Annual event?

You know how one thing can often lead to another. You change one thing and it spills into something else. Well it just keeps on happening in the garden. The white and blue bed that I planted up this year curves round and joins another bed that was looking distinctively shabby.

It all started when Martyn chopped back the camellia which created a large bare space. We also realigned the bed which made it a bit larger. This area contained a hotch potch of plants including a large clump of yellow flowered crocosmia, that seems to be vying for garden domination by increasing its girth at a frightening rate, a ligularia that the slugs reduce to tatters each year, some slow growing banana plants, a ginger and one or two other bits and pieces.

Martyn had already been let loose with the secateurs again as he posted on his blog. I know I never learn do I? But I had to admit that the bamboo at one end of the bed did need some attention - I think it may even have been me that suggested that it needed 'dealing with'

The next job was deciding what to keep, what to move and what to 'let go'.  We kept the bananas which are making a valiant attempt to grow, the ginger, the small pieris and the crocosmia Lucifer (a more restrained variety) which was planted towards the back of the bed were also allowed to remain in situ.

The yellow crocosmia was dug up and still awaits a decision on its fate. Despite it being a slug magnet, we really like the ligularia so this was moved to another spot in the garden with the hope that it may not attract as much molluscy attention. Probably a vane hope but at least where it is it doesn't flaunt its lacy leaves quite as much. The heuchera was moved but, as they tend to do, when it was dug up it split into several small plants. The clump of Lucifer growing nearer to the front of the bed was moved back.

All this created an empty area to work on. Having done much replanting, restructuring - call it what you may - of the garden this year, we decided on a temporary fix. This will give us a breathing space during which we can decide just what we want to do with this bed.

The fix is to plant some of the variety of annuals that we have grown to plant on the plot. They may not grow, they may not fill the gap, it may end up looking boring but maybe, just maybe we will decide we like it!