A new garden.

Martin and Judy moved to their brand new home exactly six months ago. Prior to this , I made weekly gardening visits ( for 15 years ) where I designed, renovated, pruned, planted and weeded. A couple of years ago I wrote ” Judy ” a blog as a birthday present.

I first met Martin and Judy in 2007. Initially I focused on the long border from their gates right down to the front door ( about 35 metres) . Highly pruned roses became multi stemmed shrubs. The montbretia foliage grew in size to become vast blocks, which looked spectacular in spring as the dappled light illuminated their foliage. There was never the time to divide up the corms, so over the years the monbretia flowers practically petered out, but the impact of the plants foliage outweighed this. My intention was to create an ornamental woodland , and the images below detail this. I truly loved the Philadelphus arch , the scent was incredible as you wound down the pathway. It is my favourite memory from their Ironbridge garden

Being their gardener for such a long time was great, as it enabled me to create new outdoor spaces over the years . Their garden was never a finished article, and we were constantly coming up with new ideas, right up to the point when their old house went up for sale. And after that, we started discussing the new garden. It became a hot topic of conversation over coffee.

Martin and Judy’s new garden, is a rectangle , without a single perennial, tree or shrub to renovate. The soil is interesting – mainly builders rubble, top soil , clay and sand. And so far there has been very little evidence of worms .

I felt the need to document this worm – after seven hours of planting, it really was the first I found. I wished it well, and covered it up, just in case a bird had also spotted it . Worms are vitally important, when eating, as they break down organic matter within the soil – such as dead plants, fallen leaves, fungi and bacteria. This helps to naturally fertilize the earth and ensure that it is packed with nutrients for healthy plant growth. Just outside the boundary, there is a woodland of rowan, cherry and silver birch trees. We are very much hoping that in late autumn the leaves will fall into the garden – the worms will love them !

When driving home, I thought, that maybe I should have left the annual weeds on the surface of the soil. They had been removed to the green bin, after they had been hoed off. The soil looked and felt so impoverished, the annual weeds would have provided organic matter as they decomposed. I will remember to do this next time, but I will remove the seed heads first though.

40 containers were packed into the delivery van on moving day, which meant we had some plants to start off with. Initially, I was unsure how we might use them. However , when we started discussing the new planting design, it really was quite a light bulb moment . The central bed, would be designed using only the plants from their Ironbridge garden . The two adjacent raised beds will purely be a combination of soon to be acquired ornamental grasses and sturdy perennials. I very much like the idea of combining old and new plants to make this garden.

Agapanthus, marjoram, linaria, iris, house leeks, hostas, salvias, snowdrops, grape hyacinth’s, violets, hardy geraniums , veronicastrums and japanese anemones have now been removed from their containers and planted.

I spent several days thinking about the planting design. It was so important to get it right, as it is viewed from several windows. I allowed myself the freedom of not drawing up a measured planting plan, which enabled me to move the containers around, until I felt they were in the right place. I wanted to create a cohesive design, that looked like it had been there for years. For example with the marjoram, which excels at self seeding. I planted a large clump. and then several smaller pieces within 30- 40 cm, distance. I was really quite happy with how it looked after all the containers had been planted. It just needs to grow and self seed of its own accord now.

This is a great new planting project to be part of, and one that will definitely be part of my writing over the coming seasons.