THE MODERN MINT BLOG
For those of you ahead of the bell curve, working on the edges of contemporary garden design, then you will of course be building a rain garden – to slow down, filter, store and re-use rainwater in the garden.
To help you, here are 10 plants for rain gardens….
- Rudbeckia
- Persicaria
- Eupatorium
- Monarda
- Aster
- Hosta
- Iris
- Miscanthus
- Carex
- Cornus
What do you notice about these plants? They are all good, tough garden plants whether you have a rain garden or not. Use them!
As a bonus – Crocosmia, Bergenia, Hellebore and Sanguisorba will not have a problem being flooded occasionally either.
As a double bonus – check out the flowers in the daisy family (Asteraceae) – we have already suggested a few in the list above (Rudbeckia, Aster and Eupatorium, if you’re interested) but Helenium and Inula could also be used.
Want a bulb to add? Camassia, that amazing blue flower, is our choice.
Try these to get you started planting up your rain garden – they will make the garden look amazing!
For mor help with your rain garden, try these books:
Learn To Clip Topiary Workshop 2020
I am running a topiary workshop in 2020 with the wonderful topiary artist Charlotte Molesworth at her spectacular topiary garden in Kent. This is a topiary workshop where you will learn to clip, so be prepared to do some cutting. We start with a tour of the garden, which Charlotte and her husband Donald have been cultivating for 34 years. It is organic, full of wildlife and has the most extraordinary pruned shapes made from yew and boxwood. You can see more photos of the garden in an article in the Guardian here: Topiary Garden In Kent What Else Will …
Hardy Plant Society Middlesex Talk Notes
On Monday night I gave a talk to the Hardy Plant Society Middlesex. Below are a few links for further information based on some of the ideas discussed in the talk: Real Seeds – a fantastic supplier of fruit and vegetable seeds for growers. Boxwood Caterpillar Advice – from the European Boxwood & Topiary Society. I will also write a little companion piece this winter with more information and some topiary techniques, so watch out for that on this website. Boxwood Lure & Nematodes – my preferred option for dealing with the caterpillar. Discount code for 10% off is EBTSBOX29GBZ …
Topiary Pictures From Previous Years
