Year my plot went BANANAS
Our man’s highlights of 2021? Creating a Med-style gravel garden – and watching hardy plants produce their first fruits
THE beginning of a new year is the perfect time for gardeners to take stock of their gardens, reflecting on the ups and downs of the previous 12 months. Yet it’s not just a chance to mull over the past. As there’s very little that requires attention outside, this is a great opportunity to sit down and make plans for the year ahead.
I certainly had my fair share of highs and lows last year. I created a gravel garden, added some exciting plants and witnessed my hardy banana do something incredible.
On the downside, a rare shrub died suddenly and my dogs trashed a newly planted bed. As for my goals for 2022, more on that later.
Last June, I spent a weekend working on a feature that completely changed the appearance of my garden.
Fed up with repairing and relaying my dogravaged lawn, I decided to replace it with something more robust. After briefly considering a sunken area with a fire pit, I finally settled on creating a low-maintenance gravel garden.
On a balmy day, I swapped the turf for a 3in-deep layer of golden gravel – the surface was then enhanced with rocks and a few plants. The feature made an immediate impact, giving my space a Mediterranean vibe. Of course, it’s also easy to maintain and I can honestly say that I don’t regret giving my lawn the elbow.
During 2021, I visited many nurseries and somehow found enough gaps in my plot to introduce lots of choice plants. Among them were Phygelius ‘Colorburst Orange’, Boehmeria platanifolia and Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’ – the latter is a striking form of bleeding heart with red and white flowers.
PERHAPS my favourite of all the new entrants to my garden was Hibiscus ‘Kopper King’, a shrub I bought at Norwell Nurseries in Nottinghamshire. This variety of rose mallow was bred in the US and forms a 4ft-tall mound of copper-red, lobed leaves that contrast wonderfully with its red-eyed, white flowers in summer.
The undisputed highlight of my gardening year occurred last May when I was breaking in some new garden furniture.
I was gazing at my grove of hardy banana plants when I spotted an unusual bulbous thing emerging from the top of a stalk.
On closer inspection, I realised the plant was going to produce fruit. Over the next few weeks, a cone-shaped bud was carried outwards on a thick, arching stalk and the leaf-like bracts protecting the structure opened to reveal bunches of tiny, green ornamental bananas.
It was an exciting spectacle, although there will be a cost – once a banana plant bears fruit, it will eventually die.
Alas, I had some bad luck in 2021. A few years ago, I was given an unusual evergreen shrub called Vestia foetida, which produces pendant yellow flowers.
This native of Chile burst into bloom last March and was still flowering in early summer when it suddenly died. I suspect that my sandy soil was a little too dry for its liking.
One of my projects last spring was to underplant a tree fern with 20 shadeloving perennials, including varieties of Epimedium and Mukdenia.
Unfortunately, the display caught the attention of my energetic spaniel Lisla, who spent the next couple of weeks systematically digging up each and every one of the plants.
Apart from replenishing this bed with fresh specimens, I have a few other simple goals for 2022. I need to find time to repair the roof of my shed and intend to overhaul a damaged Victorian tiled path in my front garden.
And as ever, I have a long wish list of plants I want to shoehorn into my already jam-packed space.