Earlier this year we were invited by Tom Hardy and Danny Pearson of Visit Hitchin to put forward a proposal to revamp the town centre beds at Moss’s Corner outside Next and WHSmith. Some money had been allocated by Councillors Ian Albert and Keith Hoskins, and the town centre rangers had plans to remove some of the old tired compost and top up with new.
A perfect project for our Growing Gang – the work experience arm of Growing Ability, which had been sadly rather inactive since covid. We planned the planting with our gardeners by looking at what grows well in the dry shady raised beds at the Triangle Garden – a challenging situation for eye-catching planting. We were also aware that although the town centre beds looked very sunny in winter, they were actually under low hanging trees so in the summer would be heavily shaded for a lot of the day.
Having co-produced a colourful planting palette of pollinator-friendly shrubs and perennials, we priced it up and sent it off to Visit Hitchin for approval – and then it was a question of how soon could we do it! So many of our gardeners wanted to be involved that in the end we had to call in extra staff and volunteers to help. With risk assessments duly done, plants and bark mulch purchased and hi-viz allocated we set off for the town centre on April 8th. The planting was completed in an afternoon and our gardeners were truly and justifiably proud of their efforts. We’ve been delighted by all the lovely comments that have been coming in via Visit Hitchin.
A month on and the new planting is settling in nicely thanks to loving care from the town centre rangers who have been diligently watering them in this sunny weather.
Here’s a bit about the planting itself if you’re interested…
The blue Periwinkles are happily flowering away and look to be establishing well despite having been planted in full flower – always a bit of a gamble but gives a great first impression. Also flowering now are some less showy shade-loving Bugles, beloved of bees, and with interesting bronzy leaves.
Coming through soon with pale orange flowers is a group of lush-foliaged Avens – Geum Totally Tangerine. And currently trailing behind in the display stakes are the super-reliable long flowering Cranesbill – Geranium Rosanne – won’t be long before their pretty blue/mauve flowers are gracing the scene.
And at some point later in the year we should see a lovely flush of mauve flowers from the two Hebe Mrs Winder shrubs in the sunnier bed, which are so far just showing us their plummy-coloured foliage and giving a lovely contrast to the other greenery.
And finally in the shadier of the two beds there are some Sweet Box – Sarcococca – which produce heavily scented flowers in winter, a couple of well established clumps of Lily Turf – Liriope muscari – which will flower in late summer, some delicate marble-foliaged Siberian Bugloss – Brunnera macrophylla – and two Heavenly Bamboos (not true bamboos) – Nandina domestica – which will produce white flowers in the summer followed by red berries and lovely autumn colour.
Something happening all year round and not just visually! We hope you enjoy it. It won’t be long before the bees and butterflies find the flowers too, so keep an eye out for them.