LANDSCAPING: Blue & White Island Bed
One of the design problems I had in the garden is that there are quite large areas of lawn, which had to be broken up. I've built a number of small borders around the edges, and I have separated the side and back of the house with fences, hedges and other features to break up the area into smaller, distinct rooms. But we like the open expanse at the front, and didn't want to start separating it up into enclosed areas. How then to create a new border?
The 'island bed' was my solution. A circular one is actually, I thought, a great design because you can walk all around it and see plants at every angle.You can also still plant things from tall at the centre, to shorter at the front, if you want to keep it traditional.
To really achieve a proper effect of becoming an 'area' of the garden, it needed to be big. I initially set out a circle fifteen feet across, but it didn't look quite right; so I doubled it to 30 feet diameter. I drove a fence post into the ground at the centre and tied some thick string around it, using this to walk around and mark the circle.
With any lawn-to-bed transformation, you first have to get rid of the grass from the area where you want the bed to be. I have previously done this with a sharp spade, but that is seriously hard work, and takes forever. On this occasion, with what I calculated to be 700 square feet or turf to lift, I borrowed a mechanical turf cutter. This handheld machine has a long blade that quickly moves back and forwards, seperating a few inches of grass from the soil beneath. You then just roll up the sods, cleaning up any missed bits with a spade. Two tonnes of earth and grass later, the ground was ready!
Once I had the bed marked out and turf lifted, I started digging over the soil and putting in the first plants.I wanted something with height for the centre, and something that would be evergreen, so I choose a bay tree. I bought this bay tree in a little pot from Sainsburys about four years ago, and put it in a pot, potting it on every few years.It's now over four feet tall.
I wanted to fill the bed with lots of herbaceous perennials, mixed with some flowering herbs and shrubs. I decided I needed a colour theme though, to narrow down my plant choice. Eventually I stumped for blue and white, to mirror the clouds and sky above. Although with regards to blue I would accept hues of purple and mauve etc.
So far plants added include:
BlueDelphinium (herbaceous perennial)
Campanula Caerulea (herbaceous perennial)
Polemonium (herbaceous perennial)
French Lavender (herb)
Lavender Grosso (herb)
Rosemary Officianalis (herb)
Eryngium Planum (herbaceous perennial)
Veronica Spicata 'Ulster Dwarf Blue' (herbaceous perennial)
Lupin (herbaceous perennial)
Catmint 'Six Hills Giant' (herbaceous perennial)
Hydrangea
Scabious
White
Hebe (shrub)
Spirea Snowdome (shrub)
Lemon Balm (herb)
Astilbe Ellie (herbaceous perennial)
Astilbe 'Weisse Gloria'
Erigeron Daisy (herbaceous perennial)
Rhodanthemum casablance (herbaceous perennial)
Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Overdam' (ornamental grass)
Curry Plant (herb)
Arinthum (herbaceous perennial)
Foxglove (herbaceous biennial)
Cleamtis (herbaceous biennial)
Other
Bay and bronze fennel (herbs) - for textural structure and interest
I bought 120 box hedging plants to go around the periphery, which is a little more than one per foot. These were in 9cm pots and ordered online. Because I bought in bulk, the cost (even including delivery to my door), was quite modest. To plant them, I dug a trench around the edge of the bed, leaving a deep, clean edge on the outside. I then placed the box in, surrounding with a mix of compost and topsoil, and gave it a good feed with Buxus fertiliser.
The box hedge will eventually serve a variety of purposes:
a. Provide year-round interest and form in the area.
b. Be a uniform green frame for the plants inside it.
c. Give a formal, knot garden style to the area.
d. Provide some shelter to the plants all year round.
e. Stop people (and rabbits hopefully) going into the bed itself.
Although I had taken the top layer of grass off, inevitably weed seeds will blow into the bed. In order to hold back their vigour, I wanted to provide a mulch over the area. I considered stones, but I will be planting more in the area over time, so without a weed-proof membrane, they begin to mix with soil and look messy. They also get knocked out onto the grass and damage the lawnmower. I thought about compost, but my experience is that it does not suppress the weeds.
Eventually I stumped for chipped bark, because from a distance it looks like soil, it doesn't look bad if it gets mixed up with some soil, and it is quite easy to push back, when planting new things in the bed.
The finished result is below
The 'island bed' was my solution. A circular one is actually, I thought, a great design because you can walk all around it and see plants at every angle.You can also still plant things from tall at the centre, to shorter at the front, if you want to keep it traditional.
1. Marking out
2. Lifting the turf
With any lawn-to-bed transformation, you first have to get rid of the grass from the area where you want the bed to be. I have previously done this with a sharp spade, but that is seriously hard work, and takes forever. On this occasion, with what I calculated to be 700 square feet or turf to lift, I borrowed a mechanical turf cutter. This handheld machine has a long blade that quickly moves back and forwards, seperating a few inches of grass from the soil beneath. You then just roll up the sods, cleaning up any missed bits with a spade. Two tonnes of earth and grass later, the ground was ready!
3. Planting
Once I had the bed marked out and turf lifted, I started digging over the soil and putting in the first plants.I wanted something with height for the centre, and something that would be evergreen, so I choose a bay tree. I bought this bay tree in a little pot from Sainsburys about four years ago, and put it in a pot, potting it on every few years.It's now over four feet tall.
I wanted to fill the bed with lots of herbaceous perennials, mixed with some flowering herbs and shrubs. I decided I needed a colour theme though, to narrow down my plant choice. Eventually I stumped for blue and white, to mirror the clouds and sky above. Although with regards to blue I would accept hues of purple and mauve etc.
So far plants added include:
BlueDelphinium (herbaceous perennial)
Campanula Caerulea (herbaceous perennial)
Polemonium (herbaceous perennial)
French Lavender (herb)
Lavender Grosso (herb)
Rosemary Officianalis (herb)
Eryngium Planum (herbaceous perennial)
Veronica Spicata 'Ulster Dwarf Blue' (herbaceous perennial)
Lupin (herbaceous perennial)
Catmint 'Six Hills Giant' (herbaceous perennial)
Hydrangea
Scabious
White
Hebe (shrub)
Spirea Snowdome (shrub)
Lemon Balm (herb)
Astilbe Ellie (herbaceous perennial)
Astilbe 'Weisse Gloria'
Erigeron Daisy (herbaceous perennial)
Rhodanthemum casablance (herbaceous perennial)
Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Overdam' (ornamental grass)
Curry Plant (herb)
Arinthum (herbaceous perennial)
Foxglove (herbaceous biennial)
Cleamtis (herbaceous biennial)
Bay and bronze fennel (herbs) - for textural structure and interest
4. Box Hedge
The box hedge will eventually serve a variety of purposes:
a. Provide year-round interest and form in the area.
b. Be a uniform green frame for the plants inside it.
c. Give a formal, knot garden style to the area.
d. Provide some shelter to the plants all year round.
e. Stop people (and rabbits hopefully) going into the bed itself.
5. Bark mulch
Although I had taken the top layer of grass off, inevitably weed seeds will blow into the bed. In order to hold back their vigour, I wanted to provide a mulch over the area. I considered stones, but I will be planting more in the area over time, so without a weed-proof membrane, they begin to mix with soil and look messy. They also get knocked out onto the grass and damage the lawnmower. I thought about compost, but my experience is that it does not suppress the weeds.
Eventually I stumped for chipped bark, because from a distance it looks like soil, it doesn't look bad if it gets mixed up with some soil, and it is quite easy to push back, when planting new things in the bed.
The finished result is below
Comments
Post a Comment