6

Planting Plans

In this chapter I hope you will find inspiration for how to use some of the information that you’ve gathered so far. To help with this, I have designed five planting plans which fall into two groups. The first group, a small culinary herb bed and two kitchen gardens (or, to give them their posh name, potagers), provides mainly food for both humans and bees. The second group, a ‘3 seasons’ mixed border and a wild flower ‘meadow’, provides a literal feast for bees and a feast for the eyes for humans.

Rather than trying to put too much information on each plan, I have designated areas with letters and/or numbers. You will find the corresponding letter and/or number in the text that accompanies each of the plans so you can see what suggestions for planting I have made. I have also indicated the scale.

I hope that you will find the plans helpful and either use them as they stand or draw inspiration from them and adapt them to suit your own site.

Culinary herb garden

As well as wild flowers, herbs are probably one of the best groups of plants for bees. Even Virgil, writing in 29 BC about bees and their hives, exhorts us to: ‘Let green rosemary, and wild thyme with far-flung fragrance, and a wealth of strongly-scented savory, flower around them …’ And I think if someone with the means to provide only a window boxful of plants for bees asked me what I would grow the answer would be ‘herbs’. (Not that I put myself in the same exalted realm as Virgil, of course!) Not only are they good for bees, but they are also useful in the kitchen, so it is a win–win situation.

The herb garden design that I have created here contains a modest number of varieties which can be used for culinary purposes. There are some obvious omissions, like parsley, but the ones that are included are beloved by bees if, of course, you let some of them flower. This is anathema to a number of herb aficionados, who would argue that the flavour of the herb is lost if you do let them flower, but the flowers of all the herbs in this design are safe for humans to eat (even the bay flowers as long as they are not consumed in vast quantities) so why not experiment with a few in a salad or sprinkle as a garnish?

All the herbs in the design are perennials, which ‘regrow’ year on year. Even so, they do have a limited lifespan: after a few years they will become woody, even with regular cutting back after flowering, so it is best to replace them periodically.

With a couple of exceptions the herbs in this design do not mind if the soil is a little on the poor side. The exceptions are bay, chives, mint and lemon balm. The bay will appreciate a little organic fertilizer periodically, and the chives and mint would not say no to soil with a more moisture-retentive quality. The preference of the last two is already catered for in the design because I would suggest planting them in a bottomless bucket or other container before plunging the whole thing in the soil so that the rim of the container shows some 2 or 3 centimetres above the surface. If you plant the mint and lemon balm straight into the soil, they will, in no time at all, spread all over the plot, smothering the rest of your precious herbs: they have to be kept in check. And on no account must any of the herbs have their feet in water – they can withstand several degrees of frost, but to have wet feet will spell disaster.

Planting plan for herb garden

Full details of the herbs can be found in the gazetteer.

Newly planted, the plants may appear a little sparse but as they grow and fill the space they will cover the ground so that little soil will be visible.

Figure 18 Plan of herb garden

		No. of plants
Bed 1	Thymus vulgaris (common or garden thyme)		4
Bed 2	Melissa officinalis (lemon balm) surrounded by Salvia officinalis ‘Tricolor (tricolour sage)		1 6
Bed 3	Thymus polytrichus subsp. britannicus (wild creeping thyme)		4
Bed 4	Mentha sativa (mint) surrounded by Satureja montana (winter savory)		1 6
Bed 5	Standard (‘lollipop’ shape) Laurus nobilis (bay) underplanted with Rosmarinus officinalis (Prostratus group) ‘Capri’ (prostrate rosemary)		1 2
Bed 6	Mentha suaveolens (apple mint) surrounded by Hyssopus officinalis (hyssop)		1 6
Bed 7	Thymus pulegiodes (broad-leaved thyme)		4
Bed 8	Melissa officinalis ‘Aurea’(variegated lemon balm) surrounded by Origanum vulgare (marjoram)		1 6
Bed 9	Thymus ‘Hartington Silver’ (Hartington thyme)		4
Beds 2, 4, 6 and 8	are circled by Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote (Hidcote lavender) and divided by Allium schoenoprasum (chives)		12 12

Potager

The word potager comes from the French potagère, meaning vegetable garden, but the term potager has come to mean something a little more ornamental than just an old-fashioned veg plot. Yes, it contains vegetables, fruit and herbs, but flowers are also allowed within its bounds and it is all planted out in such a way as to be aesthetically pleasing as well as functional – William Morris would have approved, I think.

I have provided plans for two potagers. The first plan covers a large area, some 16 by 16 metres: an area, I admit, which is beyond what most people have at their disposal, but the principle of planting is the same whatever size your plot, so you can scale down (or up) accordingly.

The second plan is much more modest – 7 by 6 metres – and I have included it because there is a limit to how much scaling down of the large plan you can do without it becoming impractical. It still includes most of the elements of the large plan, but is better suited to a smaller space.

You will note that I have not included specific cultivation notes. These are beyond the scope of this book, and there are numerous excellent guides to growing vegetables, fruit and flowers for cutting, available from good booksellers.

There are some permanent ‘structure’ and perennial plants (fruit trees and bushes) and space for herbs detailed on both plans. The larger one also includes areas of flowers for cutting. I have arranged the rest of the plot, however, in groups of vegetables.

Vegetables

The groups of vegetables are ordered in such a way that it should be fairly easy to keep to a rotational planting regime, whereby the same type of vegetable is not grown in the same place each year – in fact it should be five years before your beans are back to where they started. So in Year 1 you would plant up according to the plan; in Year 2 you shift things round in a clockwise direction so that Bed 1 is now planted up with what was in Bed 2 the previous year, and so on. The main reason for rotating crops is to prevent a build-up of diseases and pests which target particular types of plants. If you do not grow the same thing in the same place year on year then the disease has less chance to get a foothold. Another reason is that some vegetables require more nutrients than others. The legume family ‘fix’ nitrogen in the soil, a nutrient for which the brassica family is hungry, so it makes sense to follow peas and beans with cabbage or broccoli.

You will see that I have not detailed precisely what vegetables to plant. There is no point in suggesting you grow parsnips if no one in your family likes them! So I have kept to ideas for vegetables within each ‘group’ so that you can pick and choose what you would like to plant.

I have also included vegetables which are not particularly useful to bees (such as peas, which are self-fertile), but we like them and the bees are well catered for in the rest of the potager.

If you wish to keep seed from your favourites then you must obviously allow some of the vegetables to flower – even the broccoli, onions and carrots! This is where the bees come in, of course. A note of caution, though: if you grow F1 hybrids they will not come true from seed so if you want to collect your own seed, make sure you grow ‘traditional’ varieties. Varieties marked ‘heirloom’ are also worth growing because they are often closer to the original species than modern hybrids.

Year 1

Bed 1 Legumes – beans (runner, French and broad), peas (including sugar snap and mangetout)

 

Bed 2 Brassicas – cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, swede, turnip, kohlrabi (although the last three are generally classified as roots, they have been included here because they are of the cabbage ‘family’ and are prone to the same diseases)

 

Bed 3 Onions and others – onions, garlic, leeks, courgettes, pumpkins

 

Bed 4 Roots – potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, outdoor tomatoes (tomatoes are included here because they are the same family as potatoes)

				Year 2
			Bed 1		Brassicas
			Bed 2		Onions and others
			Bed 3		Roots
			Bed 4		Legumes

 

and so on …

 

There are some vegetables that can be slotted in anywhere there is space because they hold no threat of disease to other vegetables. These include: leafy salad crops such as lettuce and rocket, also spinach, Florence fennel (this is the bulb variety as opposed to the herb grown for its leaves) and chard.

Fruit

Fruit trees, bushes and plants are of inestimable value to both bees and humans. From a bee’s point of view there are few months during the foraging season when there is not some sort of fruit in flower, ranging from apples in spring to blackberries, which often have a second flush of flowers even when there are berries ripening on the branch. And, from a human perspective, fruit provides a vital source of nutrition, so it really is a ‘win–win’ group of plants. I have included a range of fruit in the potager, none of which needs to be included in a rotational planting scheme. Once planted, they can stay where they are, or, like strawberries, be renewed as necessary. Again, I have not detailed any specific varieties, and there are a couple of reasons for this. First, personal preference – just because I like a particular variety of gooseberry, say, it does not necessarily follow that everyone else will. Second, and perhaps more importantly, geographical location – what will grow well in the south-east of England may not do so well in the north-west, so before you decide on a variety of apple, for example, consult a specialist grower to see what will not only survive in your part of the country, but also thrive.

You will see that I have suggested that the apples and pears are trained as ‘step-over’ trees. These are trees on a dwarfing rootstock that have a very short centre stem of about 30cm – low enough to step over, hence the name – with a horizontal branch either side. They are both attractive and productive.

Herbs

The centre of the large potager shows the culinary herb design featured in this chapter surrounded by alpine strawberries. Other herbs such as parsley, coriander, chervil and French tarragon are also included elsewhere. Herbs are also included in the small plan: they have their own modest beds and are also used as underplanting.

Flowers

Some people would argue that the vegetables themselves and their own flowers provide interest and colour enough without introducing any extra blooms. It is true that the crinkly, dark leaves of the savoy cabbage, the glaucous-blue sword-like foliage of leeks, or the brilliant scarlet and yellow stems of chard have an attraction all their own. And the flowers of some vegetables are truly beautiful: think of the scarlet or even orange flower of the runner bean (which was grown for its flowers long before it dawned on anyone to eat the beans!), the crimson-flowered broad bean, or the flamboyant flower of the courgette (page 105) (which, incidentally you can eat). And if you accidentally-on-purpose let some of your other vegetables flower you can enjoy the tracery globe of onions and leeks, the beautiful white umbels of carrots, and the purple, daisy-like flowers of Tragopogon porrifolius (salsify).

I always try to make room for ‘proper’ flowers in my kitchen garden, however. They will attract no end of beneficial insects – and especially bees – into the potager to help pollinate the vegetable crops but they will also provide a source of beautiful cut flowers for the house. And you do not have to be a flower arranger to make an attractive display – the flowers do that for you (Figure 88)!

Green manure

In addition, it is advisable not to leave soil bare, either during the growing season or over winter. Weeds will soon take hold, or the nutrients will be leached out by rain, so why not plant some ‘green manure’ – plants which can be dug into the soil to increase the fertility and add humus.

Green manure includes Trifolium (clover), Phacelia, Medicago sativa (alfalfa or lucerne) and Melilotus officinalis (sweet clover or melilot), all of which, if left to flower, are beacons for bees. If you do not want them self-seeding everywhere then be sure to dig them in immediately after flowering.

A note, too, about the paths. The main paths in the large potager are wide enough to take a wheelbarrow and the minor paths in the large potager and all the paths in the smaller one are still of sufficient width to walk along comfortably. What the paths are made of will chiefly depend on preference and/or how much you can afford to spend on them. Two of the cheapest options are to either grass them, which will require mowing and the grass can get worn with use and very soggy if it rains a lot, or to compact the bare soil, cover it with a permeable membrane and spread it with a layer of bark chippings. The latter I have found is the least desirable because the chippings end up at the side of the path, exposing the membrane, which can become very slippery.

Another option is to use gravel, but this can be expensive. Alternatively you can use self-binding gravel (examples of self-binding gravel are hoggin and Breedon gravel). Self-binding gravel is a mixture of gravel and ‘sticky’ sand which naturally holds together and sets hard when it is wetted and compacted. This surface is my favourite in the kitchen garden: it is hard-wearing, ‘solid’, is environmentally sound (it is usually quarried and distributed over a local area and often travels no more than 50 kilometres from source) and, aesthetically speaking, is very attractive.

A basketful of bee-friendly cut flowers

Planting plan for large potager

The plan is set out geometrically, partly for aesthetic reasons but mainly because it is easier to access and manage.

 

Herbs This is the separate plan for culinary herbs, given elsewhere in this chapter. In addition, it is surrounded by alpine strawberries.

BH – Beehive If you welcome a beehive in your potager, then a good place to put it is in the corner amongst the gooseberries. The bees will be less disturbed here. You can site your beehive(s) anywhere, of course (pages 231 and 233). You will see in both cases that the hives have been placed on stands or a wooden pallet. This is to keep them off the ground to aid ventilation and to prevent dampness from penetrating.

Beds 1 to 4 are described above

A1 and A2 – ‘Step-over’ apples underplanted with parsley

A3 and A4 – ‘Step-over’ apples underplanted with French tarragon

P1 and P2 – ‘Step-over’ pears underplanted with coriander

P3 and P4 – ‘Step-over’ pears underplanted with chervil

F1, F4, F5 and F8 – Perennial flowers for cutting, including Achillea, Polemonium, Eryngium, Verbena, Echinops, Sedum, Perovskia, Liatris, Echinacea, Aster, Rudbeckia, Dahlia. (See gazetteer for details)

F2, F3, F6 and F7 – Annual flowers for cutting, including Iberis, Clarkia, Centaurea, Cosmos, Nigella, Helianthus. (See gazetteer for details)

G – Gooseberries

B – Blackberries

R – Raspberries

C – Currants, black and red

L – Lavender

RY – Rosemary

Figure 19 Plan of large potager

Planting plan for small potager

BH – Beehive The size of this potager is too small to solely sustain a hive of bees, but bees will fly up to three miles to find food, so what lies beyond the perimeter will fall within their foraging area.

H – Herbs There are three small areas set aside for herbs. Rather than prescribe what you should grow in them, I have left you to choose your favourites or the ones that you are most likely to use in the kitchen. For example, I cannot do without tarragon, marjoram, parsley, thyme and chives, so they would be at the top of my list.

R – Raspberries Or they could equally be blackberries!

A – Espalier apples underplanted with strawberries, both garden and alpine

C - Currants, black and red I like currants but there is no reason why you cannot have gooseberries instead.

Beds 1 to 4 are described above

Figure 20 Plan of small potager

Beehives in a potager

3 seasons border

This planting plan is for what you might call a ‘traditional’ border which aims to offer flowers for bees throughout their foraging period (spring to autumn) – that’s why it is not a ‘4 seasons’ border!

I have said elsewhere that it is much better to have blocks of plants rather than single specimens: this is far easier to achieve if you have a big garden, of course. In this plan you will find single specimens of shrubs but at least three of each perennial or annual plant grouped together – this is the best we can hope for given the area we are dealing with. If you do have more space then you can adjust the plan by increasing the number of plants in each group and even include a tree. If you have less space, however, then you will either have to decrease the number of plants in each group or judiciously leave out one or more groups altogether: given that I have included more than one suggestion for each season, the latter should be fairly easy to achieve.

The plan is built up in ‘layers’ of plants. First, there are some shrubs which give the ‘backbone’ to the design: these are permanent and will give structure as well as year-round interest.

Second, there are perennial, herbaceous plants which form the main planting group: they are nearly all deciduous (although in a mild winter a few may keep some leaves) but all will come back year after year.

Third, there are the temporary, annual or tender perennial plants which can be used to fill the gaps. These are not marked on the plan itself but given as ‘additional extras’ in the planting schedule. As the border matures, you may find that the gaps become fewer and you will not need as many ‘fillers’.

Last, but to my mind as important as any of the other groups, are the bulbs: these are an invaluable group for providing colour – and food for bees – during the spring especially and, if you distribute them throughout the border, they give coherence to the overall design.

You will also notice that I have chosen quite a restricted colour scheme, limiting myself to, in the main, only two groups of colours – yellows and blues/lavenders/purples. There are two reasons for doing this: first, because bees can easily detect these shades and hues, and second, because yellow and purple are complementary colours and, from a design point of view, are bound to look good together.

Beehive (and Toady) in a potager

I have assumed that the border has a ‘backdrop’ of some sort – an existing wall, fence or hedge. If you wish to position it as an island bed, then you will have to adjust some of the planting a little as, with the design as it stands, most of the taller species tend to be at the back so that they do not obscure the shorter ones. The clematis, which is to be found against the wall or fence, could be left out altogether or grown up a slim, pyramid-shaped trellis positioned in the middle of the bed.

I have also assumed that the soil is neutral, moist but free-draining and that the site is in either full sun or is in sun for at least part of the day.

The plan indicates how much space the plants will take up two to three years after planting so do not be alarmed if, when they are newly planted, they appear a little sparse: this is when you can supplement the planting with more annuals.

Figure 21 Plan and illustration of 3 seasons border

Planting plan for 3 seasons border

Shrubs and climber

H	Hydrangea aspera ‘Macrophylla’	1
L	Leptospermum scoparium	1
V	Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’	1
E	Clematis viticella ‘Etoile Violette’	1

Perennials

1	Kniphofia ‘Bee’s Lemon’	3
2	Lamium maculatum ‘White Nancy’	3
3	Polemonium caeruleum	3
4	Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’	3
5	Doronicum orientale ‘Magnificum’	3
6	Papaver orientale ‘Wedding Day’	3
7	Aster amellus ‘Veilchenkönigin’	3
8	Achillea ‘Credo’	3
9	Origanum vulgare	3
10	Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Blue Spire’	3
11	Echinacea ‘Sunrise’	3
12	Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’	3
13	Helenium ‘El Dorado’	3
14	Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’	3

‘Fillers’

Bulds
A	Allium ‘Purple Sensation’	20 in total in 5 groups
C	Crocus chrysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’, ‘Blue Pearl’ and ‘Snow Bunting’ and Crocus vernus ‘Remembrance’ and ‘Yellow Mammoth’	60 in total in 6 groups
T	Tulipa – a mixture of some of the following varieties: ‘Purissima’, ‘Candela’, ‘Sistula’, ‘Spring Green’, ‘West Point’, ‘Alabaster’ and ‘City of Vancouver’	60 in total in 10 groups

Annuals, biennials and tender perennials

A mixture of some or all of the following, depending on how many gaps there are: Cheiranthus cheiri (yellow variety), Heliotropium arborescens (page 145), Limnanthes douglasii (page 147), Reseda odorata, Nigella hispanica, Verbena rigida

Flowering times of plants in 3 seasons border

Figure 22 Flowering times of plants in 3 seasons border

Wild flower garden

We know that wild flowers are some of the best ‘bee’ plants going and a good number of them, to my mind at least, can hold their heads up alongside their more sophisticated, cultivated counterparts – a touch of My Fair Lady perhaps, but like Eliza Doolittle they have a charm all of their own.

A planting plan for a wild flower area is probably one of the most difficult plans to put together. By its very nature a wild flower area appears to be random, a bit higgledy-piggledy, so to try and force any sort of design or structure on it seems somewhat futile. However, the chances are that even what look like completely ‘natural’ areas of wild flowers within an otherwise managed landscape have been carefully prepared and sown, and subsequently looked after. Which is what we must do to create something which is both attractive to us and, more importantly, to the bees.

As with many other jobs, preparation is the key. All of the wild flowers which are of benefit to bees that I have suggested for this plan require more or less the same conditions, namely, a clean, prepared bed of neutral, loamy soil which is not too fertile, and full sun or sun for a good part of the day. (There are bee-friendly flowers that grow in the shade, in calcareous or acidic soil but for the purposes of this plan I am keeping to the ‘best option’ so that even if I cannot guarantee total success, I can at least say that it will not be a complete failure!) The most important thing is to make sure that the area you want to plant is completely free of weeds, both annual and perennial.

If the area you want to earmark for wild flowers has had things growing on it before, bear in mind how fertile the soil might be. Generally speaking wild flowers grow best in soil that has not been enriched with lots of organic matter. Think about what their natural habitat is: wild flowers mostly grow in grassland, wasteland, road verges or other rough land which has not been cultivated or improved, so we need to try and recreate those sorts of conditions. If the soil is too ‘rich’ then it is worth removing a couple of inches and using it elsewhere in the garden.

Once you have removed all the weeds, dig the soil over, firm it and lightly rake it. Now you can either sow seeds (by far the cheapest option) or plant plug plants that you can buy from reputable seedsmen and growers. Although it may sound perverse to do so, if you are using seeds, then sow them in straight lines in drills that you have already watered and then lightly cover them over with soil. ‘Straight lines?’ I hear you cry. Yes, sowing them like this will make it much easier to keep on top of unwanted intruders until ‘your’ seeds have germinated and put some roots down – you can simply hoe between the rows. You may need to thin out the seedlings. If they are too dense then each little plant will be competing against its neighbour and may become thin and straggly as a result. Once the plants have grown and filled out the space, you will never be able to tell that they started out like a company of soldiers. Both seeds and plug plants will need to be watered until they become established but thereafter they should be able to survive with what nature provides.

The wild flower patch will have to be cared for. Spent flowers must be removed after they have seeded and because there is a mixture of spring and summer flowering plants this should be delayed until the early autumn. Take off all the dead material down to about 7.5cm and leave it to dry off for a few days then rake it up. The main reason for not leaving any dead vegetation is that it would rot down, smothering the crowns of any perennial plants and adding fertility to the soil, which we do not want. Next spring perennial plants will come back to life and the seed shed from annual and biennial species will germinate to start the cycle again.

The area on the planting plan measures 2.4 metres by 0.8 metres – this is a reasonably large area. If you only have a fraction of that area that you can use for wild flowers, then the plan is easy to scale down or, conversely, if you have a much larger area, you can increase the size of each area, or even introduce additional species.

The amount of seed you need for such an area is relatively small. The usual recommended sowing rate for wild flower areas is between 3 and 5 grams per square metre, so you will only need about 10 grams in total for the suggested planting plan. Seed merchants will supply individual species in amounts as little as 1 gram so the 11 different species that I have suggested fit in with this quite nicely.

Each different flower is planted in two blocks separate within the whole area. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, we know that bees are attracted to masses of plants of the same species. Secondly, it is to make sowing the seeds (in straight rows, as explained above) easier. As the plants become established and start to self-seed, the edges of the ‘blocks’ will become blurred and may even disappear altogether, but by this stage we can let go of the reins a little and let nature take her course.

You will notice that I have not included what can be regarded as one of the ‘bee’ plants extraordinaire, Taraxacum officinale (dandelion). There is a simple reason for this – I guarantee that it will find its own way into your wild flower patch without any human intervention! You may even get to the point where you are digging some up so that they do not take over.

What you could include, but which are not shown on the planting plan, are some bulbs. The obvious choice for a native bulb would be Hyacinthoides non-scripta (native bluebell) but this favours woodland conditions and we are working with an open, sunny site. One bulb that does fit our requirements is Ornithogalum pyrenaicum (Bath asparagus). This is usually found in the west of England, and its young spikes have been eaten like asparagus – hence its name of Bath asparagus.

Planting plan for wild flower garden

List of species

1. Lamium purpureum, 2. Tussilago farfara, 3. Leucanthemum vulgare 4. Trifolium repens, 5. Salvia pratensis, 6. Phacelia tanacetifolia 7. Melilotus officinalis, 8. Reseda lutea, 9. Echium vulgare 10. Geranium pratense, 11. Knautia arvensis

Figure 23 Plan of wild flower garden

The plants I have chosen will grow just about anywhere in the UK given a neutral soil. If, however, you want to tailor your choice to what will grow best in your particular locality, then the Natural History Museum has compiled an online database which details the wild flowers which occur naturally in each part of the country. It is free to access it and all you need to do is enter the first part of your postcode in the ‘search’ box. You can find the website details in the ‘Further Reading’ section near the end of the book.

Flowering times of flowers in wild flower garden

Figure 24 Flowering times of plants in wild flower garden