The power of perennials

Make your garden a ramble and discover the romance of flowers

IT’S SO EASY TO BE LED UP THIS GARDEN PATH THAT YOU’LL HAPPILY BE LED BACK DOWN IT AND REPEAT ALL OVER AGAIN THE NEXT DAY

agentle slope is no place for a lawn. Turn it into a modern border garden instead. Then create narrow paths so you can meander through and let the soft foliage brush your skin. Watch the seasons change as flowers come and go, and share your bunches of beauties with visiting birds and bees.

ABOUT THE GARDEN

Sarah Ryan’s modern, English-style border garden at Hillandale – just over the Blue Mountains west of Sydney – goes for 120m up and down the gentle slope on her property. It’s filled with more than 300 species of rare and interesting flowering plants combined with clumps of dreamy, wispy ornamental grasses. The garden is ephemeral – changing throughout the seasons, with fresh flowers emerging as others gently unwind. After a cold winter, the early spring flowers shoot up like rockets, followed by a series of summer sensations before the border then peaks in the early days of autumn. It’s simply stunning!

TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE AND LET YOUR FLOWERING PLANTS BEHAVE AS NATURE DECREED INSTEAD OF TRYING TO TAME AND CONTAIN THEM

1 SIMPLY PERFECT Take your pick from the thousands of daisies available, but nothing beats the classic white petals and yellow centres of the Leucanthemums – go for the shastas or oxeyes.

SEEN ON BHG TV 2 BORDERING ON THE BEAUTIFUL You get a fabulous flurry of flowers and a cornucopia of colour when you reduce your lawn – and the weekly labour needed – and replace it with perennials.

3 DRIFT AWAY Create casual courses with bold, golden lady’s mantle (Alchemilla sp), black-bu oned nigella and a pastel array of foxgloves. 4 SHOW STOPPER Reserve a seat for a bowl of packed echeverias as their flowers erupt. 5 TALL ORDER Make lace with waves of salvias and lupins. 6 OPPOSITES ATTRACT Contrast perennials with succulents. 7 SILVER LINING Repurpose old appliances, such as this coal range. Cool! 8 TRUE BLUE Nigellas are a knockout! 9 THE GREAT ESCAPE Don’t cage succulents, frame them!

10 GREEN SCREEN Use foliage as a background to flowers and create light and shadow. 11 GO NATURAL Line paths in bark mulch. 12 FAKE IT Many succulents pretend to be flowers, but they’re all leaves, such as Aeonium sp. 13 MAGENTA MAGIC You can never fail with swathes of salvias. 14 SURPRISE! Of course succulents flower, and brilliantly, such as echeveria.