The thing I like the best about gardening is that you are never "done" or "ready". Just when one part of the garden starts looking nice, a new project lurks around the corner. Just one more border/ project/ shrub... The need to continue on this creative journey is enormous in me. In a way it is a great metaphor for life, as life is a constant stream of little or large changes.
At Humlegård it is a challenge to make a garden out of the vast wilderness where it lies. What corner do I begin with? A large scale planting will be over run by grass and wild plants (weeds) within a month, so how do I make it into a garden at all? In one part of the garden I use framework plants such as trees and shrubs to create a future woodland area, but primarily I make small enough borders in highly visible places to focus and draw the eye. The sauna is one such area, with a new pergola garden on one side and a long hops and perennial bordet along the other gable.
Humlegård means hops garden in Swedish, so of course I wanted to incorporate this lovely plant in my design. Hops is a perennial bine plant that has stiff downwards facing hairs which allows them to climb. I love the traditional pine hop poles and thought it would make a great visual focus point. This year the hops plants ware so small thet they hardly started climbing, but as one plant can live up to 20 years I feel there is plenty of time to see them flower. The female plant has flower cones that are fragrant and wind pollinated, and act as a great nectar plant for butterflies and bees. They are used by breweries to flavour and perserve beer, but don't expect me to start a micro brewery just yet!
I wanted to have a harmonious colour scheme of pale pastel flowers with pinks and blues, and naturally as soon as I saw this delicious pink yarrow I had the first tones to the scheme. Like candy floss, but better!
Next to it I planted Anemone tomentosa Robustissima and blue Hyssopus officialis.
The Korean mint Agastasia rugosa planted next to these almost died in the heat wave, but the Delphinium grandiflora "Blue butterfly" thrived with beautiful fairy butterfly like flowers.
The border is so new it hasn't at all come into its own yet, but I hope this picture will give you a taste for what is to come. It always takes a few years for plants to settle in, and luckily I am in no hurry what so ever. I plan to stay here and garden for a long time yet!
