Now that the paving stones are in place, the next step is planning the perennial borders along the walkways. I’ve been to practically every greenhouse in the city, some more than once, hoping to find just the perfect white perennials that grow in full sun in my growing zone. As it turns out, this may be a tall order!
I’ve decided to go with all white considering the rose garden (multi-coloured varieties) runs parallel to the left (in this photo), and the hydrangea bed runs on the right. I don’t want it to look too chaotic.
Ideally, I wanted to plant larger drifts of like plants, not a few of many different plants. This is where I’ve run into some frustration. Possibly I am impatient (probably), and the reality is that it’s early in the season, but I’m finding that the greenhouses have limited stock of each variety, or maybe there are other keen gardeners out there who have been a few steps ahead of me. I’m not giving up…I’ll continue to rack up the mileage on my car looking for…I’m not exactly sure what!
After a good sweep and clean-up of pots and gardening tools, the garden is starting to look presentable. Without the help of my garden angel, my niece, who has been here for the past couple of weeks, this project would be nowhere near this far along. She’s happy and very capable of doing all the tough and dirty jobs, and I couldn’t be more grateful.
Now that the grass is gone, the hydrangea border is considerably wider. Jamie, my helper, laid the paving stones around this border, and I’ve planted some white astible in front of the hydrangea. I will plant a hedge along this paving stone border if I can find enough Green Velvet boxwood plants. That may have to be postponed until next spring.
I’m looking for various foliage shapes and leaf colours, as well as plants that are either spiky, mounded, tall, short etc. This will be a test summer to see how the perennials I’ve chosen thrive in full sun (south/west exposure) and how they fare over the winter.
Plenty of open spaces within the beds allow me to add to if/when I find something else that will work.
xox Judy❤️
The Plant List (so far)
- Star Frost Globe Thistle
- Moody Blues White Speedwell
- Campanula
- Thymus Albiflorus
- Thymus Praecox
- Wormwood
- Snow Hill Salvia
- Bleeding Heart Coeur-saignant
- Green Velvet Boxwood
- Azalea Exbury (White)
- Earlybird White Columbine
- Sunner Snow Asiatic Lily
- Flame Pro White Summer Phlox