As I’m typing, our Japanese Maples are glowing with golds ambers, and garnets. The hostas are yellowing and the grasses bronzing. Autumn is most definitely knocking on the door and soon it will storm through and make itself at home with misty mornings, dew-laden spider webs, and the first sparkly frosts. Then I’ll be enjoying one of the most satisfying harvests of the year! Gathering up fallen leaves to make gorgeous, wonderful, leafmould.
Of course, plants are essential. No one would disagree with that! However, there is another element that makes a good garden. Arguably underrated but most assuredly subjective. That element is the Accessories, i.e. the design embellishments, garden decor, those finishing touches.
Planting bulbs in your borders brings an early heart-warming cheer, heralding the changing of the seasons, as we slowly meander our way out of late winter. Even though they’re tiny, those first snowdrops, cyclamen, aconites, and crocus are worth more than their weight in gold. Especially after weeks of dull browns and greens within a fairly lifeless garden. The structure of evergreen hedges and topiary have served an important purpose but now the interest is waning. Those early gems, much loved by us gardeners desperate for life and colour outside those foggy rain-drenched windows are loved even more by emerging bumblebees, drowsy and famished after a winter’s hibernation.
Spring bulbs truly lift our spirits after a long winter. Their oh so cheery dispositions break the monotony of greens and browns and suddenly, we have colour! Yellows, blues, pinks, reds, purples! We transition from monochrome to technicolour. The wonderful thing about container displays is that you can shuffle pots around to keep the display looking its absolute best. When those early flowering crocus, iris, and early daffs are fading, swap them out for the musacri, richly coloured tulips, majestic crown imperials, and pom-pom alliums. With a little forethought in planning and planting, you can have a display in bloom from February right through to June.
There is something utterly magical about bulbs. Take a handful of dry and shrivelled lifeless bulbs, throw them in the ground, wait a few weeks and, like the mythical beanstalk, they burst from the ground with a bounty of beautiful blooms. Flowering bulbs are more popular than ever and for good reason. The range of species available to us humble home gardeners has increased dramatically. Alongside the species there are a staggering number of bred cultivars with a truly bewildering array of forms and colours. Did you know there are over 3,000 tulips cultivars alone?!
The smallest of our five main gardens is regularly shown the BIGGEST love on Instagram. The Courtyard Garden a.k.a. The White Garden was inspired by visits to Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Great Dixter. A combination of Vita Sackville-West's renowned 'White Garden' and the iconic entrance porch to Dixter. Consisting entirely of pots and planters, the colour scheme is whites and greens, with a subtle infusion of pinks - only because it’s rare to find pure whites.
As the fields and verges take on those familiar biscuity bronzing hues, heralding late summer, our gardens can sometimes feel rather flat and monochromatic. The colour drains and we're left with just the greens and faded blooms, facing one of the biggest challenges for all (non equatorial) gardens...
In its simplest terms, composting recycles garden waste (and plant-based kitchen waste) into a beautiful, natural fuel for your garden plants. Garden compost can be spread over beds and borders as the most wonderfully beneficial mulch. Arguably the best there is! It's truly magical stuff, feeding plants and opening soil structure all by feeding soil life with this nutritious organic matter. Composting also increases biodiversity, providing food for innumerable creatures and adding to the web of life in your garden and beyond.
There are some plants in your garden that will always need watering, whether by hose, can, or irrigation and those are the ones in pots! (Technically, any NEW plantings in the ground and pots should also lie in this category) You must water these! Unless they’re a succulent and even they still need a little. Roots won't have the same breadth and depth as they do in the soil, therefore limiting access to moisture and nutrition via the intricate web of soil life within the earth.
Hostas are such beautiful foliage plants with those familiar luscious leaves. They make such a rich, luxurious, verdant display here on Shady Table, my purpose-built stage for the hostas. Without doubt, the most frequently asked question I receive is: "How do you keep your hostas looking so good?"
