Herbaceous Beds

A traditional herbaceous border without question is a spectacle. Unfortunately, there is a considerable amount of work involved in creating a successful border. To obtain the traditional effect a good deal of space is required. All other planting types are excluded and the achievement is a riot of color during the summer period only. The alternative is to use herbaceous material in groups within other shrub planting. The great advantage of this type of herbaceous planting is that a relatively small area is covered with the time-consuming plants, the larger areas can be of shrubs and ground-smothering perennials, specie roses, etc.

The effects of mixed planting can in fact be more satisfactory than the traditional herbaceous border, particularly as the season will be extended throughout the winter. Even in the small garden the same principles can be applied. When allocating space for a traditional herbaceous border, it should be noted that in order to achieve diversity of heights it will be necessary to make the border at least 8ft wide, depending on the scale of the garden. A narrow herbaceous border generally does not work satisfactorily.

Rock Gardens

The rockery is very often the ugliest part of a garden, and yet thousands of gardens have them. One of the problems with a rockery is that unless it is extremely well made it will look out of place. A rock garden should look as if it has always been there. There is nothing worse than the ‘pile of stones’ or ‘bits of concrete’ left over from the clearance of building sites.

In general, it is not advisable to include a rockery in the garden. If it is to be included, be sure to use large stones and make use of the natural slope of the land. The rocks should ideally look like a possible outcrop of boulders. As large stones are going to be used, it will probably be necessary to employ a contractor with the necessary equipment to position and set your rockery stones correctly.

Talus and Alpine Gardens

These should preferably be associated with rock features and natural slopes. In terms of allocating space, talus and alpine gardens can be as small as you like, even to the point of being an alpine garden in an old stone sink. In contrast you could have a large talus feature, but it should preferably be put into the context of the entire garden rather than treated as a separate entity.