Putnoe, Bedford
The owners recently moved to their current house in the autumn of 2009. They wanted the planting to be of interest and plants able to cope with the shade cast by the large protected Oak and the 3 existing mature pear trees. The house had been previously rented and so the owners had spent weeks clearing ivy and pruning back the huge over grown plants.
The back boundary was was a tall hedge and mostly covered in Ivy, an ideal screen but a bit bland to look straight down the garden at. As they had grandchildren, they required the lawn to be large enough for them to play on but also allow some plants within the garden. So a simple circle pattern was chosen, one large circle as the main lawn with a smaller circle at each side of the existing patio to allow access to the lawn from wherever along the patio and where the 3 circles met, a bed was created that sat perfectly with where the outside dining area was. We decide during the planning to add a pergola along the back boundary leading from under the Oak out onto the lawn to break up dull green hedge. Shade tolerant climbers where used.
The shaded ares, being such a distance from the house I decided to use large shade tolerant plants with some variegation from the Hostas, huge green 1meter + fronds from Osmuda regalis (Regal fern), electric blue from Corydalis and other large shade tolerant species were used to stand out. Heuchera, Astrantia, Bergenia and Epimedium. The work started the first week of April.
In the central bed, I planted a weeping cherry as the rest of the garden had height from the mature trees, and as it grows, it will give some shade to the patio. Verbena bonariensis was planted en-masse so as you sat at the table, there was a haze of delicate purple flowers on tall thin 1 1/2 meter stems.
The weeping Birch created another area of shade. The owners brought the bird bath form their previous house and we felt that it now had somewhere to fit into the garden. The low growing ferns will slowly grow up, softening the base.
The Oak had a tree preservation order placed on it so after getting the permission to do some necessary pruning (and respectfully pruned it was too), this allowed the lawn to grow back and open the garden up slightly.
The owners had pruned the shrubs along the path as they had all grown over the lawn! Two of the existing pears fell within the border which meant that the style of planting could be continued from the shady areas the other side of the garden. Flowering shrubs where planted to the left of the path as the hedge along the fence was not very attractive having been left for decades.
