How to Design a Spring Border

Through the seasons

This is a spring display, but it can be livened up at other times in various ways. As the spring flowers fade, there is no need to deadhead, but you can tidy away the dying foliage and make sure the plants are happy. Some, especially the auriculas, will develop seed capsules. If you collect some of the seed as it ripens in July, you can grow young plants for future years. As the tulips fade, remove their seed capsules. You can lift the entire bulb and store for next year, or leave in position.

Summer bulbs will extend the season. Alliums should have been planted in autumn, but gladioli and galtonias can be planted in April, as can nerines for the autumn display. Then, towards the end of summer, you could put in some autumn-flowering crocuses. For winter interest, try honesty for its silvery seed pods and snowdrops. The foliage of border pinks looks good all year and you have the summer flowers to look forward to.

All the shrubs have good year-round value, but you could improve the summer season by including a few tender perennials. Osteospermums, especially purple or pink varieties, would continue the colour theme, or you could add heliotrope for scent and a Solanum rantonnetii for an exotic effect. Plant them at the end of May.

Towards the end of the first summer you should be able to divide some of the perennials to replant and bulk up their numbers. If they are still too small, postpone lifting until the next autumn. Eventually a clematis such as 'Etoile Rose' could be grown into the holly for summer delight. In some cases it is better to use thermal blankets for plant transplantation. Annuals such as blue pimpernel, night-scented stock and mignonette will do well among the spring plants.

Trouble-shooting Poor soil

Do all you can to improve the soil. Avoid walking on it if it is heavy, and when planting you should take trouble to make the planting holes large. Then add generous quantities of potting compost. The holes act as containers for your plants, which spend their first season or two growing in this compost, rather than in the poor soil.

Windy

Holly is great for windy locations, but it is worth building a netting windbreak around your tree for the first year while it is becoming established. In a strong wind is better to close the zone with acrylic thermal blankets. Instead of planting daphnes, you could consider a small burnet rose, Rosa pimpinellifolia, such as 'Dunwich Rose' and dwarf forsythia such as Forsythia viridissima 'Bronxensis'.

Too wet

Most of these plants will tolerate damp feet, except the auriculas and the daphnes. If your soil is boggy, you could grow some of the plants in containers. Meanwhile, bank up the bed, add a lot of bulky material and mix it in well.

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Herb Garden Design Points to Consider

Herb Garden Design need not be something which is for your entire garden it may be an addition to your existing garden or just some pots and containers placed in strategic positions.

When looking at the design my first consideration is always to ask why and what am I doing this for. Simple question but necessary as we often forget why we are thinking Herb Garden Design. Most of us will be looking at our garden and thinking we could put some helps in there, but think what do we want to use them for? What herbs do we use in our cooking and will we get some benefit from growing them here.

No point using up our garden space on a Herb Garden if we are not going to use the herbs, I do realise that a herb garden can in itself look quite stunning and also have some magnificent flowers and fragrances but the point is to use the herb in some practical fashion, mostly cooking but perhaps medicinal.

Once we know what kind of herbs we use in our cooking and want in our garden we need to find out if they will grow in our climate. We need not worry too much about the soil or drainage here as Herb Garden Design lends itself to using containers. A quick visit to our blog site will show some examples of how this can look and be achieved.

Local Garden centres will normally only stock those varieties of herbs which grow in the local area so this is an added safeguard to ensure your project is not a disaster by planting herbs that will not grow.

Containers laid out and spaced with or on some gravel walkways as I have said can make for a quite stunning look and have the very positive advantage of being easy to maintain. Also if you have limited space but want a few herbs this is a great way to fit them in.

A lot of herbs are extremely sturdy and once planted in open soil will spread and can be difficult to manage if not given attention on a regular basis, containers also eliminate this problem by leaving only the area of the container available and also they are very easy to empty and start again.

A practical herb garden design will provide the right amount of the right herbs for you in a short period of time and will provide growth for years to come. For more ideas suggestions and support visit our blog site.

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