Working on the Woodland

I was recently offered the chance to preview eminent plantsman Keith Wiley's new book, Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden: Plants and Combinations that Thrive in the Shade.

If you are interested in creating a woodland garden, or even a woodland patch within your garden, then this book will become an invaluable source of information. The visual appeal is always important to me in a gardening book, and this one has it in spades (excuse the pun!), with plenty of inspiring photographs depicting wonderful and practical woodland planting combinations.  Keith Wiley offers his vast knowledge of woodland planting throughout, and an informative and extensive directory helps you choose the right plant for the right place. It really fired up my imagination to get out and make a few changes in my own little woodland border.

Now, my area couldn't be classed as strictly woodland, I'm not sure you'd find many bamboos on your Sunday stroll through the woods, although Keith does give them a mention in the book. The majority of the plants here do fit in with a woodland theme though. Of course there are ferns. Many ferns!

In fact, there are ten in this small area, and I was delighted during my recent garden revamp to discover three baby Cristate Male Ferns just behind the parent plant. I've potted these up and am looking forward to filling the space out with them (what little is left) when they're a bit bigger. It is definitely one of my favourite ferns thanks to it's tall, statuesque dark green fronds.

After reading Keith's book, I decided to move all of the Hellebores scattered around the garden to this area. I've always thought they looked rather out of place in the other borders but never knew what to do with them. They look so much more natural here, especially the tall Xsternii which was a bit of an eyesore elsewhere.

I've always been stumped by this shady little patch right of the bamboo, against the fence where it meets the patio. Nothing much grew here, and I've tried many plants over the years. I could have added another fern, but wanted something with a spark of colour that would cover the fence. Thanks to the book, I think I have now found the low maintenance solution...a Pieris!

This one was growing in my front garden, or rather outgrowing the raised bed it was in. I'm sure it will happily romp away here.

I let plants like Campanula and Hardy Geraniums have free reign in this border. They looked lovely in the summer.

Dianthus are slowly starting to spread out and clothe the border edges.

And hopefully the Brunnera will do the same. It seems that just as a new plant pops up, it gets destroyed by slugs and snails. I've already picked half a dozen nibbled leaves off the three that have survived from last year.

Not a woodland plant, but one that really adds some colour is Houttuynia 'Flame'.  It's planted in a pot in the ground here as it is incredibly invasive, I do keep a close eye on it too. It prefers damp soil, so being able to control the moisture in a pot is ideal.

Colour is what has been missing from this border during late summer, other than green, so I've moved all of my Japanese Anemones here and I have more growing on to go out next year. They should mix nicely with the earlier flowering plants that are already here.

And I love my Acer! This is Sango-Kaku. It has yellow/orange leaves in Spring that turn green in summer , change to pink and then yellow in the Autumn. So pretty! This is in a pot in the ground as it can have quite a large spread and I don't want it taking over.  It seems to be doing really well and I'm highly impatient for it to get a bit taller.

Natural ponds can appear in woodlands and my ones here in the border have matured nicely.  The frogs really appreciate having all the undergrowth to hide in and sitting on the bench and looking back on the woodland patch is relaxing.

I'll be adding some spring bulbs here and then I think it will be mostly complete. One border down, three more and a front garden to go!

I hope you enjoyed my little woodland patch tour. Keith Wiley's book will be published by Timber Press early 2015 and will be available from AMAZON. One to add to your Wishlist!

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Working on the Wildlife Ponds

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Garden Favourites

Some of my favourite flowers are in bloom now, or in bud, waiting to burst forth. There are plenty of Dicentra throughout the garden.

I love the way this one is mingling with the Chives and Aquilegias.

And the Aquilegias, my favourite garden flower, are everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE! These are Clementine Purple, a really lovely variety for contrasting with other brighter colours. 

I have so many, I've kind of lost touch with the names of each one, but I know there are Winky Blue and Whites and Black Barlow around somewhere too.

As anyone who has them in their garden will know, they are prolific self-seeders. I love spotting little patches of their new seedlings, and really don't mind that you never know how the flower on the grown plant will eventually look. I love them all! 

Foxgloves and Poppies are getting ready to bloom, with the promise of glorious colour.

And the Alliums dotted all over the garden are emerging from their jackets.  I added some white ones late last year, so I'm keen to see how they'll look.

As far as work in the garden goes, well, I've been really busy again. We had a few very warm days so I got all the jobs done that I didn't know needed doing until I really studied certain areas.  Some of the Ferns in the  shady area got trimmed back now their new fronds are emerging. The larger Dryopteris ferns were done about two months ago as they looked messy and tend to unfurl earlier. Underneath some of the dead leaves, I was thrilled to find a self seeded baby fern.

It may look like a lot of bare space in front here, but when the fern leaves fully unfurl, they drop and cover this whole area.

I added a new Astilbe, just behind the foxgloves and poppies here.

And a Brunnera, which I love for it's delicate Forget-Me-Not type flowers and variegated leaves.  It should like it here as the soil is  moist in front of the wildlife ponds.

I also think I've solved the climber dilemma I had in THIS post. I've planted Clematis Special Occasion to scramble up the shed, and an evergreen Honeysuckle Henryi to twine around the Lilac. That may take some time to get going though, as I managed to snap off the main growing stem while planting it!

One other purchase was for the back wall. This was exposed when the Leylandii were chopped down a few years ago and since then I've been trying to clothe it in plants to cover up it's ugliness. The Pyracantha has done brilliantly along with Clematis Pixie, and the Ivy is now getting a good foothold and has started to creep upwards. I spotted this pretty Solanum 'Glasnevin' in the garden centre though, and thought it would be perfect to fill the left hand side. The little flowers are so pretty. If it's happy here, it should spread out nicely.

I also did some rather back breaking digging, moving my large Bay from one side of the back area to the other. It was sitting just in front of the Raspberries before and they were threatening to overtake it, so it's now in a new home with only a Hardy Geranium for company at present. I gave it a good trim too, and it's looking much healthier.

A whole new patch in the garden was added too, taking inspiration from my visit to KEW GARDENS. Can you guess what I planted? All will be revealed in my next post.

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