The Pastel Bed

It struck me recently how much a garden will evolve without any help from the people who might tend it. I was weeding in and around the pastel bed and realized how it was losing some of its intended lighter shades of colour. This year the gaura "Sparkle White" has yet to show, the lavatera "Barnsley Baby"is well behind and the gypsophila did not survive the winter, meaning the predominant colours are shades of purple and blue.

The achillea cassis, the eryngium, alliums and the astilbe do a good job but it is not quite how it looked last year. I suspect the achillea (yarrow) is out competing some of the other plants so I will be careful to gently redress the balance in the future.

However, I will still enjoy the display and be thankful that the astilbe is the white variety (quite appropriate as its English name is the evocative "false goat's beard" 

Elsewhere in the garden the evolution is more orderly and the beds around the new cherry tree are filling out nicely. Hopefully they will do well into the autumn when they can die back gracefully to leave the bronze bark to illuminate the quiet late autumn and winter .

Top tip: at the design stage, think how a border will look throughout the year and consider what will give a succession of seasonal interest. Small shrubs are often the most straight forward way of achieving this, they can have form to provide structure, many are evergreen to provide some hint of life and others have the most beautiful stems, such as the dogwood which has a multitude of colours depending on your chosen variety.