Dorset, looking back to Autumn

'It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the spring who reaps a harvest in the autumn.' B C Forbes

The cottage courtyard in Dorset was really pretty during last summer, but in autumn I took stock. Plants have been collected a little haphazardly and put into the ground a little haphazardly over the year. The result has been pleasant, but perhaps not as perfect as I would like.

There were gaps that I filled with snapdragons. These are plants I really like, but when bought as a tray of bedding plants, they turned out to be very technicolor and tended to visually swamp their neighbours. It was time for them to go, anyway. There is a line of Sweet Williams that I sowed last year for the same purpose, so gaps will again be filled.



Some plants have taken to their new surroundings with ease, crowding out others and growing too tall for their allotted space. Some have done the reverse.



Now comes the moment when the economical side of me jumps for joy and I can make the one plant that I picked up on a garden visit into 3 or 4. Veronica gentianoides, a beautiful pale blue spire emerging in early summer, is one of these. Pulmonaria has done very well and can be spread into the shadier and damper parts of the garden. The bugle Bordeaux, however, has run riot and outlived its welcome and, along with some of the Japanese anemones will find a new home in the Squibb garden by the church.

This re-ordering is going to be an annual activity, and I relish it. Standing back, imagining the plants showing their form and colour in their own season, and wondering how they could be placed to better show off their potential is a yearly pleasure. It also adds that element of surprise that is so enjoyable in gardening.