Prairie gardens, the longest day and mulching
Hi all
With the summer here, this week Toby will be planning ahead for a spectacle later in the year and creating our very own prairie border at Greenacre. Toby is hoping to bring grasses to life by combining them with some tall herbaceous perennials including some that we've recycled from Berryfields. Prairie borders are easy to maintain and look fab in the autumn.
The key is to combine grasses and perennial flowers in large naturalistic drifts, using colour and texture to create a gorgeous summer tapestry. Then in the autumn and winter you're left with the seedheads and silhouettes which look fabulous when the frosts come. One of the big name pioneers of this style of gardening has been Dutch designer, Piet Oudolf. If tonight's programme inspires you to find out more, Piet has designed some fantastic planting schemes in the UK that should be starting to look their best from now onwards. From the long border at Wisley to the Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe you can see prarie planting on a grand scale.
So take advantage of the longest day of the year this Sunday and make the most of the big outdoors by visiting a garden or park local to you and find something you can try at home. We'd love to hear your recommendations for your favourite gardens to visit this summer, so use this blog to share places you've been to or hope to visit and remember to upload pictures from your visits onto our Flickr group.
Happy gardening!
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~22~RS~)
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Re Tobys sundial this evening (19th June). has he got a problem with the orientation of his Gnomon? also don't use a compass,the"12" should point TRUE North.
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After all our negative comments about the gw programmes this series, can I just say the last two "proper" ones (not covering GW Live) were much better. Carols teaching slot kept in one piece, the front gardens slot kept in one piece, and this week, thank goodness, no "what's hot and what's not". Did you send Alys on presenters training? She's got much better suddenly, and allowing Toby to be informative and more authoratative in his delivery gives him more presence and stature. Well done all.
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Ok where is it? I might be going gaa gaa but I just cant find it!
Toby said on Fridays programme that the details of the prairie planting scheme would be on the website ....err where exactly?
This style of planting looks like the perfect answer for my front garden - but I need the planting scheme to check that the plants used can cope with a coastal location that gets lashed by northerly winds, salt and only gets sunshine for half the day
So come on Toby and the crew - Please Please tell me where you've put it!
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Hi Wuciwug
You can find a full list of all featured plants from the show, including the prairie border at our episode guide (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l94sy). Hope that helps.
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I'm also frustrated like wuciwig. I found the list of plants but I'm sure Toby said a plan would be on the website.
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Come on GW we have the plant names, how about the planting scheme for us?
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