Plants for places

Longmeadow’s varied soil conditions direct Monty’s planting choices

After years of enriching the heavy clay soil at Longmeadow, the garden can support dramatic growth in just a season from robust plants such as Ensete (banana) and cannas (left). Where the ground floods, as it often does in autumn, damp-loving ferns, hostas and woody shrubs like viburnum thrive. Mediterranean herbs need a stony border or gritty raised bed for best results.

In late summer the parched Dry Garden is frothing with cardoons and fennel

Damp pond margins play host to moisture-hungry hostas, ligularia and ferns

Drought-tolerant herbs thrive in a raised bed of impoverished soil