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A flush of movement and year round colour to grace the car park
The front garden to this established house in Clee St Margaret, borders the car park. To start with we redesigned it to provide movement, contrast and seasonal colour for them to enjoy throughout the year.
First we had to remove any of the perennial weeds which were present in the soil, bindweed, ground elder and nettles were prevalent.
A path was constructed to permit access and lead the eye through the design and for this local stone was used to provide a firmer footing and tangiently link the design to its surroundings.
The herbaceous border we filled with some firm favourites;
- Grasses, Stipa tennuissima, Carex buchananii comans and Anemanthele lessoniana will form fountain like clumps of evergreen foliage, which adds sensory movement to the design as they billow in the slightest breeze.
- Cornus alba 'Sibirica' has been chosen for its bright red stems, which will provide winter colour and white flowers in May and June
- Nandina domestica 'Firepower' a compact evergreen rounded shrub with bamboo like leaves that turn red in autumn, provides a taste for the unusual
- Crocosmia 'Anna Marie' bears masses of orangey-red flowers throughout summer, nodding slightly towards those that walk through the border
- Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace' will grow to 3 metres in height but will tolerate being cut back. It lends a deep burgundy foliage to the planting scheme fruiting in autumn.
- The smokebush Cotinus coggyria 'Royal Purple' is a rounded shrub with rounded leaves which will give a good backdrop to the whole planting scheme
- Juniperus scopulorum 'Blue Arrow' adds structure and with its pointed form punctuates the design
- Tall and whispy form has been introduced with bronze leaved fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum') and Verbena bonariensis
- Hebe 'Red Edge' planted at the front of the garden border will provide year round interest, green leaves with narrow red margins, purple flowers in summer
- A head turner of a plant Sanguisorba 'Tanna' with green groundcover in spring is complimented by wine-red flowers in summer
- Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' has been planted under the lilac trees at the back of the border, which will produce panicles of red buds in late winter and white flowers in spring
- Japanese anemone (Anemone hybrida 'September Charm') lifts the planting plan producing masses of pink flowers on tall stems late in summer
- The wall has been planted with Aubretia 'Purple Cascade', Sedum rupestre, Nepeta x faassenii, Persicaria 'Donald Lowndes', Alyssum, London Pride, Alchemilla mollis, and Geranium spp. breaking the rugged dominance of this wall
- A thick layer of wood chip covers the entire bed to act as a mulch, reducing the maintenance and increasing the moisture retention during the summer months
The overall effect is one that will mature and develop in a relatively short space of time, but crucially will be low maintenance.