How To Create A Heavenly Herbaceous Border
WHAT IS A HERBACEOUS BORDER?
One of my absolute favourite parts of our garden is the herbaceous border outside out back door. In spring it bursts into life, and by late May it’s full of frothy nepeta, striking lupins, wafty grasses, and countless buzzing bees.
A herbaceous border is an area of herbaceous perennial plants that are beautiful arranged, with thought given to their placement based on their colour, their scale, their shape, and the time of year that they bloom. They almost always feature in English cottage gardens, and I may be biased, but I think you find the most wonderful examples of herbaceous borders in the gardens around the Cotswolds.
A herbaceous border changes almost weekly between April and October; with different flowers and plants coming into bloom at different times. Each year the border evolves; with some plants thriving one year, while another plant thrives the next; meaning no two years are ever the same.
PURCHASING YOUR PERENNIALS
If you want the best value for money, I’d recommend purchasing your perennials as bare roots. Bare root means that your plants will be delivered to you in their dormant state, as a bunch of roots in a bit of soil. One of my favourite places for ordering my bare roots is Farmer Gracy. Farmer Gracy is a wonderful company based in The Netherlands that sells gorgeous bare root perennials and bulbs to keep you in blooms year round!
When choosing your perennials, there are many things to consider. Firstly, consider your climate. If you live in a cool climate, you may want to stick to plants which say they’re ‘fully hardy’. Next think about the location of your border – is it going to be in full sun or partial shade, for example? Be sure to get the appropriate plants for the space. If you do use Farmer Gracy, their website will tell you all of this information, making it really easy to decide which plants will work best in your garden. Perennials tend to look best when planted in clusters of three or five of the same plant if they’re fairly small plants; while plants that get very large such as geraniums can look effective planted alone. Be sure to have a loosely repeating pattern of plants along the border – so perhaps you’ll have three phlox planted together at one end of the border, another group of three roughly in the centre, and another three at the other end of the border, and so on for each plant. You don’t need to strive for perfect symmetry; a loose symmetry is all you need for a beautiful border.
The next thing to consider is the flowering time of each plant. You want to extend the life of your border over the longest period as possible, and so choose a group of perennials that between them, flower from May to September or even October. You can further extend the flowering season of your border by adding in winter or spring flowering bulbs (mostly planted in Autumn); summer flowering bulbs such as dahlias which can flower until October; plus some evergreen shrubs such as taxus balls and some lovely grasses for winter structure.
SPRING
CREATING YOUR DREAM BORDER
Ok so your bare roots perennials have arrived… what should you do with them? Your perennials are too little to go straight into your border, so get each plant potted up in its own small (labelled!) pot, place in a sunny spot (if they’re sun loving), and keep well watered. By late April or early May, your plants will have sprouted and will be ready to be planted in your border.
To actually create your border, measure out the area and mark it using string and some tent hooks or little sticks. Your border should be deeper than you’d think; between 1-2 metres ideally. If your border is replacing lawn, dig down to remove the grass, then replace with a good layer of compost. If your border is replacing an area of bare earth, simply spread the compost on top of the area, but don’t mix it in. This is a tip I learnt from Charles Dowding, and while it sounds counterintuitive, the less you disturb the structure of the soil, the better. Water the border deeply before planting. At this point it’s a good idea to lay out your plants and play around with the positioning. You can place plants a little closer than their labels suggest for a fuller look.
Once you’re happy with the positioning, simply dig a hole for each plant, and put them in. Keep your plants well watered until established. Your border may look a little empty when you first plant your border, but trust me – it will be looking fabulous in no time!
