Diary of a weekend gardener

The prairie garden is under way.

This area has been in the process of mental planning as a prairie garden for about a year, ever since the squashes succumbed to cucumber mosaic virus last summer. It faces south with the conservatory on the north side and is 4.5m long by 3m deep at it's deepest point. I want to look through tall grasses and golden flowers backlit by the sun when I'm inside and to walk through it, touching the silky grass heads on the way.

Here's a picture of the plot before I started. On Thursday I took myself off to Lodge Lane nursery and did something I've not before - planned, chose and bought the whole border in one go. As I've not planted it up properly yet you'll have to figure out for yourself how it will look from the planting list below. Yes, I know I should have stuck to half the selection, but I'm experimenting rather than being a design purist.

The list - some of the quantities were dictated by the number of plants the nursery had:
Stipa gigantea x 2
Stipa tenuissima x 8
Stipa calamagrostis x 4
Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' x 4
Achillea credo x 4
Achillea terracotta x 3
Achillea feuerland x 6
Echinacea purpurea 'Robert Bloom' x 6
Echinacea 'Art's Pride' x 4 (currently in the polytunnel as they keep falling over in the wind)
Helianthus salicifolius x 6 (recommended by the nursery owner)
Helenium 'Ruby Tuesday' x 3
Helenium sahins x 1 - completely accidental, I meant to pick up 6!

plus a few Verbena bonariensis and Anthemis 'E.C. Buxton' that I already had.
So in total about 60 plants for 10m2 which is probably about right.

posted by Sue Beesley @ 11:27 am