Wyrtun

Friday, 15 May 2026

Designer’s note

Swap the bare-soil margin for a matrix of Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant' woven as a dense, creeping base layer across the full perimeter, its April-May flower spikes a reliable early hoverfly magnet at a scale that suits these narrow ledges; let three scattered clumps of Sanguisorba officinalis 'Red Thunder' rise unevenly from it as mid-storey emergents, their dark bobbin flowers held on wiry stems from July through September and beloved by long-tongued bees - Dunnett and Hitchmough's 'The Dynamic Landscape' (2004) makes the case for exactly this ceiling-floor pairing in confined, shaded conditions. Punctuate one corner of the sleeper edge closest to the fence with a single upright clump of Iris sibirica 'Caesar's Brother', its narrow, sword-like foliage giving a vertical accent distinct from the existing rush growth in the pond itself while contributing a deep violet June flower that draws bumblebees; the Ajuga closes densely enough beneath it to suppress weeds without mulch and the combination - all three plants tolerant of the slightly acidic, loamy soilscape 7 conditions and unfussy about the drier-than-it-looks topsoil - should establish a self-sustaining insect corridor between decking level and water surface with very little annual intervention.