This is a border at one of my customers houses last September. It had been annoying me for a while.
The lavender at the front wasn’t happy, always leggy and not easy to cut on the edge of the pond. It also seemed to die off easily, going all the way along originally.
At it’s worst it was full of bindweed and ground elder, this must be after I had weeded it and it doesn’t look that great even then. I always like to stress to my clients that I am not a designer but I like to think that I can do a planting plan.
With a bit of advice from my knowledgeable Allhorts colleagues, social media group, I came up with an idea.
This is in February, with the roses pruned hard, and sleeting!
And here with the lavender dug out and the first Stipa tenuissima planted in March. These were the only plants that I bought and I divided each one before planting. Along the edge of the pond I put catmint, Nepeta ‘six hills giant’, dug up from the main borders and in between the roses Verbena bonariensis, self-seeded seedlings also from the garden.
And now, in October.
I’m really pleased with how it looks, that it only cost about £20 and you can’t see the ground elder anymore!