Country garden Wiltshire

The client’s initial brief was to design a traditional herbaceous border for a long, sunny, sheltered walled border but was then revised to include two other borders which together created a charming back garden to the property.

The new herbaceous border was planted with Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb’ and Lavender ‘Hidcote’ to provide evergreen structure. Bronze fennel, red crocosmia, bright blue delphiniums, feathery pale mauve thalictrums and the soft spires of Veronicastrum ‘Lavendulturm’ gave height at the back of the border. Orange helenium, bright pink echinacea, deep red achillea and white gaura filled the middle and edging was provided by frothy Erigeron karvanskianos, bee-loving ornamental origano and deep purple salvias.

The second border was completely cleared apart from an existing Forsythia and Viburnum plicatum and was then redesigned with a selection of shrubs, plants and bulbs with a green, white, yellow and purple colour palette to create interest in the Spring.

The existing viburnum plicatum was first moved to the middle of the border and then a small lilac was planted at the other end. Skimmia ‘Kew Green’ and Euphorbia polychroma were planted throughout the middle and purple and white geraniums, pale yellow Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ and pale lime green Alchemilla mollis were used to edge. As a final splash of colour deep purple irises were planted in drifts throughout the border. In Autumn purple Iris reticulata and a combination of white and pale yellow narcissi will be planted to complete the scheme.

This border was the largest and again had been completely cleared except for one blue plumbago shrub and a wish from the client to replace their old and woody Cotinus.

The border was redesigned to create interest throughout the year with a mixture of shrubs and perennials and using a colour palette of blues, purples and pinks. Structure was created with the new Cotinus additional plumbago shrubs, potentillas and a Viburnum tinus ‘LisaRose’. Deep pink Sedum ‘Autumn Joy, pale blue Perovskia, bright pink Lychnis coronaria, deep purple Penstemon ‘Raven’ and silvery blue Eryngium planem were then planted throughout the border which was edged with a combination of Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ and Alchemilla mollis. White and deep red alliums are to be added at a later date.