Border Auriculas

This month I decided to tackle one of the weed-coated areas around my pool to update it and make it look much more presentable. I removed all the old garden borders and edging, which were made of wood and vinyl and were disintegrating and cracking from being in the direct sun over the years. I replaced the borders and edging with brick, in addition to pulling a LOT of weeds! You may have seen my previous post detailing the border I made using concrete retaining wall blocks. For this project, I used much smaller bricks to build the borders and edging.

As we approach the second half of summer, borders can start to look tired and untidy, especially if you have packed them with early summer flowers, like irises, lupins and oriental poppies that have now faded. There are some simple tasks you can do now to keep your border looking good for longer. Filling any gaps in your planting and tidying away old flower stems and leaves can quickly restore a border to a healthy and colourful display that can last right through to autumn.

Border plants give your garden a more finished look by defining a space and adding another layer of color and beauty to your landscape. They can soften the hard boundaries of walks and driveways, delineate property lines, and add form and structure to unify your garden’s design.

Auricula, an evergreen primrose found in the mountainous regions of Southern Europe. Perhaps requiring a little cosseting, but well worth it.

Last year I fancied up my front porch by building a DIY Corner Bench with a Built-in Table (you can find that project here: http://www.pinspirationmommy.com/diy-corner-bench-with-built-in-table/) and a Firewood Rack. This year I decided the rest of the front of my house needs to be spiced up a bit as well.

Pallet projects seem to be flooding the world of DIY! And why shouldn’t they?! If you are lucky, you can get decent pallets for free and save on the cost of lumber for your projects. The problem with pallets… breaking them down. Luckily, this project doesn’t require all the prying (unless you really want to)!

Hosta Julie Morss

‘The Golden Hour’ is an exhibition by Andrea Jones – one of our most talented garden photographers – taking place at The Mill on the Fleet until May 19th. The photographs focus on the hour in the early morning and then in the early evening when the light in gardens is at its most diffuse and luminous.

The Walled Nursery at Hawkhurst is very good at arranging events to encourage repeat visits to the nursery. The most recent was an Auricula Event with one of the nicest displays I’ve ever seen of these delicate beauties – it wasn’t expensively done (basically a black box with tiered shelving) and some of the plants were in plastic pots, but the flowers just sang out. Every now and again I succumb and b

Bringer of Light to the Shady Borders Smyrmium perfoliatum is not the most attractive of plant names, but I’m delighted that I’ve finally established this delicate yellowy-green plant in the garden. It is not easy to grow from bought seed ( seed needs to be fresh, then chilled before sowing), so I bought some plants a couple of years ago and they are now self-seeding happily.

Border Bulletin Last autumn I emptied what had been a rather unsatisfactory border to allow building work on the house and replanted over the winter with a selection of new plants – some from elsewhere in the garden, some grown from seed, and a few bought specially.  It is starting to look wonderful, this week’s stars are the exploding allium schubertii.

Back to the Borders The fractured knee is healing well and as I get more mobile I’m gradually getting to grips with the borders that have been mouldering over the past 3 months or so. I know the theory is that we should leave everything until spring, but as I’ve been unable to do a gradual tidy I’ve needed to be fairly ruthless in order to sort out the chaos and find spaces to plant the bulbs.