Renowned gardener Alan Titchmarsh has published a video with a simple four-step guide on how people can create the perfect garden border. The BBC Gardeners’ World star, 76, released the video on his YouTube channel, Gardening with Alan Titchmarsh, and guided viewers through creating a garden border with four straightforward steps.
At the start of the video, Alan went to a bed in his garden that he planned to convert into a border. The aim of Alan’s video, stated in the title, was to make a border that would look good all year because “most people get this wrong,” so he would take viewers through the process and provide tips along the way. Alan’s first recommended step was to clear out the bed by removing the perennials—plants that live for more than two years and bloom over spring and summer.
On where to start with clearing out, Alan said: “Just start somewhere. The great thing about early spring is that stuff is happy to be moved and it can stay out for a good few days as long as it doesn’t dry out. Stick ’em in the wheelbarrow and put them somewhere else while I get everything out of here.”
Step two of the bed-to-border process is dividing the larger perennial plants to make new plants. Alan explained: “Some of these clumps are small enough to be left as they are. Others are larger, and this is when you can do some divvying up, dividing a large clump…into smaller pieces, saving yourself money, covering a larger portion of ground….They really don’t mind.”
Even after the clumps have been removed, Alan warned gardeners to look out for roots. He said: “These need to come out so it’s then a case of going through with your fork and prizing them out using the fork a bit like a sieve…just to clean it up.”
Step three, according to Alan, is to improving the soil. He demonstrated doing this in sections and showed off his soil improver that produces grubs and worms.
He advised: “Don’t just give it [the soil] a little sprinkling…be generous. Quite a good dressing over the top, right the way across. And then, if it falls in any clods, you can spread them out. Don’t waste any of it, then spread it out fairly evenly so you’ve got a layer on the surface all the way over, just making sure it’s even to start with and lightly fork it in.”
Alan’s fourth and final step was to make a plan for converting the bed into a border. He said: “What I need to work out is how many plants I need to go back in that border. It’s so easy to shoot down the garden centre and get back, you haven’t got enough of one and you’ve got too much of another. Try and do yourself a little grid which shows how many plants you’re going to need. That way, they stand a chance of growing well, and also, you’ll waste far less money.”
Alan measured the bed and used lines on his plan to “mark out individual square metres.” How many plants to plant per square metre depends on how big they will grow.
For example, he suggested one shrub per square metre or four perennials per square metre. He advised marking them on the grid first before later drawing drifts to create shapes.
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