01/10/24

garden notes || planting the paddock

transforming an empty field

At the top of our large garden project in Stirling there is an area affectionally known as the paddock, originally a large empty field with mature trees bordering livestock fields. It's a part of the garden which, when we first began working on this wonderful project, felt a little tucked away and was parked for development whilst we focussed on areas closer to home. But a couple of years ago our clients asked us to reimagine it so that it held more colour and felt integrated with the rest of the garden.

The paddock wraps behind the greenhouse joining the upper pond and woodland edge with the large kitchen garden below. Our clients were keen for us to cut into the expanse of grass and gave us free rein to create large, colourful plant filled beds.

The main challenge in this part of the garden is the soil. Deposits of clay and areas of poor drainage mean that it retains moisture in wetter periods and becomes hard and cracked in drier spells. To make the planting work we chose plants which thrive in wetter soils (which it is, more often than not, and seemingly now more so than ever) but which will also stretch to cope with dry periods.

Bold drifts of Astilbe 'Bressingham Beauty', Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Blackfield', Sanguisorba canadensis, Lythrum salicaria 'Robert' and Symphyotrichum 'Pink Star' are punctuated with Carex elata 'Aurea' and Miscanthus 'Ferner Osten', and carefully placed dots of an existing Crocosmia rehomed from other parts of the garden. The palette is predominantly pink with flashes of orange, lime and white.

Early in the morning, and late in the afternoon and early evening it is filled with beautiful light which carries through into winter with seedheads which are left until spring when they are cut back to make way for fresh new growth.


words: Lucy Head || images: Jason Russell