RHS GARDEN HYDE HALL, WHERE BORDERS ARE CAREFULLY MANAGED
Do the groundwork
By Caroline Knight
Plants look so innocent in pots at the nursery or garden centre, and in show gardens. It’ s very easy, therefore, to assume that if you pop a few into your own garden, they’ ll behave just as you wish. Behind the scenes, a lot of work goes into the preparation of beds.
Organisations and individuals who open their gardens to the public put a huge amount of effort into making sure everything in the garden has what it needs in order to look good. Plants in these situations are curated for exhibition. Many famous herbaceous and mixed borders have earth and compost that is banked up towards the back, for example. This enables the plants to be displayed to the best effect. And as much as you might imagine that you are looking at a“ natural” scene, there’ s generally a lot of careful placing, repositioning and replanting during the season so that members of the public enjoy a feast of colourful sights.
• Always read the label of any unfamiliar plant. It gives valuable information, including the required light level and moisture content in the ground. Many of our sun-loving garden plants originate from dry, rocky parts of the Mediterranean, where they need to be drought-tolerant, so it’ s easy to see that they won’ t thrive in waterlogged soil in shade. If you plant a Cistus, or rock rose, in a north-facing, damp spot, it won’ t give you any flowers and then it will die. Lavender is a sun-lover which hates its feet to be wet and Salvias won’ t last long unless they’ re given welldrained soils in sun.
HOW TO PREPARE You too might want to do some homework if you hope to achieve a beautiful garden:
• Everyone has shady spots in the garden, so choose plants that thrive there. Most ferns are lush, shadelovers and there are some beautiful Euphorbias which
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