Every garden reaches a point where a border no longer looks quite the way it once did. The shrubs have become larger than expected. Perennials are competing for space. Plants that once looked perfectly balanced have gradually disappeared beneath more vigorous neighbours, while weeds seem to find opportunities wherever there's a gap. People often apologise when I arrive to look at a border like this. "It's got away from me." "I think we'll have to start again." Most of the tim

One of the things I enjoy most about perennial plants is that they rarely stay the same. Unlike annual bedding plants that complete their lives in a single season, perennials settle into the garden and slowly develop character. Each spring they emerge a little stronger, each summer they fill a little more space and, if they're happy, they gradually become substantial clumps that seem completely at home in the border. For several years that's exactly what we hope for. Then som