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I hate staking plants. It looks ugly, especially early on in the year. And it’s hard work (always best avoided). So I have one or two tricks to save me the bother.

One is stuffing plants so tight together that they are self supporting. This works well, especially if you don’t feed them (never spoil a plant, it’ll never let you in peace afterwards). But edges of paths get problematic, unless you’re a great big institutional garden with paths ten feet wide. We’re not and if we don’t do something some paths become impassable, especially after heavy rain has flattened things a bit.

So in the front garden we added rails to try and confine the rampagious creatures. See here:

Rail Veddw Copyright Anne Wareham SAM_1878

That’ll show them.

or here –

Berberis and rail Veddw Copyright Anne Wareham SAM_1871

OK, they escape too..

You can see that some escape but that just softens the line and it’s not enough for them to begin to get in our way.

Veddw Copyright Anne Wareham SAM_1869

Delinquent daisies

Though sometimes I’m a bit soft. I’ve let those daisies go all over the entrance here just because they look great like that.

We started with just a top rail but last winter added two further rails below to catch the little buggers that didn’t grow tall enough to get stopped by the top rail.

Next trick? Well, you know all about the Chelsea Chop. I’ve just been doing the Hampton Court Chop, it being the end of June. I’ve made a right old mess in places but sometimes we’ve just got to tolerate that for a few days.

Like these Helianthemum:

Campanula cut down Veddw Copyright Anne Wareham SAM_1828

A bit shocked but bravely fighting back.

Looking perky again already. I just cut the front ones down so they won’t sag over the path. And, if I’m lucky, it will stagger the flowering. Same here with some Persicaria.

Persicaria Veddw Copyright Anne Wareham SAM_1833

They should recover well enough as long as we don’t get drought, and then they do this kind of thing:

The stone and persicaria, Veddw copyright Anne Wareham 071 s

Classic floppers.

I’m concious that, as usual, I don’t seem to be doing what I should, which is the famous Chelsea Chop, but this seems the right time to me for these plants. The next couple of months will tell. Interesting, I think.

AW

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