Planting the Magnolia border - Part 18

Garden transformation Part 18 – View from the Kitchen.

The magnolia border is a rectangular border 8ft wide & 11ft long. It is in the corner of the L-shaped patio, and the bed you look out on from the kitchen window.

The plan of the garden all started with six raised vegetable beds and everything else grew out from them. As these beds are symmetrical it left two rectangles just off the patio.

The one on the left is the quince bed, which is included in the kitchen garden, with artichokes.

On the right-hand side is the magnolia bed which is part of the ornamental garden.

Looking out from the kitchen, I knew I wanted to see flowers. The challenge was to have interest all year around.

The first plant was bought on impulse before the bed was even created, although it already existed on paper and in my head!

We had gone off to the nursery to pick up plants for the white garden, when we spotted the Magnolia liliiflora ‘Nigra’. I had often admired one at a friend’s house, so onto the trolley it went.

We started landscaping the garden at the very end, and worked our way backwards up to the house.

July 2015 – The first edge

One side of the magnolia border was created as we concreted the L part of the patio. It would be a long while yet though before the turf was dug up and any plants went in.

November 2016 – The second edge

As we edged more of the pathways around the raised vegetable beds, it meant the border to be, now had two sides.

July 2017 – Amenities coming through!

Before we could create the rest of the border we had to put a trench through it. This was for the amenities (water and electricity) for the greenhouse and summer house. It was finally done in summer 2017.

I had always drawn a rectangular water feature on the plans, right in front of this border. At some point this changed to a plunge pool (husbands idea). Either way we would need electricity for a pump, so we put a small manhole ready.

This manhole has a makeshift water feature on it. This is to tide us over until the proper one is finished. Having got used to a water feature on the patio at our last house, we just couldn’t be without the sound of water.

April 2018 – Planting

We finally got the pathways finished around the outside of the vegetable beds. This meant the border finally had three boundaries, and allowed Mrs Impatient (me) to get planting.

The magnolia was the first plant to go in, right in the middle. It gives structure all year around, even in the winter when there’s not much else to see.

As I’d been hoping the bed would be finished at Tulip time. I’d planted tulip bulbs in individual pots the October before, allowing me to plant them in flower – instant gardening!

I wanted a circle of tulips around the Magnolia. In orange ‘Princess Irene’, purple ‘Purple Prince’ and dark purple ‘Queen of the night’ bought from Ashridge Nurseries. A right regal lot!

Moving the Roses

At our last house we had a few rose bushes that we didn’t like to bring with us. We kept in contact with the people that moved in and it turned out they don’t like roses. They texted to say, would we like two of them as they were going to dig them up. Of course, we shot around and got them.

These two roses are now doing well in the magnolia bed. Both David Austin roses, a pink one ‘Mary Rose’ and a purple one ‘Rhapsody in blue’.

We also saved a red rose – name unknown, from the top of our new garden. It lived in a temporary bed for a while but also now resides in the Magnolia bed.

The Perennials

The bed is filled with sun loving perennials as it gets the sun nearly all day. In summer when they are fully grown it transforms the bed entirely.

The first to come out with the roses is a huge dark pink lupin, it has had over 40 flower spikes on at one time.

When you sit on the patio in the summer time, you are surrounded by colourful flowers of pink Salvia and Echinacea, yellow and red Hemerocallis (Day lilies), mauve Penstemon, bright pink Lychnis, yellow and orange geums. To mention a few.

Hemerocallis (Day lillies), Echinacea & Penstemon

Tall Verbena, pink Phlox & orange Crocosmia coming out

The Magnolia bed, butts up to a narrow border with tall grasses.

There are a lot of tall perennials, which I love looking at from the kitchen window. The big flat yellow heads of Achillea ‘Cloth of gold’ (yarrow), spikey purple flowers from Verbena hastata f. rosea and Salvia nemerosa Caradonna, a mass of pink flowers on the phlox and the super tall, dark purple Aconitum (Monkshead).