Lower South Garden

Lower South Garden

Given it is in the South West of England, a land not known for its deserts, this part of our Garden is hot, dry and dare I say barren. Unless that is you are a Marguerite, Campanula or one of the many weeds that seem not to care that the soil is as lifeless as hell and drier than the Sahara desert. Situated alongside the road it features a low boring wall of the 1970's, best covered up style of masonry, but that is the least of its problems. When we adopted it there was an expanse of weeds a few Holm Oak bushes, an absolutely enormous amount of wild Ivy and a Virginia creeper that certainly lived up to its name in so far as it crept, everywhere. Except that is where it was intended which was up the cliff. Yes there is a cliff, more about that in a minute. Whoever planted the Virginia creeper undoubtedly had grand plans for splendid autumnal colour and easy maintenance but didn't account for the minor detail that a Virginia creeper won't climb a limestone cliff. You need Boston Ivy for that! The cliff is about 4 metres (13 feet) high and about 18 metres (59 feet) with about 10 metres (32 feet) facing the road and the rest around the corner facing the drive. Between the foot of the cliff and the low boring wall I mentioned is the area that has potential to be garden or at least would be if not for the past sins visited upon it. When the (now infamous) low boring wall was built the owner saw fit to back fill, not with rich soil full of humus ready for a fabulous garden, but with vast amounts of limestone rubble and gravel. So that was our starting point. Basically a plot backed by a cliff so massively overgrown that we had no choice but to start again.

It all began more than two years ago. Two young lads with hard hats and a tipper truck, tasked with clearing the jungle. The hard hats were required wearing given the propensity for lumps of limestone, wrenched from the cliff face by Ivy and Valerium roots, to come raining down on the unwary head. This was to be the only bit of work contracted out and we did so mainly because of the shear volume of material to get rid of. It took them two days and filled the truck twice.

That left the wreckage to deal with. By wreckage I mean the huge piles of rock an soil that had come from the cliff, the Ivy, Valerium and other plants still proliferating in hundreds of crevices and the mess of a hedge at the top all overgrown with a mulitude of sins otherwise known as weeds. A long ladder and two weeks solid graft and the cliff is clean of weeds, the rockface is stable and the hedge is once more a hedge, albeit a very sad hedge. Only time and TLC will fix that. The site now looks roughly like this.

In all honesty this was taken slightly later and some ground clearance had taken place but nothing was to prepare me for what came next. It was now autumn 2019 and what with other commitments and preparations for winter nothing more would happen until the following year. Then a certain pandemic came along! Initially I decided that working alongside the pavement was stretching the "stay at home" rule a bit too far so it wasn't until late summer, when the rules relaxed, that things started moving again. 

There is only one way to remove tonnes of limestone rubble, pea gravel all enveloped in soil and a held together with a rich tapestry of roots and that's the hard way. A mini digger might have been able to get it out quicker but given the complex strata of bed rock I fear I would have been in there pulling it apart by hand anyway.

So the work that was to take Autumn 2020 and spring 2021 began. Probably a good idea to mention at this point that I work full time so have only evenings and weekends available to actually work on the garden. The pandemic helped out here as the family holiday was cancelled and we weren't visiting friends or partying (not that we do much of that!). The work was literally, dig out the big rocks and big roots and sieve out the smaller material. Here's a glimpse of what the operation looked like. Note the size of the rubble pile! I spent so many hours on hands and knees digging out rocks and sieving soil that the neighbours must have considered my marbles a little suspect and passers by would call out "got a big job there" and "bet you wish you'd never started"!

The remaining soil was awful. Absolutely, terrible, devoid of structure and containing nothing that might hold onto moisture. On top of that I had removed at least half the volume so the next task was digging in over 3000 litres of soil improver. 

Finally it is starting to look like a garden is a possibility. 

Over the two years it's taken to get to this point I have had time to think about what sort of garden to create. Ask many a garden designer and they would talk about various shrubs that would fill the space, be attractive and low maintenance but I had bigger ideas. Okay so there are problems of maintenance, after all I work full time and have the rest of the garden to maintain and this garden is also the furthest from the house at the bottom of our steep winding drive. What though if it was a beach? A beach full of beach cobbles, driftwood and shells? What if the planting was more Mediterranean perennials than shrubs? Could this garden be a profusion of flowers from Spring to Autumn leaping from a coastal scene? So I set out to create such an effect. 65 bags of cobbles, a boot load of driftwood and miles of weed membrane later and I had something that looked like a beach with holes. 


That was it, the hard work done and, as I kept saying to passers by, "planting is the fun bit"!

The plan was "Mediterranean" but let's be honest we're in England and there's a number of natives that get a look in (campanula, sedums, ivy-leaf toadflax etc.) as well as a few "features" such as the hydrangea paniculata that aren't exactly on point for that part of the world but so long as they look great and thrive I'll be happy. 

Plants getting a chance include: a dozen different salvias, scabious, oenothera lindheimeri, various dianthus, phlox subulatum, aqualegia, a selection of alliums, a few small hebes, a barberry, two honeysuckle, night phlox, helianthemum, lampranthus aurantiacus (ice plants), some primulas, a few Dutch iris (that I had lying around), some astas and an agapanthus. 

The initial planting looked like this...

and turned into this.










There is no feeling like all that effort resulting in something as beautiful as this!


Planting notes

When I have time I'll complete these and expand on the varieties of the salvias etc. 

Marguerite Daisy
Argyranthemum frutescens
Type: Perenial Herb
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -7˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Spring to Autumn
These pretty little daisies love sunshine, cope with drought and already do well in the lower garden. They are the only non-wild plant retained throughout this project. Marguerites will feature in clumps along (and hopefully flowing over) the low wall. It may work in the cliff as well so will try them out in some better resourced crevices.

Note: we have this in profusion!

Campanula (Serbian Bell Flower)
Campanula poscharskyana
Type: Perenial Herb
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -40˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Spring to Summer
Very common around here this showy mauve rock plant can be seen growing in a multitude of walls. Not surprisingly Campanula is doing its own thing on our cliff and in some crevices in the exposed bedrock. The only place it will be introduced is the bank at the top of the cliff.

Note: this is happily seeding itself into cervices in the rock.

Rock Rose
Helianthemum 'The Bride'
Type: Small woody perennial
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: May to August
These little rock roses are tough, hardy, drought tolerant and flower from late spring right through to midsummer. The nectar-rich flowers are loved by bees and other pollinators and set against a backdrop of silvery, semi-evergreen foliage is perfect in rockeries, gravel gardens or sunny, dry borders. The flowers come in just about every colour you can think of except blue!.

Note: Variety is indicative. We already have a red one of these in the upper rock garden which is unlikely to be big enough to split.

Creeping Phlox
Phlox subulata
Type: Perennial herb
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -18˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: May to August
This low growing perennial is perfect for rockeries or front of border positions, where it will form an evergreen mound of rich green leaves, which in late spring and early summer, is smothered with a mass of flowers. Drought tolerant once established.

Note: Variety is indicative. We have two varieties (three plants) in the border by the parking area and I have three more varieties (eighteen plants) currently growing from plugs in the greenhouse.

Allium
Allium
Type: Bulbous perennial
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Summer
Alliums include many familiar edible plants such as onions, leeks and garlic as well as attractive flowering types. The ornamental types are a great addition to the garden with their showy flowerheads in shades of blue, purple, white and pink, bringing globes of colour in spring and early summer. They are good cut flowers and the dried flowerheads give a long lasting display.
Alliums tend to grow fleshy leaves which often start to die down before the flowers are open, needless to say they are not grown for their leaves. Consequently it is necessary to pair alliums with other plants both to give colour long afterv the Alliums are finished and to hide the often less than attractive leaves. This doesn't apply to Allium Molly which is clump forming and flowers while it is in leaf. Some plants that pair well include Oenothera, Salvia, Verbascum, Geum and Erysimum along with grasses such as Briza media. More info on these plants can be found elsewhere on this page and here at Gardeners World.

Blue Allium
Allium 'caeruleum'
Type: Bulbous perennial
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Early summer
Allium caeruleum is a bulbous perennial, with narrow leaves that often wither by flowering time. Starry blue flowers are borne in compact, rounded clusters in early summer.

Round headed leek
Allium 'sphaerocephalon'
Type: Bulbous perennial
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Early summer
Allium sphaerocephalon is also a bulbous perennial, with narrow leaves but although it reaches a similar height Allium to caeruleum, it bears smaller reddish mauve flowers in denser clusters. These are the large flowered form of allium with colours ranging from pale blue through to deepest purple.

Note: variety shown here is indicative. Alliums come in a huge range of sizes and colours.

Golden garlic
Allium moly
Type: Perenial Herb
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -20˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Spring to Summer
Allium moly, also known as yellow garlic, golden garlic and lily leek. This small clump forming garlic flowers in late spring and early summer and reaches a maximum height of 30cm. Hopefully this will do well mid bed where the bedrock gets close to the surface.

Note: As far as I'm aware this is the only form that Allium Moly comes in so has to be this one!

Darwin's barberry
Berberis darwinii 'Compacta'
Type: Evergreen Shrub
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Spring
Berberis darwinii 'Compacta' is an evergreen shrub with small, densely-packed, holly-like leaves, red-tinged in spring. Hanging sprays of small orange flowers with touches of red appear in spring, followed by bunches of blue-black berries in autumn. Hight and Spread 0.5 Meter

Ice Plant
Lampranthus aurantiacus
Type: Succulent
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: 0˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Summer
Ice Plant is a generic name for a number of succulents but the one of interest is Lampranthus. Shown here is an orange Lampranthus aurantiacus. Lampranthus are succulents with unusually bright and colourful flowers which are plentiful, appearing between June and August. Flower colours vary from reds, oranges, pinks and purples and can sometimes be bi-coloured. Leaves are long, smooth and elongated and can be triangular or circular in nature.

Note: although not hardy they seem to survive in our vicinity both in gardens near by and in plantings on the sea front.

Ornamental Sage
Salvia
Type: Perennial herb
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -15˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Summer
Some of the most versatile plants around are salvias. Most varieties are wonderfully drought tolerant and feature beautiful flowers with pleasantly scented, attractive foliage. Plus, deer, bunnies, and other garden pests typically ignore the plants.
Oenothera
Oenothera lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies'
Type: Deciduous perennial
Sunlight: Full sun
Hardiness: -10˚C
Water: Average
Flowers: Summer-Autumn
A graceful, hazy plant with airy wands of white, fading to pink, star-shaped flowers with distinctive long anthers like daddy long-legs, held on slender stems from May to September. This exceptionally long-flowering perennial, with slender, grey-green leaves, looks equally at home in an informal cottage-style garden or among soft grasses in a new perennial border. This variety is particularly free flowering, drought-tolerant and will soak up the sun.

Name
Botanical name
Type:
Sunlight:
Hardiness: -7˚C
Water:
Flowers:
Details
Note:

Comments

  1. Kaye CookeMay 7, 2021 at 9:21 AM

    Sounds lovely so far... Can we find more daisy like flowers too?? Xxx

    ReplyDelete

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