Before and after - front edging strip

There's just a couple of pictures in this album but worth a look if only to see the huge lumps of rock I was excavating from the puny little two foot strip I was re-cutting around the house.


It began with my falling out with the lavender border next to the house.  It was planted four years ago because the lawn grew up to the wall of the house but certainly wasn't thriving there because of the shade and drips from the roof.  I knew when I chose lavender that it was just about the worst possible place for it - North facing, against a house wall, in the shade most of the day.  Never one to obey the rules;  I always think most things are worth a try and so I planted the lavenders.  To be fair they did really well and each year they looked lovely.  By this summer they had begun to get woody and 'break' and two had died back completely during last winter so without a great deal of consideration I decided, even though they were in flower,  they had to go and I set about yanking (not digging!) them up.  Then I felt sorry for the hardiest of the survivors and planted them in the back garden - guess what - so far, they are flourishing.


I then decided I would widen the border slightly to neaten the very ragged edges the floppy lavenders had created and prepare the ground a bit better than I had done previously when I just wanted to stick the lavenders in and let them take their chances.  What a nightmare!!!  After pulling up two I regretted it  and wished I'd left well alone.  Too late; I was stuck with having to get on with it.  


One of the photos in the album shows the two largest pieces of rock I had to dig out - I say largest as the whole border was filled with rocks and stones of all sizes and shapes, not to mention the pieces of wood, a long iron bar and any other old builders rubbish you can think of.  How the poor old Hidcote lavenders survived all that I can't imagine.  

I was then faced with a thirty foot long, two foot wide strip to fill.  I started by splitting some lovely little irises ( iris setosa canadensis - a dwarf variety - maybe 'Nana') which I heartily recommend.  They flower in spring.  I then thought I might be able to buy a couple of pots of crocosmia which I could break up and plant with those for a late summer show.  I am aiming to plant enough strong, upright perennial plants (so the gardener doesn't strim them when he does the edges!) and to always have something in flower but this is proving a bit of a challenge.  I priced up a suitable of mix of stuff and it came to about £180.  This was beyond my reach, so for this year at least I've put in the irises as a bit of something for the spring and some annuals to get me through the rest of this summer and I'll think about it again next year.  The annuals are French Marigolds that I don't really like and some red salvia,  also not on my hit list but at around £30 it was more financially doable, kept the colour scheme and filled in for this year.


All in all I love the front garden.