Shade planting

I was so appalled by the shots of my project today I had to distract you with the Shade Garden.

Good planting there. All appropriate. The lilies get a bit chewed and don’t waft through the shrubs. And the hemerocallis get scorched. But it’s a minor quibble. I love my shade garden.

It works.

I had dreaded doing what I needed to do in the rest of the lavender bank that I even cleaned and tidied my potting shed all morning to avoid.

And if you knew me, then you would realize what a perfect prevarication process this was. Whenever I need to start a new project in Film Script Land I have to tidy my office. Really tidy. Sort the paper clip and file the bank statements tidy.

So with the sun getting higher and ruining my chances of a pleasant toil I took my wheelbarrow, my secateurs and my courage.

Lavender. Growing under a rarely pruned olive tree. In front of the wretched plums (see last week). And we all know that you can’t prune back into the dead wood on a lavender and hope to get regrowth.

This is an appalling sight: but a salutory one.

I kept the lavenders that are luckily in full sun.  I kept the euphorbias that have self seeded. They obviously like this dry shady spot.

But I now have gaps. Great gaping areas of dirt.

I don’t want to rush this.

If I take a walk up to the shade garden I can see that shrubs will do. The viburnum tinus, the privet. A bit dull. But they will grow to the right height and girth to compete with the euphorbia and lavenders.

Iris foetidissima. That is a must. I love the strappy leaves. I could mimic the look and mass plant irises. they might not flower in this shade, but they will present a good profile.

Am I getting boring? I keep finding iris to solve all my planting problem areas.

But I think I might try a new favourite plant on the side that gets a bit more sun. Perovskia. Russian sage.  It ressembles lavender but doesn’t do the mass extinction in the same way.

Yes. That is on my wish list.

I’m not doing it justice. It flowers around the same time as lavender. But longer. And is more airy and delicate as a plant. I have some new ones in the dry garden and they are quite happy in full sun. In poor soil.

So I might stagger off to the compost heap with the detritus and plan on some perovskia cuttings tomorrow. My huge batch all died while I was away in London earlier this month. Start again. Plants for free. Just grit your teeth and get on.

Ooh and as a treat. Have a look at these plants I grew from seed that are now in the dry garden. Please don’t ask me what they are. I thought they were rudbeckia. But when I do go out to take cuttings, I will scrabble about and see if I have left a label.