A new herbaceous Border

Now that I have had a 2m high fence erected on the exposed boundaries of our garden in order to keep ravaging deer out of the garden (see my earlier blog “Aren’t the deer sweet”) for the first time in the 35 years we have lived here I can start to plant roses and at last a herbaceous border.
This is quite a major undertaking as we have had to cut the border out of the lawn which meant taking up the turf. The turf we have used to re-turf some small areas and the rest has been put, grass side down, in a stack which will eventually turn into some good soil.
The lens shape for the border we have now had to dig over and also nourish with ample quantities of manure, blood, fish and bone etc.
In the area of the new border we had a feijoa bush growing (acca sellowiana). I chose this for its lovely pink and white flowers many years ago not realising that this is an important plant in many countries and in particular New Zealand where its fruit is used in many different foodstuffs. I did not want this bush in the border so we carefully cut round the roots with a spade and a hori hori knife and have moved it to a new large pot. You can see it below with the infant border behind.

We want the border to have good height in the middle, tapering down to the smaller plants trailing over the brick edging beside the path. We may decide to have one or two (probably 3) pot gown plants such as bananas which will give height and interest. We shall keep them in pots, returning them to the greenhouse when the autumn comes. In preparation for this I have been growing a number of banana plants (musa basjoo) and in addition I have purchased some canna lilies (canna liliiflora) with very dark leaves and stunning red or orange flower heads. Dahlias and phlox will provide the other taller plants. The colour scheme will include pink, purple, blue and cream blooms. Most of the above are in the greenhouse “waiting room” so that they can be planted out when all risk of frost has gone.
Wish us luck. I will add to this blog as we progress.