Waifs and strays

The new small bed by the patio, reclaimed from the lawn a couple of years or so back, has been sitting empty since I removed the plastic covering that was helping to suppress the weeds.  I’ve been meaning to do something with it, but have been hesitating partly because of having other things to do and partly out of indecision as to what to plant where. 

The weed suppressant has been pretty effective, I have to say; nothing much has tried to come up in that space, but you can’t keep ground empty for too long otherwise something less desirable is likely to take over.  And I have plenty of plants, waifs and strays, sitting around in small pots waiting for a new home.  So the other day I gathered them all together, and got planting.

Waifs and strays, in their new home

They’re a bit of a rag-bag – plants picked up at plant sales, or cuttings taken in this garden, and never planted out.  Their number tends to reduce in summer (drying out when I forget to water them!) and occasionally in winter (cold or, more usually, excessive wet).  Some of them have been hanging around for a ridiculously long time.  When I looked to find my little Paeonia Mlokosewitschii (known to most gardeners as the Molly-The-Witch peony) that I was given by a neighbour more years ago than I care to think about, I found that it was sharing a small pot with an enormous self-sown foxglove plant, and needed to be separated from it.  Other pots had moss and other weeds that had to be removed, and dead bits to be cut off, but eventually I got them in reasonable shape.

Then, how to group them?  Most are deciduous, so there’s a risk that the new bed will look very bare in winter.  There are a couple of sages (a purple, and a Salvia icterina which is green/yellow) which will provide some colour, and a purple-leaved heuchera was moved up from another bed to provide more winter interest; there are also a couple of dianthus that keep their leaves all year.  I’ll put in some early snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii – they need dividing) to give some early flowers.  I suspect, though, that it will look a bit meh until the new growth gets going, and possibly rather blobby once it does.  I’m also not sure how much room each plant will need; but they can be moved as necessary once they outgrow their space.

The bed itself will be expanded as time and effort permit, and certainly the edges need defining to prevent the grass from creeping back in – so plenty more work there.  But for the moment, it will do.

Spring flowers are getting underway: the first cowslip is in bloom in the lawn.

First cowslip