s dusk settles on what was a late summer’s day I stroll along a winding gravel path by the side of the drive towards the garden.
The air is warm and heavy, still thick with sweet smells and the buzzing of bees. I brush past Calamintha nepeta 'Blue Cloud’ and Oenothera stricta 'Sulphurea’, which have self-seeded among planted clumps of Stipa tenuissima and Digitalis parviflora 'Milk Chocolate’. Informally knitting the display together is Alchemilla mollis, Berkheya purpurea and Dipsacus fallonum. It’s a happy accident – but the combination is pleasing, and one that the bees obviously appreciate.
“Well worth a spot in a border,” I think to myself. The irony is that many of these plants probably started life in a border but seem happier growing in a small patch of gravel, indifferent to the formalities of garden layout.
Visually, the escapees and self-seeders work well, softening the hard landscape of the drive and complementing the more structured planting by threading their way back and forth. This relaxed, naturalistic style of planting is so popular now and I’m always looking for good examples of adaptable, boundary-defying plants.
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