911±¬ÁÏ

James Lawrence, 911±¬ÁÏ Principal Horticultural Advisor, has designed this simple, attractive, and most importantly, sustainable border design for you to try at home with plants that are easy to grow, widely available and look good together.

This pastel shades planting design provides a range of plants that, once established, will thrive in acidic soil to provide a variety of interest throughout the year. A simple planting plan helps to create depth, interest and good coverage in a border.

James Lawrence

These plants have been selected because their preferred growing condition is acidic soil. By using plants that are naturally adapted to these conditions, we can enjoy healthier plants and lower inputs compared with trying to grow plants that are less well suited.

The Erica,Calluna and Glandora provide some ground cover and will help prevent erosion of bare soil. The ground cover can also help to reduce moisture loss by evaporation from the soil surface and suppress weed growth.

Additional organic mulching , preferably with homemade compost , can further improve soil moisture retention and weed suppression. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist, to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.

1 - Enkianthus campanulatus is a deciduous

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months. shrub with small leaves that turn bright red, orange and yellow in autumn. In late spring, it has clusters of small cream or reddish bell-shaped flowers.

2 - Rhododendron ‘Percy Wiseman’ is an evergreen shrub with glossy, dark foliage and rounded trusses

Clusters of flowers or fruit growing from the same point or node on a stem. The term is commonly used in relation to tomatoes. of pink-flushed cream flowers, which fade to creamy white in mid-spring.

3 - Pieris japonica ‘D±ð²ú³Ü³Ù²¹²Ô³Ù±ð’ is an evergreen shrub with dark pink flower buds

A bud is a small, undeveloped shoot that contains the potential for new growth. Buds are typically found on stems, where they can be apical (found at the tip) or axillary (found between leaf axils) and may develop into leaves, shoots or flowers. through winter, which open in spring as upright, pale pink-white sprays of urn-shaped flowers.

4 - Calluna vulgaris ‘K±ð°ù²õ³Ù¾±²Ô’ is an acid-loving heather that makes a colourful evergreen groundcover, with mauve flowers from late summer into autumn.

5 - Glandora prostrata ‘Grace Ward’ is an evergreen creeping shrub with abundant, vivid blue, star-shaped flowers in late spring and summer.

6 - Erica carnea f. carnea ‘March Seedling’ is a heather with pink flowers in spring. It is not so acid-dependent but complements the flowering season of the Calluna.

7 - Pieris japonica ‘Valley Valentine’ is a bushy evergreen shrub with dark green leaves and drooping panicles of deep, dusky red flowers in spring.

8 - Rhododendron ‘Penheale Blue’ is an evergreen shrub with clusters of tubular, pale-centred violet-blue flowers in late spring.

Acidic soils can be found all over the country in pockets, but are more generally found in south-western England, Wales and Scotland. The low pH is caused by the underlying bedrock. It is easy to check your soil’s pH

This describes how acid or alkaline soil is, and is expressed as a number between 0 and 14. Soil with a pH of 7 is neutral, an acid soil has a lower value, and an alkaline soil has a higher one. Most plants grow best in soil that’s within a specific pH range, so it’s useful to know your soil’s pH. Testing kits are easy to use and widely available in garden centres and online. using a kit bought from a garden centre, but you can often get a good indication from the plants that already thrive in the soil near you.

Strongly acidic soil can make it hard for some mineral nutrients

To grow well, plants need a wide range of nutrients in various amounts, depending on the individual plant and its stage of growth. The three key nutrients usually taken up from the soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants also need carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to make carbohydrates — their main energy source. Carbon and oxygen come from the air as carbon dioxide, while hydrogen is drawn from water absorbed by the roots. Other important soil nutrients include magnesium, calcium and sulphur. Most garden soils contain enough of these nutrients to support healthy plant growth. to be taken up by plant roots, meaning the plants can’t grow and develop well. However, if your plants have adapted to naturally thrive in those conditions, they will grow much better.

Using the ethos of ‘right plant, right place’ to create a sustainable planting combination is great for the environment. It helps avoid waste and the use of products and practices needed to try and help ailing plants, such as the application of fertiliser. It also creates robust, long-lived planting that benefits soil health and garden biodiversity

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems. . For more information about sustainable gardening, please see the 911±¬ÁÏ Sustainability Strategy .