Heather Garden - A Real Fairy Tale Of Paradise

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Flower meadows of bright and delicate shades, an alluring aroma, butterflies opening up with their patterned lids, buzzing dragonflies, chirping birds, the heavenly kingdom of plants - almost every gardener and owner of a backyard wants to contemplate such a picture. Do you think this is impossible ?! You are not right! And the heather garden will be a confirmation of this. Heather Garden is a floral and vegetable carpet woven by the friendship of nature and man. Without a doubt, he will turn the site into a real fairy tale

So what is a heather garden? This is a garden corner, flower garden or garden, the main inhabitants of which are heathers and representatives of the Heather family, including Japanese azalea, rhododendron, pieris, erica, lingonberry, calmy, blueberry, wild rosemary, etc. A heather garden, consisting exclusively of heathers, is a monosad, it will also fit well into the overall picture of the garden and fill it with delicate pastel shades. Today, heather gardens are diluted with representatives of other families, for example, sage, roses, astilbe, fescue, carnations, as well as coniferous shrubs.

Currently, the Heather family includes about 80 genera and more than 2600 species. Most of them are very popular in ornamental gardening, and some are used for medicinal, food and technical purposes. Growing a heather garden, you “kill three birds with one stone at once,” that is, you get a fragrant flowering composition, as well as raw materials for the preparation of various dishes and medicinal tinctures. Great, isn't it?

If we talk only about heathers, then today there are more than 400 varieties on the garden market that differ in color and flowering time, which is an undoubted advantage. In Russia, the varietal list is limited, it includes only 50 varieties, but even this amount will be quite enough to create such magnificent garden corners. The main thing in creating a heather garden is having free finances, a little patience and imagination. In return, you will become the owner of an indescribable beauty that will delight your family and friends throughout the gardening period.

Growing conditions

In general, the requirements for growing conditions are the same for all members of the Heather family. They are adherents of loose, air and water permeable, acidic or slightly acidic soils. In nature, heathers grow freely on infertile soils, including rocky areas, sandstones, swamps, dry pine forests, and even shaded areas. Most heathers are photophilous, they need intense lighting, although some accept a thick shade, however, one should not expect abundant flowering and saturated shades in such areas.

Heathers do not accept heavy soils, but if there is good drainage, cultivation is possible. Sand, pebbles, broken bricks and other materials can be used as drainage. Alkaline soils are not suitable for plants, they will adversely affect the development of crops. You can acidify the soil with the help of coniferous sawdust and peat, they are applied regularly, because over time, the soils return to their original state. The introduction of forest soils and sulfur (40 g per 1 square meter) is encouraged.

Plant selection

Choosing plants for a heather garden is one of the biggest challenges for many gardeners. A wide range of shades of heather varieties and representatives of the Heather family gives you the opportunity to embody the wildest fantasies on your site and create enchanting compositions with your own hands. So, for alpine slides and rockeries, dwarf heather varieties are ideal, these include the Glenmorangie variety with pale blue inflorescences, the Wait Lawn variety with snow-white inflorescences and the Heideteppich variety with drooping blue-pink inflorescences. Tall varieties of heather will harmoniously fit into mixborders (in the background), such as Mazurka with raspberry inflorescences, Monika with red inflorescences and Hollandia with lilac inflorescences. All of the listed varieties of heathers are distinguished by long flowering - up to 2-3, 5 months.

Also in the heather garden, you can include early flowering varieties of erika with white, pink, lilac and carmine-red inflorescences, rhododendrons with different flowering periods, as well as andromeda, calmia, marsh myrtle, cassiopeia and wild rosemary. To ensure abundant flowering from June to September, brukentalia and haulteria should be included in the heather garden, which, in addition to fascinating inflorescences, forms bright red fruits by autumn. For variety, lingonberries, blueberries, blueberries and cranberries can be planted in the heather garden. Coniferous shrubs such as thuja and juniper can complement the flowering composition. To decorate the landings, you can use sawn peat made in the form of bricks, stone blocks, figurines of animals and birds.