Journal

Naturalising alliums.

Alliums dominate my garden at this time of year.

I used to grow them commercially - they were an easy crop, reliable, happy in rain, great vase life - and now those same bulbs, globes of saturated colour, have moved themselves into every corner of the garden.

It has made me re-think how they can be used.

The orchard here is right at the edge of the garden and you walk through it to get from the drive to the workshop.

It is a beautiful space - where we pitch out tents when we camp in the garden - flat grass that is allowed to grow long for much of the summer, fading out to the boundary where rambling roses climb up the ancient hawthorns that were once a hedge.

The orchard was planted where I used to grow raised beds of flowers - we took away the wooden bed edges and sowed grass seed, before planting out damson and greengage trees.

For the past 5 years ghostly rows of alliums have sprung up - remnants of the old planting - quite happy being mowed down late summer and competing with the grass.

It makes me think that an allium meadow would be possible - it would look fantastic with tall buttercups and dog daisies - wafting in the breeze - all resistant to heavy flattening rains.

I have been sketching alliums for the past couple of weeks - trying to capture their essence, their solidity along with their airiness.

I'm sure that some of the hundreds of drawings will make it onto a product at some point - but in the meantime there are pdfs in the Members area which can be downloaded for personal use.

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