BIG PROJECT
Garden joy SPECIAL
Planting SOOTHING SPHERES of leafy greens is an easy-do update that’ll fill your garden with calming vibes
Foliage spheres are a firm favourite with garden designers because they not only look pretty swish, they add a super-soothing element to any design. The leafy balls act in the same way that the fullstops in this text do, stopping you for a moment and encouraging you to pause and take a breath, putting everything else into order and creating sense and structure. As you look round a garden, your gaze will naturally stop on a foliage sphere, because both the colour and the shape are so restful for your eyes and mind. You’ll inhale, relax, then carry on your visual journey. Ahh!
And it’s high time these balls of loveliness stopped being the preserve of designer gardens. Demanding little space, expertise or time, we call all to enjoy these striking plants!
There are all sorts of options from topiary balls you need to keep clipped into shape, to plants that naturally grow in a rounded form. And you can use them in all sorts of ways to suit all types of plots, from containers and courtyards to contemporary spaces. Invaluable in winter for their enduring structure, they look magical kissed by frost or cloaked in snow. And in summer, they’re solid green anchors around which flamboyant blooms and swooshing grasses can dance.
Fancy one or two, or even three? February is a great time to plant them because during milder spells the roots will begin to slowly grow, so come spring they’ll be settled in and ready for more rapid growth.
And don’t worry for a second that you’ll be saddled with all the hassles of beautiful but bedeviled box (Buxus sempervirens) balls. Long used in garden design and still readily available in garden centres, this plant is increasingly affected by box blight, a fungal disease that causes brown leaves and bare patches, and box tree caterpillar, which can ravage a plant in days. Both problems can be kept under control but in the interests of low-maintenance sustainable gardening, we think it’s time to think outside of the box (sorry!) with some fab alternatives. So which will work best in your garden?
TRY THIS!
Add twinkle to your topiary with the 60 Warm White LED Topiary Outdoor Battery Net Light, £12.99, lights4fun.co.uk
YEW
English yew (Taxus baccata) is our go-to plant for creating topiary as its dark green needle-like foliage forms dense growth and copes well with regular trimming. Yew is very undemanding, adaptable and fairly disease-resistant, and will last for hundreds of years.
Thriving in a wide range of soil types and conditions, it’s particularly useful if you have a shadier garden. Buy them ready-trained or train them yourself from sc
