What my border does not look like at the moment

After much of my garden has been cut back by late August each year, I find myself wishing I had a garden of just evergreen hedges and permanent shrubs, instead of one filled with many warm-climate shrubs and shrubby perennials that have to be cut back each year to keep them shapely. Each year I wonder if in fact they will actually grow back this time? Much of the garden looks so horribly bare, like some hideous moonscape. Sometimes I plant extra plants into the gaps, as I feel sure this summer is going to be a disaster. I actually have to look at photos I have taken in previous years to remind myself that this scalped and dismal garden is what it always looks like at this time. But this year seems extra bad, because a number of the shrubs and shrubby perennials had reached their use-by date and had to be replaced with younger, small specimens, which look so small and insignificant. Also, the seemingly colder weather in early spring has delayed the growing season. I do have a few small areas of spring blooms but most of my garden doesn't come into its own till summer, then stays pretty full until the start of winter.

Pruned-back plants make for a bare look in my garden in spring

Pruned-back plants make for a bare look in my garden in spring

However, eventually the massacred plants do start to respond to the warmth of spring and begin to grow. Then I am very happy to have embraced these sorts of plants after all, because I get to enjoy the daily wonder of watching them fill out. It's wonderful to see the freshness of the plump new growth, which seems to encapsulate the nature of spring. These sorts of plants grow quickly back to their original size, so it is quite a transformation: my equivalent to having an English-style herbaceous border wherein all the perennials lie dormant beneath the ground then arise in a frenzy of growth to impressive stature in spring.

Dahlia Moonfire will soon begin to grow again

Dahlia Moonfire will soon begin to grow again

I do also have some herbaceous plants, and it is exciting watching them, too, reemerge in spring. These days I grow a lot of Dahlia plants as they bloom for so long and provide so much flower power. This year, though, some of my tubers rotted off in the prolonged wet weather we experienced in autumn and winter. I normally leave them in the ground over winter, but perhaps should have lifted them this year. However, a number of them seem to have survived, and they are just starting to sprout now. Canna are also cut to the ground each winter and they are just starting to regrow. Ornamental grasses were also all razed to the ground in winter and it is exciting to see their willowy new leaves emerge.

Shrubby Pentas are a stalwart in my summer garden

Shrubby Pentas are a stalwart in my summer garden

The growth gives such an element of drama and dynamism to the garden, which I would surely miss if I had permanent shrubbery. Once summer arrives, many of the plants will start to bloom, just as spring-focused gardens go into quiescence. These plants offer am amazing palette of flowers of many hues and unusual forms; in many cases they also have attractive and colourful leaves. Some of my favourites are the many warm-climate Salvia (which give me wonderful spires of blooms); Begonia; Pentas; a number of Justicia along with other plants from the Acanthaceae family such as Brillantaisia, Ruellia and Strobilanthes; and various species and cultivars of Tibouchina, Plectranthus and Cuphea. I also grow lots of coleus, but these are replanted each spring from cuttings taken the previous autumn,

This is a good time to spread mulch

This is a good time to spread mulch

The cut-back garden gives me an excellent opportunity to get into borders to weed and to spread cow manure and mulch on the soil, a task that is impossible once everything starts to grow and the earth cannot be seen. It's a big job but it really seems to pay off in terms of keeping weeds down, conserving moisture, providing some nutrition to the plants, and over time improving the moisture content of the soil. These days I use my own rough, half-decomposed compost, but cane mulch is a good alternative.

Amaranthus caudatus self-seeds throughout my garden for summer blooms

Amaranthus caudatus self-seeds throughout my garden for summer blooms

Self-seeding summer annuals happily fill in any gaps that do remain between the plants once they regrow. Amaranthus, Cleome, Browallia americana, Ammi majus (Queen Anne's lace) and Nicotiana langsdorffii are the regulars in my garden. At the moment they are tiny seedlings crowded together as thickly as kitten fur: I remove 99% of them and the remainders grow tall and robust over the warmer months, providing long-lasting colour and a sense of spontaneity.

Every day in spring there is something new to see and I go on a tour of my garden, revelling in the discoveries and enjoying the excitement of spring, which never fails to thrill. There is a sense of irrepressible magic in spring growth that connects us to the rhythms of the natural world and gives us a new lease of life as well. How lucky we gardeners are!