First calabert bed

So here we go. I have the plants, and I have my planting chart and time to get this first bed dug over.

To start I had to take out the lingering weeds and carefully stack the good mulch to one side. There are a few eragrostis left behind, but I think I can plant around them.   It’s a very long and thin bed. 12 metres long and not much more than a metre wide at the narrow point under the apple tree.  

But once dug over I was ready to go.   Out came the Filippi plants.   For this bed I had a mix of lavenders, cistus, a choisya, eleagnis, gonolium, rosemary, agapanthus, a ballota and three perovskia.   Two of the perovskias I took out of the lilac bed where they were frankly ailing.   Oh, yes, and a few santolinas.   Primrose Gems.

I followed the odd instructions that Filippi swear by; wide shallow planting holes, space for a deep and heavy watering later.

I actually used gravel as a mulch. I don’t think it will interere with the watering regimes.   But it does mark out where the teensy plants live.   And I was being very disciplined indeed: look at the spaced between the plants. Lots of bare earth that will need attending to with a deep mulch later.

But here is the end of the day’s results: the first calabert bed.