Since the last piece I wrote about the Belvedere Centre (22 January 2012) we have done a lot of work. First of all we built a wire mesh leafmould bin and cleared up the fallen leaves from the garden. Then we spent several days weeding the shady southern border and the west facing sunny border, taking out old tree roots in the process.

We bought some shrubs for the shady border – Fatsia japonica and Aucuba japonica. These both have decorative foliage and will tolerate quite dense shade. We also added a few Aubretia and variegated thyme plants to the front of the sunny border. Within minutes of planting a Bee-fly found the Aubretia flowers and a week later the flowers are proving popular with bumblebees.

Then it was time to order a large batch of hardy perennials from Howard Nurseries of Wortham, which we’ve planted in the last couple of days. The plants were delivered yesterday lunchtime and Vanna and I dealt with most of the bare-rooted plants yesterday afternoon. Then today ten of us planted the rest of the batch and by the end of the two days we’d planted and watered in over 400 plants.

Luckily the soil has quite a lot of clay in it so we should only need to water once a week, or less if we get some decent rain. With a hosepipe ban and no outside tap anyway, we need to do all the watering with watering cans, which is a slow process.

Our work has been accompanied by a Robin and a pair of Blue Tits, both nesting in or near the garden. The Belvedere Centre staff, busy as ever, have helped us with the gardening and supplied us with tea, biscuits and cake and filled up cans of water for us.

Next we need to work on the centre of the garden and on the western border, but for now we can be pleased with what we’ve done and look forward to seeing our plants begin to flower.

Read the next update about the garden.

Weeding the west-facing border

Perennials ready to plant

Planting perennials

Planting perennials

Preparing the shady border for more planting

Planting in the shady border

List of perennials planted in last two days:

Achillea ‘Moonshine’
Agastache rugosa ‘Liquorice White’
Allium senescens glaucum
Anemone huphensis ‘Praecox’
Aquilegia ‘Red Star’
Asplenium scolopendrium Undulatum Group
Aster amellus ‘Rosa Erfullung’
Aster pyrenaeus ‘Lutetia’
Aster x frikartii
Bergenia ‘Bressingham Ruby’
Carex flagellifera
Coreopsis rosea ‘American Dream’
Coreopsis verticillata ‘Golden Gain’
Crocosmia spp.
Cynoglossum nervosum
Dryopteris erythrosora
Echinops sphaerocephalus ‘Arctic Glow’
Erigeron ‘Dignity’
Eryngium variifolium
Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Pindus’
Geranium phaeum ‘Album’
Geranium sanguineum striatum
Geranium wallichianum ‘Buxton’s Variety’
Geranium x oxonianum ‘Wageningen’
Helichrysum ‘Schwefellicht’
Hemerocallis ‘Little Red Hen’
Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’
Heuchera sanguinea ‘White Cloud’
Heucherella alba ‘Rosalie’
Iris foetidissima
Knautia macedonica
Lamium maculatum ‘Album’
Lamium maculatum ‘Orchid Frost’
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Little Lady’
Leucanthemum x superbum ‘Snowcap’
Lychnis coronaria ‘Alba’
Macleaya microcarpa ‘Kelways Coral Plume’
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silberfeder’
Monarda ‘Snow Queen’
Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’
Origanum vulgaris ‘Country Cream’
Persicaria affinis ‘Darjeeling Red’
Persicaria affinis ‘Donald Lowndes’
Persicaria amplexicaule ‘Rosea’
Phuopsis stylosa
Polystichum polyblepharum
Pulmonaria officinalis ‘Cambridge Blue Group’
Rhodiola rosea
Rudbeckia fulgida sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’
Salvia nemorosa ‘Ostfriesland’
Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’
Saxifraga umbrosa
Solidago ‘Ledsham’
Tellima grandiflora ‘Forest Frost’
Thalictrum isopyroides
Verbascum ‘Cotswold Queen’
Verbena bonariensis
Veronica longifolia ‘Blauer Sommer’
Waldsteinia geoides.

Entries in bold were planted in the shady border and / or centre of the garden. The rest were planted in the sunny border.