What to plant around your swing seat.....

Once you have taken delivery of your swing seat, it's a good idea to let it settle in your chosen spot so that you are absolutely sure it's in the place you want it to be for maximum enjoyment of it.  When you have decided, then the fun and planning of what to plant near it can start.

Are you looking for some shade?

Sitting in the sunshine is all very well, but on very hot days as we had for weeks this summer, it isn’t long before you would have to get up and seek the shade.  If you have a Sitting Spiritually pergola, you may  want to grow a climber or two up it. Some climbers do  need support, and certainly a leg-up until they can loll around on top of the pergola without much help. Some twining climbers like honeysuckle, clematis montana and akebia quinata can be lightly bound to a post with twine, quickly winding themselves to the top. They are immensely vigorous and pruning is needed to keep them in check once established & some tying it will be necessary but this is easily done.  The pergola in the Sitting spiritually Garden has a sweetly scented Rosa Kiftsgate clambering over it, as seen in the photo below.

If you have a swing seat & frame, you may want to position it where the dappled shade of a rowan tree could be planted,  a rowan is a fabulous garden tree, the shade cast is never gloomy, the winter outline is dainty and its habit is to grow higher than wide but never too large, which suits modern small town gardens and country gardens alike.

An alternative to the rowan could be Amelanchier lamarkii, its white spring flowers and autumn colour and dainty habit providing a long season of interest. 

How about some scent?

Here the choice is pretty well endless, and rather than reinventing the wheel, we would like to guide you to the fantastic blog garden designer Muff Dudgeon wrote for us on this very subject. Do click here to read The Scented Garden

Or just something utterly beautiful?

So in addition to the things we have answered above, this last one is really a matter for your personal taste, for beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  Do you love colour, structure, maybe something architectural?   It's one thing choosing where you are going to place your Sitting Spiritually garden seat, and quite another actually sitting there, so do make sure you like what you will see around you.  You might also want to think about some plants for Winter interest, because believe us there is something rather lovely about sitting on a swing seat on a bright Winter's day with a blanket & a hot drink, breathing in nature and your surroundings.  There are so very many plants we could suggest in this section, the list is pretty well endless, we recommend visiting gardens open to the public near you, with your phone ready to snap what you see and like, and also a note book firmly in hand for jottings.  We'd also recommend you have a read of a blog we wrote on our Favourite Blogs, where you will find lots of food for thought.

We hope we've given you some inspiration, and if you have planted something you particularly love on, or near, your Sitting Spiritually Garden Bench, we would love to hear from you and see photos. If you'd like to learn more, take a look at plants for our unpredictable summers. 

And if you happen to be taking a Staycation in the West Country, and would like to see the planting around our own swing seats, we are offering socially distanced show rounds of the Sitting Spiritually Garden, just please do call us first to make an appointment.

If you would like to contribute a guest blog, please contact Siobhan at siobhan@sittingspiritually.co.uk