I was thinking about your culvert overnight. Better than worrying about fuel costs, hey.
The culvert is a very attractive feature, and I think could be made more so. What is the seasonal difference in water-flow? If there were some stones or other obstacles in the culvert it would add a bit of extra movement and interest. There was a show garden at the Chelsea Flower Shoew this year that did this. A series of low weirs might also work. But you probably don't want to interfere with the smooth passage of flood water.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Thankyou! Yes.. far better thing to keep you awake at night! The culvert can get quite full with fast flowing flood water so I can’t really put anything in it, great idea though! Ive been wondering whether to put several small trees all the way down the center of the flower bed, but its the planting Im struggling with as its quite narrow. As its one long bed the tulips eork well… maybe repeat blocks of colour in other seasons?
Yes, ok, Ill bear that in mind. I forget how global GW is! Im in Yorkshire, the center of the bed gets full sun, but either end is dappled shade. Its a narrow bed so maybe make the areas of full sun wider? Its in a sheltered part of the garden.
I have a dedicated area of tulips in my garden in the middle of a sloping bank. I don't plant anything else in this narrow strip as it has planting space above and below it in which I grow mainly ornamental grasses.
When I first saw your post, I thought that to maintain an impressive display of tulips like you have, I'd avoid planting anything above or close to the bulbs as this will spoil your "river" style of display in future and obstruct access to adding or replacing bulbs as they either age, fail or you decide to change your colour scheme.
Personally, I would widen your border by at least 2 feet and then plant this margin up with either a single upright ornamental grass like Calamagrostis Karl Foerster or Panicum North Wind, or a mixture of two or three different upright grasses, or you could include some statuesque perennials in the mix which don't need regular deadheading like Verbena bonariensis or Bronze fennel, for ease of maintenance.
This was my tulip display last year, with a mixture of ornamental grasses just emerging behind in a wider border.
Thankyou very much..very useful advice, youre border looks beautiful, I can see what you mean. This is my border now.. a bit bedraggled, I just pkanted it up with a repeated mix of perennials but I didn’t feel if really worked. We’ve only been here for 2 years. The border looked boring planted just with dark red fuschias previously.
It's good to experiment to discover what you like or what you might do differently next time! I regularly change planting schemes which haven't quite worked due to wrong colour, poor performance or not what I was expecting!
I think you need to decide on whether you prefer a simple planting scheme with distinct blocks of planting or a mixed border of different plants and bulbs with different seasons of interest. It also depends on how much time you have for maintenance.
I find that the combination of tulips and grasses gives a welcome splash of colour from the tulips in spring followed by nearly a year of interest from the grasses, particularly in winter.
I've changed the planting area below the tulips to include more summer colour with a small selection of perennials and dahlias. This has proven popular with bees but I needed to do more watering than usual in this area because of the recent heat and drought. I didn't water any of the grasses and they have survived extremely well!
Whatever you decide, don't worry about it. If it doesn't quite work or you don't like it, you can change it, budget permitting!
Useful and encouraging advice.. thankyou!It looks beautiful! I agree grasses planted at ibtervals all the way down is a good idea to give some focus and structure, I think Ill widen it where its in full sun too, but great idea’s everyobe on here….thankyou!
Posts
The culvert is a very attractive feature, and I think could be made more so. What is the seasonal difference in water-flow? If there were some stones or other obstacles in the culvert it would add a bit of extra movement and interest. There was a show garden at the Chelsea Flower Shoew this year that did this. A series of low weirs might also work. But you probably don't want to interfere with the smooth passage of flood water.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
As its one long bed the tulips eork well… maybe repeat blocks of colour in other seasons?
When I first saw your post, I thought that to maintain an impressive display of tulips like you have, I'd avoid planting anything above or close to the bulbs as this will spoil your "river" style of display in future and obstruct access to adding or replacing bulbs as they either age, fail or you decide to change your colour scheme.
Personally, I would widen your border by at least 2 feet and then plant this margin up with either a single upright ornamental grass like Calamagrostis Karl Foerster or Panicum North Wind, or a mixture of two or three different upright grasses, or you could include some statuesque perennials in the mix which don't need regular deadheading like Verbena bonariensis or Bronze fennel, for ease of maintenance.
This was my tulip display last year, with a mixture of ornamental grasses just emerging behind in a wider border.
I think you need to decide on whether you prefer a simple planting scheme with distinct blocks of planting or a mixed border of different plants and bulbs with different seasons of interest. It also depends on how much time you have for maintenance.
I find that the combination of tulips and grasses gives a welcome splash of colour from the tulips in spring followed by nearly a year of interest from the grasses, particularly in winter.
I've changed the planting area below the tulips to include more summer colour with a small selection of perennials and dahlias. This has proven popular with bees but I needed to do more watering than usual in this area because of the recent heat and drought. I didn't water any of the grasses and they have survived extremely well!
Whatever you decide, don't worry about it. If it doesn't quite work or you don't like it, you can change it, budget permitting!
I agree grasses planted at ibtervals all the way down is a good idea to give some focus and structure, I think Ill widen it where its in full sun too, but great idea’s everyobe on here….thankyou!