Creating the Scottish Native Plant Borders

In glorious summer colour

The idea for this area of the nursery gardens came from a project in my previous garden around David's office building. As David is a consultant ecologist, the natural thought process brought us to a garden containing native plants, which ties in nicely with the wildlife and creatures he works with, and of course Scottish plants. I have designed gardens and borders all through my career, but never a natives garden. There has sometimes been a theme to a border or garden, but usually for decorative purposes or to suit the conditions. So to design a garden based on a specific set of plants and their habitats was quite a departure. This area in my last garden had a woodland, area, hedgerow, pond, wet land and meadow. 

Ready to start digging out the pond

View of the native garden from the house

Sadly I never saw that area of the garden mature as I had to sell my house the following year. Here in the nursery after we had finished the stream garden in our first year, I turned my attention to the area next to the other nursery entrance. Because we planned to make the first half of the bottom terrace a wildlife garden, it seemed natural to plant the borders at the entrance to this terrace with native Scottish plants. The border on the right as you walk in is a hedgerow border and the one on the left a woodland border. 

Viola tricolor and Dryopteris dilitata (Broad Buckler Fern)

The wildlife garden, the meadow on the middle terrace and the banks between all the terrace contain over 40 different native wildflowers. So if a plant isn't in the native garden or wildlife garden it will be in the nursery somewhere. In the wilfdlower meadow habitat with supporting grasses you will also find Lychnis flos cucli, cowparsley, yarrow, yellow rattle, Daucus and many more. Eventually all these plants and more will mesh together to form an interpretation of a grassy meadow habitat. We are lucky to have a stream running through the nursery and together with boggy areas in the nursery and the wildlife pond there are a good selection of native aquatic and bog plants represented in the nursery gardens.

Summer colour in the Hedgerow border

I have been fairly well acquainted with native plants throughout my career, but not for a while so this was a very interesting exercise, reacquainting myself with those plants that occur naturally in Scotland. For the original project I needed to produce a list of what we wanted to plant in the native garden and how to plant them together in their particular habitats. Research produced six distinctive habitats we wanted to work with, which would give us a wider spectrum of plants to grow. These were woodland, hedgerow, rock, bog/wet meadow and meadow and aquatic. Then it was a case of working where each of these areas would fit into the space. The space is approx 60ft x 20ft and almost half of it is part of the original brick farmyard we uncovered earlier in the year between the office and drive. We also wanted to include a pond to give us an aquatic habitat to create interest and add another dimension to the front garden. How to create a woodland habitat when there is no woodland? A little bit of creativity, thinking outside the box and creating mini versions of these habitats was the answer. So I have taken everything I learnt then and applied it to this area of the nursery garden.

The area to the left with the plastic on is where the native garden was created 

and in summer

In winter once tidied up

The woodland habitat on the left has a Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan or Mountain Ash), a crab apple Malus 'Evereste' and a Betula pendula (Birch) planted along the length of the border. I used smaller trees that will have seasonal interest through the year. This will form the woodland canopy to give shade to Blechnum, Athyrium, Convalaria, alpine strawberries, Violas and Snowdrops. The first plants to appear are snowdrops, then Anemone nemerosa, followed by Viola riviana along side th eunfurling ferns and the first leaves of Geranium sanguineum. Summer colour comes from Thalictrum minus, the greens of the ferns and the geranium flowers. The soil in these borders is much the same as the rest of the nursery and gardens. Hard clay, stones and wet, but this suits wild flowers as they prefer a poorer soil with less organic matter.

Thalictrum minus

Blechnum

Along the other side of the path is the hedgerow border. I've planted a short section of mixed native hedge which performs two roles. One as a divider between the two gardens and as the hedge  for this border. It is a mix of beech, hawthorn, Spindle, sloe and dog rose. With shade from the hedge the plants should be quite at home. Here plants include Digitalis, Cowslips, Aquilegia, Geranium, Cow Parsley and Dryopteris. These plants are all growing very nicely together and forming a good mat of vegitation  in front of the hedge. I let the plants self seed and remove any that are becoming to competitive with others. 

Rosa spinosissima (Burnet Rose)

Primroses and Viola riviniana

Polypodium vulgare

Winter 

Logs provide a home for bugs and beasties

Aquilegias

                 

Native Woodland Border                                                    Native Hedgerow

Anemone nemerosa (Wood Anemone)                           Fagus sylvatica (Beech)

Athyrium felix-femima (Lady Fern)                               Ajuga reptans (Bugle)

Betula pendula (Birch)                                                         Arctium minus (Burdock)

Blechnum spicant                                                                  Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine)

Malus crabapple 'Evereste'                                                  Anthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley)

Convallaria majalis (Lily of the Valley)                             Euonymus europeus (Spindle)

Dryopteris dilitata (Broad Buckler Fern)                          Gallium vernum (Lady's Bedstraw)

Dryopteris felix-mas (Male Fern)                                        Geranium robertianum (Herb Robert)

Fragaria vesca (Wild Strawberry)                                         Geranium Sanguineum (Cranesbill)               

Geranium Sanguineum (Cranesbill)                                    Digitalis Purpurea (Foxglove)

Hyacinthoides non-scripta                                                    Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn)

Sorbus aucuparia (Rowan)                                                    Luzula sylvatica

Galanthus nivalis (Snowdrop)                                                Primula vulgaris (Primrose)

Thalictrum minus (Meadow Rue)                                            Rosa spinosissima

Viola odorata                                                                                Rosa canina

Viola tricolor

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