It’s time for change. This perennial border isn’t really working out.

I like to make changes to a border if its not working, so I’ve decided to have a go at making a Japanese style garden

gosh another lovely day today absolutely beautiful again finally actually because yesterday was absolutely terrible weather it’s really cold it’s like winter well definitely like Autumn okay today I’m taking a good look at this little area on this video because I want to make some change and as you know I’m always changing things it’s just what I do when I first started grassy bottom I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I I actually Drew loads of plans up and I’ve got them in a book still of what the initial designs were going to be and to be honest I never really executed any of them so things change inevitably in gardens and they always do and they always should you shouldn’t let your garden stay static and as you know I never do I’m always changing things around I love doing it the plants are coming on well so I know I’m getting the plants in the right positions they’re doing all right you can tell from this one here how well the plants are doing it’s all Lush and green but this area here has concerned me for some time and I’ve been wondering about this Mahonia and this is really what started the Journey of what I’m going to tell you that’s Mahonia and it’s Mahonia Japonica don’t know which one I love Mahones I really do like them but they are so spiky which doesn’t worry me either but they’re good for winter pollinating insects and such like but in this instance I want to remove it it is a very old plant it’s looking very El at the bottom where I did do a lot of pruning and that’s taken a couple of years to come back if not three actually and it and it will come back lovely and it is a good shrub but what I want in this area now is a change a total change and I guess part of that’s been brought on because of what I’ve been planting here so the Acer that you can see there with the Japanese tea Lantern behind it and the bamboo is where I’m headed I’m hoping to turn this area into a Japanese garden which is quite exciting the downside I’ve got to rip everything out not everything I’m going to take certain things out but a lot of the plants really will have to go so I’m looking to remove this grass which is mcan’s gigantus first and then we’ve got lots of other things in here that unfortunately will have to be moved I have no fear in moving a lot of these plants at any time a year should they need it but in this case I’m probably going to hang on a little bit longer cuz I don’t want to start moving things around too early and I’ve got the Garden open in another month or so and although this isn’t perfect this section here at the moment I’d still like to keep it planted up for that visit maybe well definitely for that visit so we’ll wander around here and show you this little section and this is really what’s been inspiring it CU I always talk about well this is my nod to the Japanese garden can you see amish’s tail there look at him there’s a black birds NE I’m to I’m to move him away from it cuz I think they’re about to fledge and I don’t want him eating them and he will that’s what cats do now I’ve got quite a few books on the subject of Japanese Gardens because I I love Japanese Gardens and in past Gardens I’ve I’ve also done nods to the Japanese garden never really built a proper Japanese garden and I I don’t know whether that’s going to happen here I don’t know whether it’s going to look any good CU I’m not an expert at it not at Japanese gardens anyway but there is a nice area that I can use it it looks great this is almost triangular because of the very nature of what I’ve been doing in forming different borders here’s a close-up of the Mahonia and they are beautiful beautiful shrubs so this Mahoney was already here when we came and all I’ve done is a bit of pruning really just to sort of get it to where I wanted it I wanted it to have that gangly niled look and it has to be be honest but I fear it’s it’s just not doing what I want and another gardeners a control freaks by our very nature of gardening so I want to turn it into a Japanese garden so the first thing I will do is take out the Mahia and then I’ve got some rather nice looking plants in here that we put in here for a shaded position now I was worried that it may be a little bit too shaded in this area for a Japanese Gan but having looked at lots and lots of pictures of Japanese Gardens I’ve realized that a lot of them are they are in shade so I can’t see they being a problem the Sun hits this as you can see it’s hitting it now at this time of year and it will carry on for I guess another two hours in this area so it’s going to get more than enough Sun for any of the plants that I put in but some of the plants I won’t want to have any sun such as the aces I don’t really want them to get too much sun because they prefer a a more dappled shade which at the moment you can see from that that’s getting now looking at the overall area that I’ve got I think that ACA might be in the wrong place of that might take a little Shifty over to the back end of where the Mahonia is at the moment and that would look better now for those that watch my videos regular I mentioned this border and I said I don’t know if I’d ever given it a name looking back on other videos I called this the barrel guard and I didn’t realize that’s that what I had called it but I did and I’m wondering whether I can use that Barrel still in my Japanese garden I think I can I think I can use it it’s a big barrel it’s not your average size Barrel that’s about 4 and A2 4 and 1/2t Tall that and it’s a big barrel and it’s very heavy and the downside to that Barrel is that when it’s just sat there it takes on water and I can almost guarantee that’ll be full of water so before I can move it I’m going to have to push it over that way I’m going to have to push it there and let the water drain out of it which can take about an hour before I even get to move it because it will be way too heavy so things that would suit it already in this Garden what would suit a Japanese Garden in this area in my opinion I’m not the great Japanese garden Builder as you know as I’ve said previously I think this would do well and this is the paper B maple and I think that with a little bit of pruning that would be great so this is the paper B maple and I think this will probably be okay in here I think that look lovely in there actually the grass as I’ve said I don’t think we be right for here it’s quite a tall grass it will be all right but you know it will give that kind of bamboo is look but I’ve got bamboo that I’m going to put in here or a bamboo another bamboo in here that’s different to the one that’s already here which is this rather beautiful and tall one and obviously the AC will be kept but there are other plants that I just don’t think are right and probably won’t really be suitable for it because I want to be a bit more traditional and be a bit more true to what a Japanese garden is but I’ve got lots of plants in here lots of them will do well in other areas anyway I’ve got plenty of space to move them and put them and we’ll see so we’ve got some osters in here that are doing rather well they might do I keep them in I don’t know because we get snail and slug problems as you know and I just feel that in this area they will absolutely Hammer them so we may remove them before that actually happens now I’ve got an Hy Ranger here this is a quirk Folia and it’s one called Burgundy a real Beauty actually and it does require a bit more Sun than the average the average ey Ranger because that’s what gives it the color later on or helps to get the color in there got loads of stuff in here absolutely loads looking at it well there’s one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 there’s about 15 plants in here that are probably going to have to be moved but that’s all right that’s a challenge and a challenge that I’ll take on if I can create this to look more grally with stepping stones or a little water feature or one of those bridges that they use to walk across rather than an arched Bridge a bridge that just walks through the Border I like the gravel boards or in this case I think it’ll be better with scaffold boards so the boards over there at the back there if I had three of those I’d have one that way one to the side of it and another one to the side of it not there in that position I’m just just demonstrating what I would do with them and I think I could create some wonderful so I just thought I’d do a short video on this and just show you what I’m going to be doing and that’s what I intend to do make a Japanese garden I thought I’d finish with this area but as I’ve said in previous videos I’m I’m not happy with it I’ve never been happy with it as I say that on a lot of things I know I do but once we get other borders done that we are happy with or that I’m happy with then I realize the borders that are doing not so good and in my opinion are not matching up to the other borders like for instance I show you this this is the half Shady border quite happy with that planting beautiful in that and it’s on almost a corner so it’s doing really well whereas this you walk past it it gets a lot of your attention but it’s not really dragging my attention enough this is this looks fantastic I love this bit that Acer is looking great and that Japanese tea Lantern is looking fantastic and I need to kind of use that as my basis and that can be my fulcrum Point as they say so the point from which I’m going to start would be taking that into my head first I don’t really want to move that tree because that tree has got a wonderful shape and if I can show you I will I’ll show you the shape now if you watch my videos through winter you will realized that this is actually quite a Long Branch that’s falling down and if you can just see through there which you can’t really I show you there you go so this is that main branch there goes all the way down this section there you go picks it up again there and then it goes into the ground and what was happening was it was leaning one way so it got out of hand so when it stood in its pot it was just constantly falling over next just for reference we’re at ca’s ARA seat so you know and then I built this section because originally we was going to have a swing on this so I flattened this area out because obviously the garden drops down and I needed to level it up at some point so which I’ve done now there and I’ve got that se interesting in itself looks great and that ACA just hangs lovely over it it kind of creates some sort of look that I really like now below it I may end up putting gravel loads of gravel to highlight the fact that that is so high and it’s a wonderful one this I I still don’t know 100% which one this one is but it is a dissectum type palmatum dis sectum don’t know the variety I’ve had a few guesses at it but I can’t be sure of that because as I said previous videos he’s lost the label so lots of stuff’s got to be moved which would be good change is good change is always good and as I’ve said before I do not change things for the sake of it I do it for a reason and I will do that with this so hopefully I’ll be able to show you the process as I go along and we will be removing plants and as I do that I’ll probably put them on Instagram if you look on Instagram at Richard chuk do1 that’s where I post my most of my actual photographs rather than on grassy bottom which I also have but I tend not to put much on that one cuz people tend to go for the other one more so I shall put some on that and show you the process I go through so hopefully you’ll be part of that and you’ll watch me develop this area when do I start I don’t know I may even start today I may take one or two of the plants out that I can get away with today and I could remove some of them there are little plants are putting in the past I’ve totally forgot about that are in there in the background they can come out they’re so tiny they won’t matter that I lift those I’ll either put them back into pots or I’ll just dispose of them because they’re not doing very well anyway but I like to give things a chance before I do destroy them so hopefully that will look good okay I’ll touch you on the next one ta