The Wild Borders: A look back at June and July 2024

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog 🙂

Today’s post looks back at how The Wild Borders (which I originally introduced here) have developed over June and July 2024.

This is a photo-rich post today. Enjoy!

The ballerinas of the borders: Roses, roses everywhere

The major stars of the borders have been the roses, which have bloomed all the way through June and July:

*‘James Galway’ English climbing rose, which I have been training over the first archway. This was gifted to me as a birthday present in 2023 🙂*

*White climbing rose (unknown variety). Highly fragranced.*

Pink climbing rose (variety unknown). The blooms open as a deep crimson and fade to a softer pink.

*Cerise pink climbing rose trained over the first archway.*

Heady backdrop plants: sweet rocket, red valerian and love-in-a-mist

June 2024 saw the bloom of the white sweet rocket, which self-seeded around the borders.

I love how it created clouds of white as a backdrop to the pink of the roses, intermingled with self-seed red valerian and love-in-a-mist, as shown in the photos below:

I particularly love the soft foliage of the love-in-a-mist; it contrasts so well with the other planting and creates a soft, dreamy effect:

*Standard rose, pink, pictured amongst self-seeded love-in-a-mist, red valerian and sweet rocket.*

As you can see from the photos below, as the garden transitioned into July, the sweet rocket faded and the red valerian became the predominant feature in the lower part of the border. I need to have a think about this for next year; something else could be grown to help fill in the gaps once the sweet rocket has faded.

Verbena – ‘Buenos aires’

The verbena I added into the front of the borders in 2023 has now grown astronomically this year. It is meant to grow to 1.5 metres, but it is getting over 2.5 metres high!

I’m not sure whether I currently like the placement of this verbena. With it growing much taller than anticipated, I am not sure it is entirely working where it is. Although I love the plant itself, this might need moving to another area.

Plans for Autumn 2024: moving the crocosmia

I also have big plans this Autumn to remove all the crocosmia that is growing on the adjoining border, so that I can extend the same planting across both sides of these borders:

The Mr and I have also been discussing whether we will put in a small wildlife pond into the area… These are, of course, called The Wild Borders, so increasing the wildlife in the area would be fitting. Watch this space!

I hope you enjoyed having a look at how these borders have been developing and reading about some of the upcoming plans for the space.

Next weekend, I will be putting up a post about some projects I have started in The Fruit Garden. For newer readers, I introduced The Fruit Garden here. That post will show you the full background.

Happy gardening 🙂

The Charming Nook