Gardening with Gael:

[GARDENING]

10 Apr, 2023

Box loves an edge. Maybe it’s something to do with being a builder. I finish a garden. He looks at it with narrowed eyes: “What are you putting around the edge?” is his first comment. I am happy with a dug edge but I do see the point that a dug edge stays crisp and weed free for a very short time. He loves a rock edge but I think they get untidy and need constant weedeating. Rocks have their place as terraces, walls, retaining and divisions between heights. There are many plants that are great as an edge or a border.

Around at the old house the garden needed well defined edges because they do make a garden look tidier. Personally, I love a good box hedge [buxus sempervirens]. They clip well into both formal and informal shapes and are perfect for topiary. Their root system seems to sustain them in all weathers. The new gardens, planted for low maintenance purposes, needed something different. Small round pittosporum tenufolium have been developed for just this situation. There are three main native pittosporums: pittosporum eugenioides [lemonwood, tarata], pittosporum tenufolium [kohuhu] and pittosporum crassifolium [karo].

Pittosorum tobira also known as Japanese cheesewood, is another variety which is prevalent in Mediterranean gardens. They clip well but left untended quickly turn into a tree. The small leaves of the kohuhu make it easy to clip and there are now dwarf varieties which form delightful rounded shapes that make small compact hedges. I bought mine from Rowie and she wasn’t exactly sure which one it was. “Like the golf ball one” she said.

There are many dwarf pittosporums available. ‘Golf ball’, ‘hedgehog’, ‘green ball’, ‘little squirt’, ‘little gem’ are some readily available varieties which grow between 90cm and up to 1.5m. Their compactness make them ideal for small hedges and borders and also as a ‘filler’ plant which creates an attractive round contrast among other plants.

Fast growing and happy in coastal areas the attractive mounding habit of all the varieties make them an excellent border for native or cottage gardens.

The food court needs a border as well. Generally a bit chaotic by nature – that’s the garden and me – I agree with Box that an edge will calm the garden somewhat. I had bought an Alchemilla mollis or ‘lady’s mantle’ at Julie’s stall at the tavern market. Googling its requirements I came across a photo of it being used as a border. Growing well in sun or shade this easy-care perennial with attractive palmate leaves and dense clusters of lime yellow flowers seemed to be just the border I was looking for. Growing 30 to 45cm high and wide it is also the right size for my slightly overplanted food court.

Native to southern Europe this perennial is happy in almost all soil types and is grown throughout the world. The word ‘mollis’ refers to the hairs on the leaves. When wet, water forms beads on the leaves. Google tells me that these beads of water were considered by alchemists to be of the purest form and were used in their quest to turn base metal into gold, ‘Alchemilla’. The plant also represents comforting love which makes it an ideal gift for a friend or family suffering a bereavement.
 

This attractive pittosporum tenufolium edge has been in for just a few months. PHOTO/GAEL