas come in different guises, other varieties are Juniperina and Rosemarifolia. The Mount Tamboritha variety has strange flowers, they initially look like tightly closed fists, then they explode! The foliage has a succulent image, but is a very woody habit. This is a low level spreading version.

Grevillea Rosemarifolia

This is another shrub that originated from New Zealand I think. It is Prostrata Cunetea or the Alpine Mint Bush. It can grow to 3ft high and has amazing delicate white flowers.

This area is at the back of the bed and is in a shady position. I dug a deep bed and lined it with old plastic compost bags. I refilled it with soil improver and manure then planted it up with bog plants. I have Rodgersia, Podophyllum emodi, Podophyllum peltatum, Rodgersia (not sure of the variety), Woodwardia Fimbriata – the giant chain fern, holly fern and others I can’t remember! I expect some bulbs will pop up in the Spring, I think I put Epimediums in here??

I hope you like it and my collection of antipodean plants! I think it is lovely. As Winter nears us, all of the shrubs apart from the tree fern will stay evergreen with different colour foliage, and the Alliums and tete a tete I’m going to plant will start to add vibrant colour. A work in progress…………………………..

Some updated pictures of the plants and how much the border has grown

• 30 Sep, 2009
• 12 likes

More blog posts by AndreaRichter