There are two main borders in the garden, the formal herbaceous border and the more natural meadow border.

The herbaceous border is about 70 feet long and about 8 feet deep and is backed by an old  stone and brick wall.  The year in the border starts with the clearing away of the previous season's dead growth. This is left until January to provide cover for insects; once cleared, the border is then given a deep covering of compost. In Spring, the first colour to show are the early bulbs but the border really comes into its own in late Spring when the pastel colour theme comes alive with aquilegias, aliums, Jacob's ladder, sweet rocket and others. Summer brings a warmer colour theme ranging from pinks to claret to purple. The colour is provided by a variety of plants including astrantias, hollyhocks, knautias, peonies, poppies and phlox. Height at the back of the border, is offered by fennel and verbena bonariensis with roses and clematis draping the wall. We enjoyed the colour themed borders at Coughton Court and at Powis Castle.

 

The  meadow border looks across the lawn to the formal long border providing a natural contrast. The border, which was originally lawn, is left  uncut in Spring and Summer and has been planted with a variety of bulbs and plugs not all common to the locality; it is managed like a wildflower meadow. It begins to show colour from January with snowdrops, acconites and cyclamin coum, these are followed by daffodils, snakehead fritillary and tulipa sylvestris, Next to show are allium hollandicum underplanted with camassia quamash and then  by camassia leichtlinii and gladiola byzantinus. Wild flowers include buttercups, ladies smock, yellow rattle and last year, the common spotted orchid.