Property News · June 11, 2016

Gardening for beginners: the cheat’s guide to herbaceous borders


Daunted at the prospect of planning a new border? Help is at hand…The herbaceous border is the ultimate demonstration of gardening skill: a masterpiece of juxtaposed shapes, colours and textures, all reaching a climax in the summer months. It has humble origins in cottage gardens, where flowers for cutting rubbed along with vegetables, but the herbaceous border was dragged, Eliza Doolittle-style, into horticultural high fashion by William Robinson and his 1883 book The English Flower Garden. He proposed moving away from the vogue carpet bedding towards a looser, more natural planting.The style was taken up in the gardens of grand country houses and suburban villas alike, and has been a mainstay of British gardens ever since, mainly because a good one is such a very lovely thing. See a herbaceous border in full swing and you would imagine botanical knowledge, planting skill and an excellent design eye would be needed to pull it off with aplomb. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Gardening for beginners: the cheat’s guide to herbaceous borders

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