In My Mind’s Eye

‍My imagination has always been off the charts! Telling myself epic stories as a young child. Creating mansions worthy of The Bishops Avenue in Lego. And now, picturing herbaceous borders far too ambitious for my small garden. But a girl can dream, can’t she?

When it comes to planting schemes, I don’t think it does any harm to think big. When I first started cultivating my garden, I thought, small plot, small plants. Wrong! I discovered that if you planted in singles, you ended up with a very fussy, static effect, whereas if you plant in drifts of threes, fives or even sevens, you will create a sense of flow. Triangles of threes doesn’t do it for me either, I might add, too blobby.

Same goes for height. Traditional design dictates that tall plants should be positioned at the back, medium in the middle and short at the front. No! Well, not necessarily, anyway. Tall, airy, ‘see-through’ perennials, such as verbena bonariensis and my favourite salvia uliginosa, if planted at the front of your borders, will provide a tantalising glimpse of the planting scheme beyond, whilst adding movement and rhythm, as they sway in the breeze.

And who knew colour could be so controversial, either! Ask any nurseryman which colour is least popular and he will tell you, yellow. Now, admittedly, I shudder at sunshine yellow with hot pink. But primrose yellows and forget-me-not blues are quintessentially spring colours. And yellow, orange and purple can bring a brilliant intensity to the late summer border. Think rudbeckia, crocosmia and dahlia and you start to get the picture.

In these days of modern tech, AI can superimpose your ideas onto an existing image to show the finished effect. Brilliant! But it can’t beat the hours of daydreaming involved in the development of my borders. Need a bit of inspiration, don’t know where to start? Search Google Images for woodland gardens, seaside gardens, white gardens, wildlife gardens, the world is your oyster!

It’s time to throw away the rule book and let your imagination run riot!  In the words of the twentieth century motivational author Norman Vincent Peale, ‘Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.’

Love, Caroline

Cover photo: Auricula Theatre, East Ruston Old Vicarage, April 2024