If you can find some sweet pea plants in your local garden centre to grow up a wigwam (made from bamboo canes and string) that would give you a bit of height for this summer. Then plant some foxgloves and/or lupins to flower next year. I agree with the others you need some height - spires of flower. If you have light soil, verbascum is another option.
I've got roses growing here Lyn, at altitude and in acidic soil. Ramblers and small climbers seem to do better than the shrub types. I've wondered if the bigger flowering types need a hard frost during winter, like apples, and maybe the soggy indifferent cold we often get just doesn't give them the push they need. Your garden is looking lovely
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thank you Jason, I only started digging that border in 2012, planted up in 13/14. Doesn’t take long, the planning takes longest, I’ve just bought my next year, or year after perenial seeds.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
It seems a little 'dense' to me. I don't mean there are too many plants, but the beds seem ' solid' Some plants with height , movement and delicacy would improve it for me but you have some lovely borders there
Thanks everyone for your advice. New to gardening so grateful for any bits of tips. Can I go about making alterations now? Or would I have to wait until next spring?
It seems a little 'dense' to me. I don't mean there are too many plants, but the beds seem ' solid' Some plants with height , movement and delicacy would improve it for me but you have some lovely borders there
B3 what do you mean by dense? Too many plants over each other?
No, I meant solid blocks of green . lots of plants is what a cottage garden is all about. In my opinion, you need some higher wispy sorts of plants that will move with the breeze and that you can 'see' through like fennel, verbena bonarensis, tall cosmos, some coreopsis,penstemon,gaura and the like mixed in amongst the lower and medium height plants
This has been my inspiration for the last year - the Sarah Raven cutting garden at Chelsea last year. It think it points to what we are taking about - the height, the structures, the wild riot of colours and shapes. The mix of veg, herbs, climbers. An improvised feel, as yea olde cottages would have had to have, use of every possible inch they had. I've gone this year for a load of high umbellifers to lighten things up - milk parsley, bronze fennel, ravens wing, angelica, Baltic parsley and valerian. They give quick height. Like cosmos, rudbeckia and tall dahlias (as mentioned above).
Penstemons will see you through the summer,you can get different types,thin leafed ones seem hardier.Also some nice spires of a purple Salvia. I also use clumps of lemon thyme at the front,and a couple of Rosemary and Lavenders. Useful in the kitchen!😃
The whole truth is an instrument that can only be played by an expert.
I have lots of penstemons in my long border, they do indeed make a rush of colour that lasts right through them the season, I grow lots, from seeds and easily from cuttings done in glass of water. Cosmos are ideal for feathery height, I hope you get into seed growing, it’s very rewarding to look at your borders and beds and know you’ve grown it all by yourself.
there are so many easy to grow flowers that wil grow in any type of soil and conditions, you can choose form so many, I could go on for hours about it! Better shut up now!
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
I've got roses growing here Lyn, at altitude and in acidic soil. Ramblers and small climbers seem to do better than the shrub types. I've wondered if the bigger flowering types need a hard frost during winter, like apples, and maybe the soggy indifferent cold we often get just doesn't give them the push they need. Your garden is looking lovely
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Some plants with height , movement and delicacy would improve it for me but you have some lovely borders there
New to gardening so grateful for any bits of tips.
Can I go about making alterations now? Or would I have to wait until next spring?
B3 said: B3 what do you mean by dense? Too many plants over each other?
In my opinion, you need some higher wispy sorts of plants that will move with the breeze and that you can 'see' through like fennel, verbena bonarensis, tall cosmos, some coreopsis,penstemon,gaura and the like mixed in amongst the lower and medium height plants
Cosmos are ideal for feathery height, I hope you get into seed growing, it’s very rewarding to look at your borders and beds and know you’ve grown it all by yourself.
there are so many easy to grow flowers that wil grow in any type of soil and conditions, you can choose form so many, I could go on for hours about it!
Better shut up now!