The iris bank planted

Err no. I never went near the chipper. Bebere and Etienne were working in the courtyard (building yet another flood defence), so I decided to do some quiet planting instead.

Two ingredients. I’m trying my best to restrict my planting palette to just two plants.

But this might not be the finished article. I’m having a play here.  Just raiding plants from the larder that is this enormous garden.

The iris came from just about everywhere – they love this sunny climate and reproduce happily.

And the stachys were forked out of the barn garden which has an excess of ground cover.

It’s all a bit dotted. And I am not keen on the clash of the grey of the stachys and the green of the iris. Hence my design dithering. I will only know next summer if it has settled down.

That’s the fun of gardening; you have to chuck things in and see.

And speaking of fun. Here are some autumn colours in the hedge.  I do like this electric autumn zing. It cheers me up during the dreary grey days.

Field maples: simple, unpretentious field maples.  They tolerate the dry well here.

Mind you, there hasn’t been much of that this year.