RollsRoyceGuy and the wonderful Fi paid us a brief visit as they were traveling from A to B. It was great to catch up. I had a sneak look at the sparkling blue truck bed – it was not in pristine condition -plenty of rock mulch silt wedged in the corners. During conversation RRG mentioned that the truck was now 8 years old – I thought ” this is the preamble to him changing the truck because the bed is dirty”! Anyway, the closet gardener, who declares he is not interested in gardening, had one subject he wanted to talk about – not cars; not the economic pressure due to inflation; not the discovery of Shackletons ship, Endurance, in the Arctic – but ……. succulents! This non-gardener is taking an interest in beautiful fleshy exotics!
Books are a great source of design inspiration …… as is any gardening reading matter …..or any gardening TV program. The design I developed for our herbaceous perennial beds has drawn on years of absorbing stuff about these colorful repeating beauties. The foundation for the design was that of Piet Oudolf,the great Dutch plantsman and designer – with repeating color blocks, interspersed with grasses, taking account of texture,height, bloom season and duration. The focus is on the overall effect and not the contribution of each individual plant.
This was the foundation design that will dictate the planting. At this point I have to acknowledge the ideas gleaned from another great designer – Jimi Blake.The Irishman who successfully mixes temperate perennials with tropicals. As we live in a hot humid climate – why not give this a go? So I have now included a palm in the design and am trying to identify space for both banana and colocasia. Canna worked well for us in NC so there will be plenty of those spread around the piece.
The only truth in this design is that I will have made mistakes and this will be version 1 with loads of opportunity for subsequent tinkering. The truth will be set in about 3 weeks time when we start planting. I hope the books on succulents are never returned ………. and RRG becomes a xeric garden aficionado ( maybe with a new truck?).
AndAllenGarden 