Not quite Sissinghurst! But better.

I have always wanted to go to England; for the gardens and the RHS shows; for the lush green plants, all seemingly bathed in an eternal downpouring of light that is as watery and serene as a Gainsborough oil; for the sake of seeing the gardens of THAT garden show in May where Australians like Jim Fogarty have won gold with their unique show gardens.

White flowered Jasmine

But for the time being, that trip seems to be slightly out of reach. So, I sulk a little and then knuckle down to creating something of my own that will at least have been inspired by my love of British gardens. After all, I have drooled over enough shows with Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh patiently pointing out the differences between potentilla and potential disasters and drawn up enough lists of plants that would look cottagey as well as survive Adelaide’s wet soggy winters and bone dry summers. These must also hold up against the bone white light of Southern Australia, more bleaching than a bottle of Chlorox on the unmentionables.

When inspiration strikes me, it does not do it by halves. I decide that I am going to plant up the wide bed that wraps around the empty space to the left of our house with a mixture of plants such as salvias, bulbs, perennials and annuals in a colour graded plan. I will start at the front of the space, where the wide bed sits atop two terraces held back by stone filled cages or gabions. The colour for that bed will be mainly white, grey and green. Blue will help enhance the whiteness of the whites and the greyness of the greys. This will be my Sissinghurst, only on a bed that will be hundreds of times smaller when compared to THAT white garden. My ambitions and plant wishes of course are more suited to something the size of the entire estate. I am blissfully aware that I am not Vita, nor do I have her means or the deep pockets of Harold Nicholson to assist me in my adventure.

I start of course with order. I draw up a list of all the white plants I have. I do this once by hand, just numbering the plants. I then do another one, grouping them by height. This will be the final one I intend to work from. I am sure I will be over-planting the bed, given the number of plants I have and the space constraints. But I am flexible about that. I plan to get around that by simply widening the bed till I can fit everything in. Told you I was flexible!

A lot of these plants are passalongs, which simply adds to the pleasure of planting. Each person, each nursery and each trip to get the plants will be revisited, every year as the plants reach their full blowsy potential. That after all is the best part of gardening!

THE LIST:

	TALL PLANTS		MEDIUM PLANTS		FRONT OF BED		CATCH UP PLANTS
1	Pale Sweet Peas Hi Scent	1	White Salvia Greggi	1	Alyssum	1
2	Salvia discolour	2	Stevia	2	White Santolina	2
3	Artemisia	3	Cotyledon orbiculata	3	White flowered Basil	3
4	Arum Green Goddess	4	White poppies	4	Rain lilies	4
5	Jasmine Sambac	5	Variegated Kalanchoe	5	Garlic chives	5
6	Potato Vine	6	Pale orange Salvia Greggii Pumpkin	6	Chincherinchee	6
7	White rose perfumed	7	Stachys byzantica	7	Tuberoses	7
8	Ammi Majus	8	Clary sage	8	Candytuft	8
9	Brugmansia	9	Russian sage	9	Spring Onions	9
10	Salvia Finnisgrove	10	Spring Onions	10	White Ivy geraniums	10
11		11	Leucophyta	11		11
12		12		12		12
13		13		13		13
14		14		14		14