Mixed Borders
These three dramatic mixed borders provide peak blossom display from June to October, yet are fascinating year-round.
Habitat
This is a full sun garden with moderate watering requirements. The varying water requirements and differential growth of plants necessitates periodic alterations in the irrigation system. The original silty marine clay (Saanichton) was amended with 10cm each of sand, compost and leaf mould prior to installing the irrigation system. Organic mulches are added twice yearly.
Features
Today's major design trend is the mixed border because it can provide year-round interest in smaller home gardens. The ideal mixed border is a unified combination of plants that:- horticulturally belong together,
- look as though they belong together, and
- fit in with their surroundings.
The combination of small trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, bulbs and annuals is attractive and interesting in all seasons. The blooming period extends from February through October and peaks between June and September. Special attention is given to the relationships among foliage texture, plant size, blooming time and hot and cool colour use. Architecturally, the trees and shrubs create a secluded valley that one walks within.
Each of the three beds has its own team of two or three designers/gardeners and its own colour scheme. The three beds are intentionally unified by the repetition of deep purple and gray foliage throughout their 700 square meters.
Within the garden are intriguing iron work sculptures by Mac Tipton. These comprise three enormous alliums, a tripod for the golden hops (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus'), and stakes with individualized finials.
Plants
The gardens start piquing major interest in the spring when the ornamental rhubarb (Rheum palmatum 'Atrosanguineum') thrusts dramatically from its crown. Through early summer billows of growth from plants such as cardoon (Cynara cardunculus)
amaze us, and flowers like Mount Etna broom (Genista aetnensis) and colour combinations such as red geum and bronze hair sedge (Geum 'Mrs. Bradshaw' and Carex comans, 'Bronze') delight us. By late summer most local gardens have quietly faded but these borders, utilizing plants such as golden ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Dart's Gold), are still vibrantly splendid.The NE bed is the boldest; reds (Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'), oranges (Crocosmia 'Lucifer'), and yellows (Oven's Wattle, Acacia pravissima) flare brightly, merging into the oranges (Chilean glory flower, Eccromocarpus scaber), yellows (Cape fuchsia, Phygelius aequalis 'Yellow Trumpet') and creams (Heron's bill, Erodium chrysanthum) of the NW border, and flowing on to the whites (white coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, 'Alba'), blues (bog sage, Salvia uliginosa), mauves (Russian sage, Perovshia atriplicifolia), and pinks (pink gaura, Gaura lindheimeri, 'Siskiyou Pink') of the SW bed.
Maintenance
This is a gardener's garden and amateurs should not attempt this at home! These beds are not the result of simply putting plants in the ground and taking care of them.
Here, design is an ongoing process linked to maintenance. In the first year about 600 annuals were used as fillers between the small permanent plants. Plants grew, biennials self-seeded into locations of their own choosing; some plants proved to be fussy and others provided only short-term interest. The garden you see today is the result of carrying out maintenance tasks of pruning, regulating the behaviour of self-seeding biennials, and removing less desirable plants - all with an eye to design. The garden you see next year will be different.There is also a strong group dynamic in the maintenance of this garden. Generally one or two work parties are held each month with novice, expert, and professional gardeners working together and sharing knowledge and views. The collective wisdom of the gardeners melds with comments from local, national and international visitors, and publications to generate this unique gardening experience.