HOT COLOURS IN THE HERBACEOUS GARDEN
The herbaceous garden at South Acres Farm gives a special performance during January and February. Unlike any other part of the garden, the colour-scheme is apricot, pale yellow, cream, bronze and red. Gertrude Jekyll who designed over 400 gardens in her time used these warm colours in many of her designs. This colour scheme is not usually a popular choice with most people preferring blue, pink and white.
When planting up the border, I struggled at first with plant choices and it was when I decided to compliment the old stone wall of the cottage which looks onto this border and has similar tones, that everything fell into place. The border lies to the west of the house, exposing it to very hot afternoons, and the plants have coped very well, proving Gertrude's theory that "hot colours" do very well in these conditions!
Surprisingly, this area of the garden doesn't really require much work as it is densely planted, not allowing much space for the weeds. As with any herbaceous border, there are usually two big "cut-backs" a year - a task I really enjoy!
When first planting up the border, we had huge problems with clay and water-logged soil and had to re-plant and dig these beds over a few times before the plants began to thrive. The hero in this part of the garden is undoubtedly the David Austin's climber - Crown Princess Margareta. John has managed to get this rose to climb up the stone wall and it really is a magnificent sight to enjoy while walking up the garden path to the front door.
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| The beginning - Eight years ago - the stone wall of the old cottage and the new addition to the right of that. |
Last summer
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| The first re-dig and re-plant! |
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| All grown up! |
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| The first successful summer |
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| The beautiful climber - three years old! |
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| And now.. |
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| Early summer when the Iris bloom |
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| Roses from the border |
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