South Garden – Crescent Border

This border is our principal view of the garden from early summer to late autumn (when we tend to close the conservatory and cosy up to the fire). So I have worked for many years, trying to get it to flower all spring, summer and autumn. I thought I was getting there, but I never feel quite satisfied. One of the visitors I asked to give me garden criticism (Andrew Lawson) offered that it needed contrast to the bitty leaves. (Of course! How could I have missed it? …by focusing on flowers, of course) so I’ve been working on that for the past 20 years too.

The above is only part of the border, so it’s hard to give a picture of it all. Below are some bits. 

The buzzards are another local reference too and are frequently to be seen drifting overhead – or perched on telegraph poles… They are also the feature that has been most criticised by visitors when we ask what they would change. We are attached to them, however, and so they stay.   

I wrote a piece about this border in late summer for the English Garden – here.

And just beyond the Crescent Border, a rambler rose, Wichuriana: