October 2024 - Magazine - Page 14
I
n October we were pleased to meet Anna Ribo who advised us on choosing
plants to cope with our changing weather conditions. Anna was head gardener
at Long Barn and now teaches at various sites including The Walled Garden at
Hawkhurst, which we visited last summer. Anna also works with individual garden
owners helping with garden design and planting choices.
We were reminded of the key factors influencing plant requirements for different
places. Do plants need low nutrients or high feed, light or shade, dry or moist and
how hardy are they? Knowing the conditions in our own gardens should enable us
to choose plants that grow in similar situations.
Growing conditions vary from rocky alpine-like situations with little soil, low
nutrients and no shade to deep woodland shade with humus rich, moist soil.
Plants around the world have adapted to their local situations giving us a vast
selection of plants we can use in our own planting schemes.
Plants such as Echinacea come
from vast open prairies. They are
drought tolerant and experience
a period of dormancy during
extremely cold periods. Here they
struggle if other plants crowd
them, especially in winter, when
we have no dormant season.
Rudbeckias and Echinacea that
are grown in less rich soil will
grow more slowly and will not
flop over or need staking. These
plants mostly flower in late
season.
The plants we find in moist forest
floor areas tend to be bulbs
flowering early in the season
before the tree canopy shades
them. Wood anemones also
flower early and then lie dormant
through the summer. At the
woodland edges plants can take advantage of the humus rich soil whilst being
protected from heat. Here ferns, grasses and heuchera can thrive. These plants
make a good choice for the shadier areas in our gardens.
Plants such as camomile and watermint can tolerate alternate wet and dry
conditions as found at stream sides and the edges of reservoirs where water
recedes for periods of time. Stream banks are moist at the base and drier at the
top allowing a wide range of plants with differing requirements to grow side by
side. Plants found here include Valerian, Geraniums and Angelica. Many of these
will self-seed which may or may not be favourable!
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