In the aftermath of the show garden at Tatton Flower Show 2023, I had my next task cut out for me: lifting and replanting all the plants into the recipient site of the donated plants from Johnsons of Whixley. After a busy, physical few weeks, it was a tough and arduous task to embark on yet more planting. But the plants were stressed and needed to be in their forever homes, so it needed to be done!
The site consists of two beds, one shady and one sunny.
The shady border was hard and compacted with little growing there as small climbing feet had made the soil a difficult environment to grow in. My solution was some back breaking digging, some fresh topsoil and some good old-fashioned compost from my own garden. Not only was the compost rich in organic matter and nutrients, but also teaming with my tiny burrowing friends who will continue to improve and aerate the soil for me, WORMS. Thankfully I had my team of assistants to help me along. The site wasn't the same as the show garden site, so we've designed a new garden with many of the plants. We've planted Fatsia polycarpa, ferns, carex evergold, stachys byzantia and some lovely heuchera. Very foliage heavy and all happy in the shade of these trees.
The sunny border, was very weedy, so the first task was to dig out and remove them. An old rose has been pruned back to healthy stems and given a good feed in the hope it will bounce back. Here we've planted some of the dwarf conifirs, a cordyline, some semervivum and some erigeron. Rocks and gravel help keep it tidy.
Once again, a big thankyou to Johnsons of Whixley for their kind donation of plants. There are still a few more to go into the school grounds, which we plan to do with the newly formed gardening club over the next term of school.