When we first moved here, nearly 10 years ago now, the 1.5m deep border alongside our garage was a mass of field grass with a couple of conifers, a Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’ and a struggling honeysuckle. This is also one of the first things any visitor to the house, or indeed cul-de-sac, sees as it fills the gap between the garage and the road. It was clearly madness to try to cultivate such a tiny area of grass here – who wants to lug a mower all the way around to the front of the house just to cut an area 1.5m by 5m? Needless to say, it rarely got mown, so one of the first things I did once I’d unpacked some boxes was dig it out. I was full of plans to turn it into a lovely but low maintenance border, something that would be welcoming when I, or our neighbours, came back after a hard day’s work. What actually happened was that I concentrated my rookie gardener’s attentions on the back garden, which was also full of scrubby grass and ill-judged municipal-style planting in sad pockets here and there.
Instead, the garage border became the dumping ground for plants that had out-stayed their welcome round the back but I hadn’t the heart to chuck out. Over time the class of plant that got dumped here improved as my own gardening style developed. Above is what it looked like yesterday morning. Not a total disaster, but hardly likely to make anyone say “how lovely” either! So yesterday I set out to attempt the next phase of making it more border than dumping ground, not least because we have a load of daffs to plant here.
The Lysimachia clethroides is a beautiful plant, but a thug – it spreads rapidly by rhizome. I will almost certainly regret not planting it in a pot to contain the root-ball… I have no idea which hardy geranium is hogging the front of the border with such vigour – a friend gave me 3 small clumps when I first moved, and it too is a thug, but with beautiful deep violet flowers in late spring and early summer. I suspect it would flower again were I to ever get around to hacking it back after its first flush, but as you have no doubt realised this border is rather neglected. Equally obviously this geranium is currently rather too much of a good thing, and needs taming. The fuchsia is almost entirely smothered by it.
I’m not actually a great fan of fuchsias. I am learning to accept them because they are a favourite with my Father-in-law, and as we will be sharing a house – and garden – for many years to come, it is part of learning to garden with others. This particular fuchsia, however, is special. It is a cutting from a cutting from my Nan’s garden, who died many years ago but who I loved very much. I have many childhood memories of playing in their garden on summer visits, and this fuchsia features in many of them. It obviously stuck in my mind somehow, along with snapdragons – which I also now indulge in. In fact, in writing about this border I am realising how many stories it holds. Even stylistically, it reflects my love of contrasting foliage shapes. Anyway, back to the plot (!)


I’m still not happy with the right hand end of the bed. Although I think the combination of the Carex and Echinacea will work (assuming the plants thrive), what I really want to do is move the beautiful large Miscanthus with the pale cream striped in the leaves to where those plants are, where at least for a largish chunk of the year it will mask the bins very effectively. It will also enable me to move the other, shorter Miscanthus, currently barely visible behind the Eupatorium to slightly to the right of where the large Miscanthus is currently, which in turn will reveal the Phormium tenax. That way these large and beautiful plants will have room to display themselves rather than jostling for position like punters queuing for the latest Apple gadget. But that’s for the Spring, and assumes I don’t cast out more plants from the back garden that require a new home, and that by next Spring I have the time and energy to remember this poor relation…
Permalink
Lovely photos! You have a nice blog.
Permalink
It has come a long way from euonymous and honeysuckle for sure. I think it most inviting and love those geraniums. That fatsia is awesome. My eye is drawn to it right away. I’ve tried to grow it here but the winters kill it out. How special to have a piece of your Nan’s fuschia. Gardening is such a great connector and memory jog.
Permalink
Some very familiar plants there Janet :) I look forward to reading and seeing more about this border in the spring. I think that your geranium is geranium macrorrhizum (do the leaves have a distinct aroma?) which does spread somewhat. I like the look of your lysimachia ~ will have to investigate. I have lysimachia ephemerum which stays nicely put :)
Permalink
@Iowa Gardening Woman – having visited your blog, with it’s stunning photos, thank you, that is an amazing comment…
@Tina – Definitly getting there… I often find I have to hack blackened leaves off the Fatsia in the Spring, but I think it is worth it – I love the flowers too.
@Anna – love the sound of a lysimachia that stays put, and that one does look lovely, I may need to investigate further… I do have a geranium that has very distinctively smelling leaves, but it has white flowers. My thug’s leaves don’t seem to smell at all. The mystery continues, but you have at least identified my smelly geranium – its Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Alba’. Thank you!
Permalink
Lovely post. Keep up the good work! Am especially a fan of Lysimachia: also love Lysimachia ciliata ‘firecracker’ as well. Although mine has spread onto my lawn, and I’m endlessly digging it up and potting it on and giving it to friends.
Would love it if you posted links to your blog on gardengrab – you have a superb blog.
Permalink
Flattery will get you everywhere! Have submitted a link to this post and will try to remember to do so again. Thank you for the encouragement – and the pointer to the gardengrab website!
Permalink
No worries – just putting the post online now. Issy x
Permalink
What an interesting post, thank you for sharing your thoughts. You have some interesting plants in the border. Might I suggest that actually you have enough plants there already and that more might just be too many. Your blog is always beautiful. Christina
Permalink
Thank you Christina, what a lovely thing to say – and I sort of agree that there is enough in this border already, what I was trying to do by putting in the foxgloves and daffs was make sure that the bed always has something interesting. The fuschia, grasses and eupatorium are all late developers, I wanted some interest and structure in spring/early summer. My hope is that as the foxgloves are going over the grasses and eupatorium etc will take their place, and hide the dye-back. We’ll see! I will be much happier when I can move the miscanthus though. The large one deserves the space to show how graceful its form is, and the smaller one just deserved some space! One of my besetting sins, planting too much too closely…
Permalink
I always plant to closely too, I want to see the effect I have in my mind the first season, hence I put in 300 perovskia in the formal central beds and now just 30 months later I really need to remove half of them!
Permalink
Ah, but I bet it looked spectacular…