Border - total replant

This fine weather has been keeping me busy. All the famous gardens lift, divide and replant their borders every 3 or 4 years - so I felt it was time to do my front garden.

Its debatable as to the best time to do it. Plants really prefer to be lifted and split in the spring, when they are growing strongly. But on the other hand at this time of year you know exactly where all the plants are and what they are.


This is the front garden a few days ago. Its a good thing to plan the operation well in advance - which I didn't do. The reason is that you need a lot of largish pots to be available. I find the Morrisons flower buckets at 99p for 8 to be just the job - big and cheap. The other reason is to anticipate what new plants will be needed and to grow or buy them in advance.

You have to be ruthless and dig up essentially everything, to leave yourself a clean palette. The only plants I left were some edging campanula, a couple of small shrubs, and the odd tap rooted plants that usually die if you move them, such as Baptisia and Poppies. In the case of Centranthus and Aquilegia, there were so many seedlings which I potted up that I felt free to pull all the main plants out. And I grow Lupins as a biennial anyway.

Once the border was empty, I used up 25 bags, that I had, of my own composted material. I simply spread it on the top - I couldn't face digging the whole thing over again. :D


The object of the exercise was to divide the plants. Which I potted up and stored above. There is no need to use compost, everything was potted in soil - keeps it cheap.


Today I have got this far. I have now placed nearly all the plants where I want them. And I have been trying to stand on boards to avoid compressing my wet clay.


I still have some plants left over.

 

Very nice Peter

 

Peter .. is that really your garden ...

I couldn't cope with such a dramatic change ... mine is the same summer / winter barring some serious cutback on a few things.

When does the garden shop open for sale of all the plants in pots?

I am sure all will be beautiful as usual in the Spring and Summer and look forward to seeing the progress.

:kittykiss:

 

Peter that is a Mammoth job , well done

You have a huge amount of plants - and over 100 left over ! Time for a garage sale. Make sure you post some pics when the new layout has grown - and your back is better !

 

Great job Peter , looks like you could fill the same space again with all those plants.
Been doing the same myself had a border that was far to near a laurel hedge so extended it out and moved all the plants forward, very satisfying when its done isn't it always looks so neat, just my stipa gigantea to move but leaving that till spring, don't want to kill it.

 

Thank you all for your kind comments. I started the actual planting today. But with all the plants left over I am obviously going to have to do the rest of the garden as well. .... but not till the spring. :D

 

Look forward to seeing the new border next season, Peter. I have a very scruffy patch in my garden which has been taken over by hardy geraniums and really needs similar treatment. It's only a postage stamp compared with yours .... but I am still putting off the procedure.

 

Fabulous job Peter,it looks great

 

That's an astonishing amount of work to take on!

*tips hat*

 

Finally finished.

Thanks for your comments Claralou, lolimac and Melinda.


Earlier this morning the border looked like this. The upturned pots are not quite as stupid as they appear. Each one marked the position of a plant. I found that if you cut back and planted things like perennial Lobelia it it was difficult to see where they were, especially if you covered them in soil when planting others.

After planting everything where I wanted, I then used the pots to tell me where to plant the inbetweenies. These were mostly Primula (I managed to divide the existing plants into about 100 new ones). And I also had a few Verbena bonariensis to spread around as well as any bulbs that I had disturbed.

The sunken pot, centre left, is an experiment. It is reserving a space for something large like a Brugmansia to be planted out in a pot in spring.


Late afternoon - and it finished.

 

Well done Peter ..well worth the effort I'm sure

Dave

 

I see your neighbours had enough of the upheaval

The For Sale sign's appeared.

 

Amazing Peter, well done :thumb: and I thought I'd been hard at it :D

Can't wait to see an after shot from the same angle when everything is growing away next spring/summer :thumb: