Feverfew, oxeye daisies, the last of the sweet rocket, foxgloves, lychnis, roses, geranium Rozanne and Patricia.
Astrantia, centaurea, tradescantia, persicaria, red valerian, melanoselinum, sweet cicely, seed heads of honesty and muscari (📷1,2,3).
A couple of weeks before, alliums (📷4).
It’s been two years next month since I started work on this border
The client wanted colour and variety for as much of the year as possible.
I developed a planting plan to make the border look like one continuous feature, as if a pot of paint had been knocked over spilling a meadow/prairie mix its 15 metre long length.
When I started work, the border was a mass of anemone japonica and acanthus filling the space between some large mahonias and chaenomeles (📷5,6).
We ripped out the bushes, did our best with the acanthus and left little clusters of anemone.
A succession of perennials, bulbs, annuals and wildflowers was planted in a dense and diverse 1m sq matrix, with 11 plants in each, repeated 15 times (📷7).
I started to give the old and lovely roses a good prune in February each year.
It took until the tulip Maureen flowered in spring 2022 for the impact of repetitive planting to first become clear (📷8).
We did get another continuous peak with rudbeckia triloba and aster ageratoides 'Ezo Murasaki later in September 2022 (📷9).
But, with its lack of rain and heat, last summer was a hard year to establish a new border.
And, whatever its appearance, soil, light and water conditions along the 15 m are quite different.
A second summer, and one that started off relatively wet, has done wonders, the plants filling out the space.
A little like a guerrilla garden in a tree pit but repeated 15 times.
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#slowgardening #slowgarden #urbangardening #urbangardenideas #londongarden #smallgardens #smallgardenideas #successiongardening #rewildingthecity #wildlifegardening
I spent the morning in the sun cutting paths through meadow borders in our community allotments.
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#rewildingthecity #guerrillagardening #permaculture #meadows #urbanmeadows #nomowmay
Why can’t my local parklet have banks of cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) like the royal parks or Hampstead Heath?
So I planted a couple of roots around some trees in its area of relaxed mowing.
Three, four years later, it’s spreading. Just as I wanted it too.
Very proud.
Young female blackbird (Turdus merula) foraging material for her nest on the shingle beach of a wildlife pond.
Last February, I removed the meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria ‘Rosea’) from half of the beach of a pond that I look after. Then I topped up the newly cleared edge with more shingle, creating a temporary habitat until the adjoining purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) and water mint (Mentha aquatica) no doubt take over.
A successful tree pit balances the needs of pollinators with enough of a cared-for garden-look to reduce trampling or littering.
The pit is in Clerkenwell Green, part of the emerging @clerkenwellpollinatorpath , the workshop put on by @islingtoninbloom and took place in the @museumstjohn .
The choices and reasoning behind my planting design
Pollinator friendly – native but limited to May to July.
1 no. Bellis perennis (Daisy)
2 No. Centaurea cyanus (Cornflower)
2 No. Geranium dissectum (Cut-leaved cranesbill)
1 No. Leucanthemum vulgare (Oxeye daisy)
2 No. Silene dioica (Red campion)
1 No. Dipsacus fullonum (Teasel)
Extend the season – garden perennials from February through to November
2 No. Aster ageratoides ‘Ezo Murasaki’
3 No. Calendula officinalis (Pot marigold)
2 No. Helleborus × hybridus ‘Pretty Ellen Pink’ (Lenten rose)
2 No. Helleborus × hybridus ‘Pretty Ellen White’ (Lenten rose)
4 No. Myosotis arvensis (Forget-me-not)
Deterrence (dogs fouling, litter) – needs to look like a little garden
2 No. Achillea ‘Credo’ (Yarrow)
2 No. Aster × frikartii ‘Mönch’
1 No. Foeniculum vulgare (Common fennel)
3 No. Geranium ‘Rozanne’ (Hardy geranium)
2 No. Iris ‘Superstition’ (Bearded iris)
2 No. Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’ (Black-eyed Susan)
Deterrence (trample) – edging
3 No. Origanum vulgare (Wild marjoram)
3 No. Erigeron karvinskianus (Mexican fleabane)
4 No. Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary)
4 No. Viola riviniana (Common dog violet)
Huge thanks to @johnwelsh1 for leading such an inspirational and productive tree pit workshop on Clerkenwell Green today, as part of @islingtoninbloom 2026 programme. First off, John laid out the plants and talked through first principles of planting an urban tree pit at @museumstjohn (thank you for hosting!) before we headed over Clerkenwell Green together and put our backs into digging holes in the *very* compacted sand. Fennel, cornflower, rosemary, oregano, iris, geraniums and lots more resilient perennials were planted out and our friends at @thegreenclerkenwell provided plenty of water before we mulched the new arrivals and admired Clerkenwell’s newest pollinator garden 🐝💚💪 We turned the second tree pit into a seeded wildflower meadow - can’t wait to see what springs into bloom this summer! Massive thanks and kudos to the 25 volunteers who came from all over London - including Waltham Forest, Havering, Camden and Westminster - on a sunny Saturday afternoon to help plant these fantastic tree pits 🙏 You totally rock!!!
Seven bits of sound advice from John today:
1. Wear gloves and overalls so you can get right in there safely.
2. Be really careful not to damage tree roots when digging (the tree comes first!).
3. Plant densely so plants become self supporting.
4. Extend the flowering season with non-native plants eg asters.
5. Water generously twice a week during spring and summer.
6. Make it look like a garden to deter people from trampling.
7. Accept that not everyone will be happy with the change - tree pits are in public space and people have different ideas about how spaces should be used.
If you live locally in EC1 and would like to help with watering pollinator patches in Clerkenwell, drop us a DM 🐝💚🦋🌸 #EC1 #pollinatorgarden #bees #treepits #guerillagardening
Repeated, successional planting of bulbs and perennials in a small courtyard garden.
Added last autumn to what was already there — with the Unicorn Tapestries in mind (ambitious, perhaps).
All fairly mainstream, but tough enough for London. Enough, at least, for three types of bee and four Great Tits this afternoon.
It was planted while distracted, and in something of a rush.
No unicorn (yet).
• Arum italicum — Italian arum
• Brunnera macrophylla — Siberian bugloss
• Fritillaria meleagris — snake’s head fritillary
• Helleborus × hybridus — hellebore
• Lunaria annua — honesty
• Muscari armeniacum — grape hyacinth
• Narcissus ‘Geranium’ — tazetta daffodil
• Narcissus ‘Tête-à-Tête’ — dwarf daffodil
• Primula vulgaris — primrose
• Scilla siberica — Siberian squill
• Tulipa ‘Purple Prince’ — tulip
• Viola odorata — common violet
