Formal Garden West Bed
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The west bed of the formal garden stretches south along the west fence from the orangery to the south bed of the formal garden. It includes the bed on the west of the patio and is 56 m2 in area :
It enjoys full morning sun for most of its length although the far south is shaded to some extent by the oak tree. The entire formal garden was levelled in 2017 by carving deep into the clay on the west and adding a little bit of fill on the east. This bed is mainly the narrow rump of the natural level held back by the sleeper wall [see below]. There is a little top soil here but it is essentially clay. There is some moisture but the bed is well drained because of the cut where the sleeper wall is. A small section of the bed at the orangery end is at lawn level so just clay subsoil which will hopefully improve over the years as it is cultivated. All the planting is new.
The picture above was taken in the spring of 2019 when the bed was still being developed so there is a lot of red valerian [Centranthus ruber, not to be confused with herb valarian - Valeriana officinalis] acting as a 'filler'. The high level bed does have quite a lot of bulbs planted and a few specimen plants already and three pyracanthas have been planted against the fence to soften the look [if thorny shrubs can be said to soften anything]. At the far end near the patio we have grown an Elaeagnus × ebbingei hedge for the same purpose and that is already well established. The lower level bed at the orangery end has a lot of herb valerian [see earlier comment] acting as a filler, again with a few specimen plants.
The details of the plants can be found in the West Formal plant list and the context of this area within the garden can be found on the Plan and Areas page.
The sleeper wall was built with packers between the top row of sleepers and the ones below :
Over time we will continue to plant up this gap with suitable plants such as the campanula seen here.
The details of the planting can be found in the Sleeper Wall plant list.
