This area of my garden used to be a lawn, but over the years the lawn has been reduced to provide planting areas and also pebbled pathways. In the middle of this area is a large flat granite rock which is impossible to move and so became the focal point for a gravel style garden. The walled border faces south and most of this area is in full sun except for the winter months when the sun remains low and the barn creates a lot of shade. There is a raised bed which is 1m x 2m and used to grow plants which attract bees and butterflies.

RAISED BED:

• Alliums – various
• Cosmos atrosanguineus / Chocolate Cosmos
• Geranium ‘Rozanne’
• Hemerocallis /  Day Lily
• Hemerocallis ‘Silent Sentry’
• Lobelia × speciosa ‘Hadspen Purple’
• Lobelia cardinalis ‘ Queen Victoria’
• Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’
• Penstemon ‘Sour Grapes’
• Phlox paniculata ‘Twinkle Purple’ 
• Persicaria Darjeeling Red
• Phygelius x rectus African Queen (a bit of a thug – sends runners throughout the bed)
• Restio Chondropetalum tectorum
• Salvia nemorosa ‘Sensation’ – pink, blue and white.

Gravel garden – August 2017

Gravel garden

Gravel garden

South Facing WALL:

• Anthemis  punctata cupanian / Sicilian chamomile
• Aubrieta
• Campanula portenschlagiana
• Erigeron glaucus ‘Sea Breeze’ / fleabane
• Erigeron karvinskianus / Mexican Fleabane (also a bit of a thug once it takes hold)
• Osteospermum  jucundum var. compactum (pink)
• Osteospermum ‘Snow Pixie’  (white)
• Sedum or Stonecrop ‘Ruby Glow’
• Wild Yarrow / Achillea

• Climber Celastrus orbiculatus – or bittersweet vine
• Hebe / Veronica
• Weigela ‘Minor Black’
• Whistling Jacks (Gladiolius communis byzantinus)

THE GRAVEL AREA

• Agapanthus ‘Silver Moon’ with variegated leaves (rarely flowers)
• Calamagrostis brachytricha (glossy green leaves turning yellow in autumn, fluffy purple-tinged plume-like sprays in late summer
• Calamagrostis Overdam (striped green leaves, feathery purple plumes in late summer)
• Carex evergreen grasses Evergold and Everest (around the flat stone)
• Chaenorhinum origanifolium ‘Blue Dream (trailing blue flowers late spring/early summer)
• Erodium ‘Bishop’s Form (reddish-pink flowers)
• Hardy geranium ‘Orion’
• Fuchsia shrub possibly magellanica ‘Riccartonii’
• Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling butterflies’ I have come to realise my soil is too rich and wet for this plant.
• Geranium ‘renardii’ (white)
• Geranium sanguineum ‘Max Frei’
• Geum ‘Karlskaer’ (orange)
• Geum ‘Red Wings’ (rich red)

Gravel garden

Gravel garden

July 2021 – from the patio

• Hylotelephium telephium ‘Xenox Yellow’
• Kniphofia ‘Drunmore Apricot’
• ‘Olearia Haastii’
• Penstemon (Hidcote Pink)
• Penstemon ‘Garnet’
• Penstemon ‘Alice Hindley’
• Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Golden Ball’
• Rosemary
• Santolina chamaecyparissus
• Sedum or Stonecrop ‘Ruby Glow’
• Uncinia Rubra
• Weeping Buddliea alternifolia