The second season of the banks that sit below the new dry-stone wall has begun. Spring in full tilt, the pear blossom bringing it firmly into life and every day something new as reward. The young planting has the energy from its first year of establishment behind it, with roots having a foothold and top growth beginning to show the substance of plants that are happy and ready to perform. Less soil on show and more cover and the communities beginning to mingle as I had envisaged in my mind’s eye. 

The steep bank hunkers into the south-facing slope and was imagined during the making of the Sand Garden, which came the year before. Two pear trees, from the time this area was pears in pasture, jump from the orchards beyond into what has now become garden. In the sanctuary of their dappling, I have made myself a little shade garden and out on the hot flanks I have been planting evergreens to provide a microclimate away from the wind and the brilliance of desiccating sunshine. Cistus ladanifer, with foliage that smells of incense, is establishing well and the perfume is held in their lee. The soft, matt feltiness of phlomis that take your eye up and out of the Sand Garden make for an easy connection.