The Rhododendron bed, or the Sunset Bed, is in urgent need of a makeover, so I’m making this the subject of my End of Month Review. Plants have been seeding around and the end result has become rather a jumble. I have been buying a few plants recently that are meant for this area, but first, before they can be planted, the muddle of seedlings has to go, along with all the weeds that are there at the moment. The soil will then need improving with our own compost and then eventually will be mulched with our own leafmould.
Rhododendron.
This Rhododendron is the first to go, it was moved about 10 years ago and has never really established itself and hardly grown at all. Compared to the other Rhodos next to it, it looks positively unhappy! If plants aren’t performing, then I’m afraid they have to go!
Rhododendron Lem’s Cameo.
Look how small the root ball is, it has hardly grown at all since it was moved all those years ago, no wonder the leaves looked sickly and the flowers are so sparse.
There is a Woodland path in there somewhere!
Somewhere in there is a path leading through the wide bed, so that weeding can be done more easily. The ordinary spotty dotty Pulmonarias have been seeding everywhere, so 95% can come out. I feel guilty doing this as the bees love them, but needs must.
Woodland path.
The path is starting to emerge, but there are still a lot more seedlings to remove. The bees were still coming to the flowers even when they were in the wheelbarrow, but the bees needn’t worry though, I’m planting 2 special pulmonarias which are much better behaved!
Sunset border
Slowly but surely, spaces are beginning to appear. While working in this area, I’m having to be careful of all the dying snowdrop and daffodil foliage.
Sunset bed.
This border is in shade until about 3pm, when it then has sunshine until sunset – hence it’s name! Therefore I reckon that yellow, orange, pink, blue and purple will be the colours here. You can see the black name tags for my special snowdrops, so I will have to keep them in mind when I come to plant.
Stepping stones.
At last I have found the wooden circular stepping stones!
Into the jungle.
The undergardener has been weeding the path from the other end which starts in the bog garden, I think we will meet in the middle somewhere, I hope so. I have a feeling that the path continues under all the crocosmia leaves that have put themselves there, maybe I will have to move the path, it would probably be easier!
Weeding done.
All the weeding of unwanted seedlings and weeds has now been done, leaving lovely spaces that I can now fill once I have improved the soil with a load of our own compost.
New plants.
This is where the fun starts! These are plants bought over the last few months and even, dare I say it, bought last year, poor things. Unfortunately fate was against us last autumn when I should have been re-doing this border, it is only now that I have the time to put my plans into place. It is definitely time they all got their roots into some lovely soil.
Plants in place.
I’ve had great fun placing all the plants where I think they will look best, but who knows, maybe I will change my mind tomorrow! Contrasting the colour, shape, size and texture of leaves as well as taking into account how tall each of the plants will grow, plus the colour of the flowers is like doing a three dimensional jig-saw puzzle!
I will wait until the soil is nice and soft once more with the rain that is forecast, before digging compost in and doing my planting, no point in making things more difficult than they need to be. Hopefully the finished result will be done in plenty of time for next months review.
Many thanks to Helen at The Patient Gardener for hosting this meme each month, so that we can keep track on how our gardens are progressing. Please pay her a visit to see what other gardeners are doing in their gardens.
You can at last see the path for the weeds Pauline 🙂 What a difference even just clearing somethings out has made. Maybe the delay in starting has allowed you more thought and planning into how this space will turn out. Plenty of healthy looking replacements there. It’s such a good feeling to plant new plants isn’t it.
I remember you made a comment re my wee Geum, Dingle Apricot and how it would look good in your sunset border. I intend to divide some when it it has finished flowering, would you like some? You can let me know. There is a contact me button on my blog.
What a difference indeed Angie, it looks so much better now. I agree, I’ve had time to think through my project more thoroughly and knew exactly what I wanted and where to put it. Torrential rain is forecast for today, so hopefully I can get planting tomorrow. I love the planning and planting stage, it’s the weeding I’m not so fussy on!
I think I may take you up on your very generous offer, thank you so much, I will be in touch!
It seems there was a lot of work to uncover that path! But well worth it, and your selection of new plants is beautiful. I look forward to seeing the completed Sunset Bed, through which you can stroll at the end of the day, admiring the beauty and thinking of new projects!
It was Deb, but so worth it! Hopefully I will be able to plant up tomorrow as we have lots of rain forecast for today, which should make the soil nice to work with. I had to laugh at the thought of strolling along the path, thinking of new projects, I might admire the plants but I really don’t need any more projects, not this year anyway!
Hi Pauline,
Well done with all your work! I too have some stepping stones through borders.. I know only one border has managed to keep some. I discovered a couple more steps I’d forgotten I had placed earlier this year! They make it much easier to work around without the worry of killing other plants… That is, as long as the plants don’t grow over/around them hide them.
It was the same problem here Liz, plants grow, seed around and before you know it, it’s a jungle out there! I’ve known for some time that I should remove all the pulmonaria, but took pity on the bees, as they love it so much. There are plenty of other plants they can visit while waiting for 2 special pulmonarias to grow a bit. I will have to be more vigilant and not let plants grow over the stepping stones any more.
Gosh, what a lot of work, but such fantastic results! Those new plants already look wonderful!
Oh…the poor Rhodo, now what on earth upset it so?
I always feel guilty removing seedlings, and even guiltier when discarding seedlings instead of potting them all on…..good to see you reclaiming your paths and stones.xxx
I think possibly moving the Rhodo Dina, and then of course, did I look after it properly once I had moved it, probably not! If the plants had been worth keeping they would have been potted up and sold at our church sale, but I didn’t want to pass on my problems to someone else! It now all looks a lot better and far more interesting than before.
What a difference the weeding has made. I do like that Rhododendron…it’s a shame that it hadn’t performed at all. But the new planting looks really lovely!
The Rhodo was really sickly Matt, there was something wrong with the buds too, they weren’t opening properly and if they did, the flower was half brown, I think they had something living in there! It has been replaced with my lovely new Acer which should be beautiful in spring and autumn.
Hi Pauline,
I can’t wait to see next month’s post…..Your sunset garden is beautiful and an inspiration as I work on my woodland garden. Your unproductive Rhoddy makes me wonder about the pathetic little one I have……a move my be inorder…
Happy Gardening!
Some of my Rhododendrons were small for a while after I planted them Sally, then all of a sudden they must have decided that they like it here, and have grown! I think maybe I didn’t look after mine properly after I moved it, but the flower buds looked as though they were diseased, so it had to go.
A gardener’s work is never done! I am in the midst of several such makeovers. I struggle with the same sorts of issues- too many seedlings crowding other plants and plants that under perform.
I find you can spend a lot of time trying to find new homes for seedlings. I feel guilty if I through them on the compost pile, but in cases like feverfew, I have seedlings in vast numbers. I simply can’t keep them all.
I think borders need a re-think every 10 yrs or so Jennifer. Sometimes plants outgrow their space and crowd out others, too many seedlings can swamp precious plants and it all needs sorting out before all the lovely plants that were first planted just give up and die. I agree, not all seedlings can be saved, I only save seedlings that may be a bit unusual and other people would like, pulmonaria, feverfew and Alchemilla mollis go in the compost!
Sounds like fun, even if it is hard work. It must be good to be getting out in the garden again and planting new things. It does sound strange to me pulling out Pulmonarias as mine rarely manage to produce seedlings. But glad to hear you have some others to put in! Hope you get the rain you need, Pauline. 🙂
It is good to be outside once more Cathy, I’ve missed working in the garden.It has been raining for most of today, thank goodness, so maybe tomorrow I will get all my plants in the soil.
I hope that you and the Undergardener eventually met up Pauline and that you both are not still out there busy weeding away in all this wind and rain. It looks as if you have some fabulous plants waiting to fill in the vacant space. I’m wondering what your two special pulmonarias are 🙂
We eventually saw each other Anna, there is still about 3 ft of path still to be weeded, but by that time we had both had enough! The rain has softened the soil so I’m hoping that today we can dig in some compost and start planting. The two pulmonarias are Sissinghurst White and Blue Ensign. I must remember to cut them back once they have finished flowering so that I don’t get masses of seedlings again.
So much work! The bed looks nice with the pots arranged on top and will look spectacular once all is in the soil. The nice punch of color that the Acer adds is very nice indeed!
After a lot of gentle rain yesterday Peter, I managed to get half my plants into the ground and the border looks better already. I’m hoping the Acer will be one of the most important plants in the bed, once it has grown a bit, I’m hoping the autumn colour matches up to the colour in the spring.
Nice work! I love your 3D jigsaw puzzle analogy – it is so true! Putting together a visually stunning garden is indeed a big puzzle. Can’t wait to see your puzzle evolve – it looks great already. 🙂
It’s a big puzzle where you can’t see half the pieces Anna, as they haven’t grown fully yet! Already the bed is looking a lot better than a lot of seedlings growing into each other!
Pauline it seems I have several beds that need to be weeded and seedlings removed….I love how wonderful your bed looks and am inspired to get to it this coming week finally!
Don’t work too hard Donna! I find that beds usually need an overhaul every 10 yrs, so try to do one bed each year, it seems to be working.
Dear Pauline , I really enjoyed this post. So interesting hearing your thinking and the process you go through to get such superb results. I agree borders need a rethink periodically.
Thank you so much Catmint. I feel borders take about 5 yrs to come together, fill out and look as you imagined they should, after another 5 yrs, they need editing. It also means that I have a good excuse to be buying plants, sowing seeds or taking cuttings!
I shall think of you when I trim back overhanging ferns or hellebores on the path through our woodland edge border – fortunately not so bad that anything needs to be removed yet although I am aware of an increasing number of hellebore seedlings which will probably have to go in due course… The pair of you did a great job and how lovely to have those new plants to put in (and a space to put them in, of course!) 🙂
For quite some time Cathy, I had been happy to have seedlings filling the spaces, but eventually I thought that the bed would look so much better if I cleared them out. I don’t know why I waited so long really, it looks so much better already and I have now sown some annual seeds in the spaces to fill the gaps while waiting for the permanent plants to fill out.