Project Circle

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My garden’s long and thin – 150 ft by 25ft wide, and it’s split into 7 different areas. In September 2011 I began to change the area I call the ‘Circle’. Here’s what I’ve done so far.

In the beginning: the borders were too thin and some of the plants couldn’t cope with the light soil, so powdery mildew was rife. I’d also added plants as I’d ‘gone along’ so it was patchy. And I went a bit bonkers on the Verbena.

Here’s the same patch looking up towards the house.

Below, the new border is drawn. I tried to draw the shape with sand, but in the end resorted to an old can of spray paint. The protected plant is a Melianthus Major. It’s October time.

Ta daaa! A new border is cut. At this point I added loads of manure – about one big bag per square metre. With such sandy soil it’s the only way to hold on to moisture. It just drains away otherwise and the plants suffer.

And here it is the other way round.

Below: June 2012, 9 months later. I’m just about to fill a few gaps with grasses and some Achillea. Give it another year and it should fill out.

Same thing. Different angle. I mulched the soil with a 6 cm deep layer of large bark chippings to retain moisture and reduce evaporation. So far, so good.

And I planted a Beech hedge to hide the play equipment. Eventually, you’ll see a 6ft high wall of Beech with an arch leading through to the kids’ area. Hopefully the Beech will provide an ideal backdrop to the plants.

Below: I included a mini bog area which has enabled me to grow Rodgersia and other moisture loving plants, such as Astilbe and Astrantia.

As you can see I had two helpers who prepared the hole for the bog.

The circle is almost finished now. I’ve just a few more plants to include, many of which are late Summer flowering, such as the Persicaria amplexicaulis Taurus. I’ll be sure to stick some more pics up soon – and this time I’ll wait for the sun to come out before I take them!
Hope you like it :).

• 3 Jul, 2012
• 9 likes

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