Walled Garden Planting Design, Yoxford, Suffolk

The planting plan for this quartet of beds in a Suffolk walled garden might suggest an exotic rug design. The repeating grasses and herbaceous perennials add an exuberant layer of tapestry planting around the existing roses, Melica altissma Alba, Salvia nemerosa caradonna, Allium, Geranium Brookside. As the summer progresses this planting makes a dynamic contrast to the surrounding borders, where a predominance of shrubby evergreens links to the neat Buxus edging which frames the central beds. Autumn and winter seed-heads and skeleton stems of Perovskia Little Spire are left to stand, catching any frost and winter sun - beauty in the senescence before the early Spring cutback and new growth.