Planting the first thirty-one plants into a border I had just drawn
The plan was drawn in August on a sheet of graph paper taped to the shed door, one square to 30 cm, with the border as a long rectangle nine metres by 1.8 and the shed shadow pencilled across the north end. I drew it four times. The principle I tried to hold to, from the books, was tallest at the back, shortest at the front, with groups rather than singles. Then I bought plants in late September and the plan collapsed on contact with what the nursery actually had.
What went in, thirty-one plants in all, mostly in 9 cm pots, a few bigger.
- Back row: three tall purple salvias, two delphiniums, three echinacea, one helenium, two tall white phlox.
- Middle: five hardy geraniums in two kinds, three astrantia, two tufted hair grasses, two Japanese anemones.
- Front: five alchemilla, three sedums.
Spacing was 40 to 45 cm between plants, which looked absurdly empty on the day and which the geraniums have since proved was too close. Each plant went into a hole twice the width of the pot, with the clay at the bottom loosened with a fork, a trowel of compost mixed in, and the plant set so the top of the rootball was level with the soil. Watered in with a full can each. The whole job took most of a Sunday, and the border afterwards looked like a lot of soil with a few green dots in it, which I had been warned about and was still disappointed by.
The mistake I had already made was in the buying. Thirty-one plants in fourteen kinds means most things are singles or pairs, and singles and pairs in a nine-metre border look like an accident. I knew the rule about groups of three and five and ignored it in the nursery because I wanted everything. I suspect I will spend a weekend correcting exactly this before long.
Also planted, on the same weekend, a hundred small bulbs along the front edge in drifts, crocus and small narcissus, pushed in with a bulb planter 10 cm deep. I have a feeling they will be the only part of this planting I never want to move.