Blog posts have been rather thin on the ground recently, partly because we have moved house.

We now have a bigger garden. The previous owners of our house didn’t like gardening so when we moved in we had a neat but rather sterile back garden with large expanses of lawn, slabs and gravel.

Near the house was a patch of gravel with a porous, weed-suppressing membrane underneath, two conifers and a trellis covered with a large evergreen honeysuckle (Japanese Honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica).

We wanted a pond near the house and much more greenery but we decided to leave the gravel in place and plant into it. So the pond went in first and then we cut holes in the weed-suppressing membrane and planted through it, leaving the gravel around the plants. We also removed the two conifers.

The pond (made from shaped plastic) contains a small white water lily, with water mint, water forget-me-not, sweet flag and Carex elata “Aurea” growing in the shallow margins. Next to it we’ve planted a Gunnera manicata that we dug up from our old garden in a hole lined with plastic and filled with rich compost and gravel on top.

We’ve planted a range of drought-tolerant ornamental grasses such as Nassella tenuissima (formerly Stipa tenuissima), Helictotrichon sempervirens and grass-like Libertia ixioides “Goldfinger” and also a couple of Erodium varieties – “Bishop’s Form” and “Spanish Eyes” – and two Catmints (Nepeta mussini and Nepeta “Walker’s Low”).

The gravel provides contrast, keeps the ground weed free and, most importantly in this dry and hot summer, prevents water loss from the soil.

Already this bit of the garden is much more interesting. The pond is a constant source of interest and already has Azure Damselflies (Coenagrion puella) breeding, birds drinking, the first waterlily flower and bees visiting the water forget-me-not flowers. The grasses move in the slightest breeze and their contrasting forms and colours provide more interest. The Erodium and Nepeta are encouraging a variety of different bees and butterflies too. We’ve installed a bench and this is a favourite place to sit in the late afternoon with a cold beer or hot cup of tea, depending on weather and mood.

22nd July 2013

10th June 2013

By May 2014, it looked like this:

9th May 2014