If you have ever wondered how to design a flower border in your garden, join us at Water Lane for a series of four workshops throughout the year, in February, April, June and September. Our friend and Water Lane’s Garden Designer, Jo Thompson, will guide you through planting design, explaining methods, and sharing advice, as well as border designs she has worked on over the years. This is an exciting series in which you will also see how our new Melon House border is being re-designed and re-planted over the course of the year.
To gain the most from these workshops we recommend booking all four workshops. The individual workshop price is £45, if you book all four dates at once you will receive £20 off.*
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The first session in February considers a seasonal approach to planting design as Jo looks at how to go about starting from scratch with an area or existing border, taking stock of what’s already there, looking at the soil and the conditions to select the best plants for the site.
In April, for the second session, we’ll be getting together again to look at choosing those important fillers - annuals, and summer bulbs - and how we use them to create different effects.
The third workshop in June will look at the flowering shrubs that will have started to flower, and we’ll be looking at height and volume in the border, as well as harmony and atmosphere. We’ll learn how to extend the border interest so that there’s something flowering through to September.
September is the last session when the Melon House border will have been fully designed and planted. We’ll look at how winter interest can be sustained as well as tulips and other Spring bulbs, in order to create your bulb shopping list. Jo will be sharing her favourite varieties and combinations and advise on the practical side of bulb planting. In this final workshop of the series, Jo will also reflect on the how the Melon House border has evolved over the eight months since the work began and share some of the successes, and failures as well as look at how to make improvements, and correct any mistakes, for the following year.
Session one - Thursday 23rd February
Session two - Thursday 20th April
Session three - Thursday 22nd June
Session four - Thursday 21st September
Workshops include light refreshments.
(*Discount only applicable when you book 'All Four Stages'.)