planting design ▲
The planting plan for the garden is all in our heads, and we discuss it all the time. It’s a collective thing that we do together, but I lead the way, as you have to have a creative lead. We all eat, sleep and live this place - we know what seedlings are coming up, what’s ready, how many of each we have - and people are champing at the bit to make combinations. That process starts at seed-ordering time, when everyone is allowed to order one seed they want to grow and put into a combination. This gets even the most timid people into that creative zone, looking forward, questioning themselves and analysing. We are always experimenting. Last year, we played with the stock beds. We cut into them with lots of self sowers and ran through a lot of cow parlsey and
In the long border, we plant pockets with bedding that are cleared every year. All the other plants are permanent. We analyse the border through the year, and look for weak points that have to be adjusted. They go into the notebook, and we work on them over winter and spring. Then we see how the changes work, and if they do work, they remain for a few years, until they fall apart again. We develop the planting like this, in a very reactive, piecemeal sort of way.
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Sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis, sits alongside Weigela ‘Florida Variegata’, which really should be considered more often for its variegated leaves and pale-pink flowers.
The backbone of the planting is shrubs such as this cotinus. We are equal opportunities growers here at Great Dixter - we will try whatever, and don’t have a problem with any particular plants such as shrubs or grasses.
One year we’ll use cow parsley for a sea of white here; or we’ll run the lime-green of parsnips through. Next year, we may use a mauve larkspur or a verbascum.
June 2014 the english garden 91