Help, I’ve run out of space!

We’ve all been there – bought a plant on a whim and brought it home.  But there is NO MORE ROOM for new arrivals, so what are you going to do with it?  

We have some ideas for you, but be warned, Laura has got hold of some new rather radical notions……..

Known as I am as the sensible and practical gardener, I would make a plea for not forgetting the vertical aspects of a garden.  You may have run out of ‘floor’ space but you can always go upwards, using the area above ground level more effectively. 

Using traditional climbing plants such clematis, vines, ivies, climbing hydrangeas, sweet peas, wisteria, honeysuckles, climbing roses, etc. on pergolas, walls, obelisks and trellises are the obvious way to have masses of flower power in spite of a relatively small ‘footprint’.

There is something else you can do with that-plant-you never-meant-to-buy. Bung it in a pot. You can containerise almost any plant. A Dawn Redwood might be a challenge, but as long as the pot’s big enough and you’ve chosen the right compost, you console the conundrum of squishing yet another treasure into the border by settling it into a glam container or planter. It’ll

a) brighten up the patio, path to the front door, or even a dark and weedy corner

b) bring scented plants nearer to folks’ noses

c) bring tactile plants nearer to their hands

and

d) in my experience, pots will often lift the plants out of the reach of VERY TIRESOME pests that would ravage them.

So many wins! Laura would add that she can also haul containers of tender things in and out of her glasshouse – too much slog, I reckon. But that might all change, because she’s off on one of dramatic forays into new-think horticulture. Are you braced?………….

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Listen up folks – I’ve been to a transformative talk (hosted by the Sussex branch of the excellent Hardy Plant Society), given by my new horticultural hero, Kevin Hughes, from Cally Gardens in Dumfriesshire and he has kindly allowed me to use images from his website and Facebook page to illustrate my section of the blog this week.

Kevin, who is an ecologist first and a gardener second, promotes planting those new herbaceous perennials you couldn’t resist directly into your lawn. 

This genius solution not only allows you to accommodate many more plants, it combines the biodiversity benefits of native grasses to our terrestrial insect life with an extended flowering season for our beleaguered pollinators, courtesy of the addition of flowering plants from other countries. An added benefit is that you only have to mow the lawn once a year!

Your Living Lawn can start the year with low growing snowdrops and aconites followed by taller bulbs like camassia (more on this from Louise’s column this week), before moving onto tough perennials like the beautiful Paeonia tenuifolia ..

It is obvious that the so called prairie plants cope best in a co-existence with grasses, so it’s veronicastrums, sanguisorbas and echinacea that are a perfect fit. Kevin explained that being grown ‘hard’ like this, in competition with the lawn grasses, makes the introduced plants sturdier and more floriferous.

As your grassland border matures, wildlife will move in and the appearance of anthills should be welcomed as they introduce microclimates of warmth versus shade, and bare sandy slopes for reptilian sun bathing.

The only maintenance needed is an annual session with the strimmer, ideally one section at a time, and with the arisings stacked neatly to one side to continue to provide habitat. It’s true that you’ll never again be able to play croquet on your erstwhile lawn, but when Kevin finished his talk with a video of one of several hedgehogs that rootle around in his grassland garden it was obvious to me what was more important.

I’ve put a link to Kevin’s Facebook account at the end where you can browse the wonderful array of eclectic plants and wildlife that happily co-habit at his inspirational nursery.

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Loving this topic because, (tosses scarf nonchalantly around neck), I’ve actually been planting perennials in my grass for a while. Granted, not because I’m as ‘happening’ as Kevin Hughes, but because I’m lazy, and constantly chasing the mirage of a summer without strimming.

Basically, if anything has the potential for being more invasive than my grass, in it goes. Lysimachia; anaphalis; polygonum, inula, crocosmia, asters, you name it, I’ve stuck it in with the earnest hope that it will outperform the tufty tundra that characterises my dreaded ‘slopes’. And having around a quarter of an acre of the latter, this provides very welcome additional growing space.

As far as the delicates go, I’m afraid my university-educated sisters are way behind me when it comes to addressing this issue. You just need a basic grasp of apprentice-level physics – comme moi.

If you’ve run out of flat space, create a mound thereby increasing the surface area available for planting – duh! Furthermore I figured this out myself, long before discovering it’s a ‘thing’ in gardening – apparently called hugelkultur, thank you very much.

It allowed me to grow some nice little alpines, obviously ineligible for the ‘tundra’ project and not suitable for herbaceous borders. If you’re a fan of my tips 👍🏼…. here’s how. I just dumped a load of left-over type 1 and rubble in a decent pile, sprinkled it with a little soil, iced it with a bit of grit and pushed in some broken slates, then in went loads of new-to-me alpines.

They simply love it!

So, one way or another there’s absolutely no need to resist the plant-buying urge. Pots, obelisks, lawns or mounds, you’ll find the perfect spot for those ‘smuggled-in’ plant purchases that you don’t need. Because, really, you do.

If you have any tips or tricks for shoe-horning in ‘too many’ plants – we’d love to hear them!

NB Here is the link to the Cally Gardens Facebook page where you can see more images of the amazing range of plants and wildlife that happily co-exist there.

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Might you be interested in some stately, tall, clump-forming, bulbous perennials that are also hardy, long-lived and reliable; with a lengthy flowering season, and are low maintenance? They even make great cut flowers! Find out why this is Louise’s Great Plant this Month:

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Fed up with endlessly putting down your secateurs in the flower bed and then spending ten minutes trying to find them again? We think we have the answer with these fluorescent-handled pocket pruners from Burgon&Ball. New in our shop and a snip (sorry!) at £19.99

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Dreaming of a walk through a rose filled garden in early summer? This video of Elaine’s garden in Normandy might be just what you need …

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There are few experiences in life that beat the sight and scent of a summer rose – no wonder they’re our favourite plant. This week we’ve picked five we think are really great choices…

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💚 The costs of keeping our site working and safe are going up. We want to go on sharing everything for free without adverts, but if you enjoy our weekly posts, the price of a cup of coffee would be extremely helpful in paying the bills! Thank you 💚

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