Planting out in The Woodland Garden

Hello and welcome back to my blog! 🙂

Spring is feeling closer everyday now. The first of our daffodils bloomed this week; these are the ones I purchased already potted up and I put them in The Wild Borders with a pot of primroses. They both sit beneath the two new trees I planted in the border recently:

The daffodils I potted up in February: (Daffodils, sweetpeas and potted plants for Winter interest) are also not far behind!

Today’s post shows you some of the new (and some not so new) planting I put out in The Woodland Garden over the last week. Enjoy 🙂

Hazel hedging for a hazel compost heap

You may recall if you follow my blog, that when I first introduced The Fruit Garden, I mentioned that I planted out a bare root hazel hedge in that area.

At that time in 2023, I didn’t know I would end up using the top area of my garden for a fruit cage and the idea of planting the hazel hedge in the first place was primarily for supporting local wildlife and promoting the ecological benefits that native hazel hedging brings to the UK.

You can read my post introducing The Fruit Garden here.

As a reminder, here is that space back in February 2023 just before planting the hazel:

Looking back to June 2024 last year, the Mr and I carefully erected the fruit cage around the hazel hedging. I chose to leave the hazel in place at that time because the weather was too warm to risk moving the hazel and I also did not know where I wanted to move it to:

Fast forward to this year, I have had The Woodland Garden on my mind for months, planning away in the background for what sort of compost heap I wanted for the area and whether I could transplant the hazel hedging into The Woodland Garden. Afterall, as I mentioned earlier, providing benefits to the local wildlife and environment was my main desire for planting the hazel hedging in the first place. Leaving it in The Fruit Cage would completely defeat that purpose.

I therefore settled on a plan to transplant the hazel all around the new compost bays that I recently installed in The Woodland Garden:

To read my post about the compost bays, click here.

I managed to dig up and transplant all of the hazel hedges in one afternoon, spacing them 30cm apart and as a single row:

I knew that I couldn’t leave this job much longer, as the hazel is starting to grow again:

You’ll notice that the hazel runs alongside the back of the new compost bay area:

As you can see from the photos, I have left space behind the compost bays to allow the hedging to branch out over time.

The ultimate idea in my mind is that the compost bays will be concealed from view from the street-side (though many neighbours have told me how much they like the look of the woven hazel panels).

I want to create a layered tapestry type effect with the planting here; combining the evergreen eleagnus hedging in the front, that edges the whole garden and provides year-round structure. The deciduous hazel hedging behind it then provides seasonal interest in the Autumn and Winter, along with potential hazel nuts.

Both of these hedges combined should provide fantastic benefits for wildlife and I am going to let them thicken up into one large hedgerow over time. The deciduous leaves of the hazel will also naturally help to condition the soil in this area every year when the leaves fall and decompose into the earth.

I also edged the side of the compost bay with the hazel, which helps to repeat the styling, but it will also all be very good for filtering the wind that can blow very fiercely in that direction at times in the year. All of this hedging will help to protect the compost bays and assist with heat retention in the compost piles.

As you can see from the above photo, I added a spare hazel plant to the corner where the long side meets that shorter side, with the ultimate aim that it will visually ‘curve’ the hedging and look softer compared to using just straight lines.

This mirrors the same curve of The Woodland Garden around the corner, as you can see from an earlier photograph:

I really like how the hazel hedging already softens the top line of the compost bays when viewed from any angle:

The new planting for The Woodland Garden

Now on to the fun part! After I had moved all of the hazel hedging, I could properly plan out where to plant a new shrub and other little plants that the Mr and I picked up recently.

You may recall if you follow my blog that The Woodland Garden originally had a large (but unfortunately rotting) shrub when the Mr and I moved into our property. This was soon removed back in February 2023:

It’s actually rather strange how it has all come full circle now I think about it. In February 2023 I originally planted the bare root hazel hedge, whilst at the same time the old shrub was being cut down. Now in March 2025, I’ve moved that same hazel hedging to near enough the same spot where that old shrub was growing! I hate to cut down or remove any plant unless I have to, so it’s nice to know I have put something back in its place. Anyway, I digress…

Viburnum bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’

The first new plant for The Woodland Garden is a viburnum called ‘Charles Lamont’. This caught my eye after I smelt the beautiful fragrance of it when walking past it at our local garden centre. I checked the details of the plant online, loved the flowers and decided it was coming home with me!

This shrub will reach up to 3 metres tall and about 2 metres wide, so I planted it with that in mind, allowing space for it to grow.

I will be writing a ‘Plant in Focus’ post about this viburnum in due course. For those that aren’t aware, my ‘Plant in Focus’ series deep-dives into certain plants in my garden for a more detailed look at each plant. Stay tuned for the viburnum post!

You can read my last ‘Plant in Focus’ post about my Amanogawa cherry trees here.

Primroses ‘Woodland Walk’

On the same day that I picked up the viburnum, a collection of pretty pink primroses also caught my eye.

After reading their variety name, ‘Woodland Walk’, I decided they were also destined to come home with me and they would live out in The Woodland Garden at the base of the viburnum, similar to how they grow in the wild at the base of deciduous trees, shrubs and hedges.

I love their dainty little flowers! These primroses will also be beneficial for bees and pollinators at this time of year.

Hyacinthoides non-scripta (English bluebells)

Following on from the snowdrops I planted in The Wild Borders last week, I added to the Spring bulbs this year by planting out 25 English bluebells into The Woodland Garden. These have been sourced from a reputable online seller and they were sold ‘in the green’.

Many of the bluebells have small flower heads and they look like they may try and flower this year – we will see!

I planted out all of the bluebells in a scattered pattern, working through a patch of the understorey of the deciduous viburnum and the hazel hedging. This mimics how they would grow in the wild in woodland and I want them to naturalise amongst the planting so that they get better and better every year. I am also pondering whether I should purchase some more this year, to spread the bulbs further, for a larger display next year…

Final photos

Overall, I am really happy with how this little area is shaping up! The new planting has brightened up the space a bit at this time of year and is very in-keeping with the woodland theme of this garden space.

Other herbaceous perennials are just starting to wake up, so we’ll see how this little area matures over 2025 🙂

Before and after

As a reminder, here is a satisfying snap shot showing how much the area has changed from 2023 to 2025:

April 2023 to March 2025

I hope you enjoyed reading this post and seeing what I have been getting up to! Thank you to the new readers visiting my blog – I hope you are enjoying seeing how my garden of nooks has changed over the years so far.

There’s much more to come in 2025! Until next time, happy gardening 🙂

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Planting out in The Woodland Garden

Table of contents

Hazel hedging for a hazel compost heap