The side of the pond, and the marginal plants are looking pretty messy right now, but it’s too early to trim stuff back. The variegated reed/grass spreads out every year and would swallow the whole pond if left be… so it will need to be cut back hard at the right time… which is probably a sunny day at the end of October when everything else is ready to be trimmed for Winter. The ‘umbrella’ reeds look beautiful but if they are allowed to drop their seed it ends up spreading everywhere and is a tough plant to pull out once it gets established.
Next to this is dominated by a variegated ceanothus growing in a dry, skinny border of thin chalky soil. It was a hard area to keep looking good until we planted the ceanothus which gives a nice backdrop to patio pots and planters.
The problem is something is going wrong with that plant. A couple of bare patches have appeared where the leaves have browned and died.
The question is; what can we do about it?
My initial thought was prune the bush back hard to a lower level, taking maybe 30cm off the top. However, I gather from a little research that this may not be well tolerated and the whole bush might give up the ghost or just stay bare at the top.
We will wait a while and may be cut it back from the right hand side and allow the globe buddleia to expand as, when it flowers, the bees are mad for it.
