The roles of herbaceous plants - My Garden School week 2

I've been a bit late submitting my second assignment. I couldn't log in for a couple of days, but the technical team soon got the problem sorted out and I got to work. Last week (week 2) involved looking at the various roles of herbaceous perennials in the border. They can be structural, act as a 'filler', have interesting foliage, or be grown for their flowers/flower heads.

This assignment was very useful for me  it has identified that I don't have enough structural plants in several borders. Whilst these borders are not just herbaceous and do have shrubs, the addition of some stronger structural perennials, repeated through the border would, I feel, help reduce the 'bittiness' feeling I get when looking at it.

As the garden wasn't good at providing examples of structural perennial plants, I raided some photos from previous garden visits. It was interesting to look at photos of borders and identify the roles of the various plants within them.

I also go comprehensive feedback on my first assignment by the course tutor, Dr Noel Kingsbury. As someone who works in education, I understand the importance of effective feedback in the learning cycle, and I learnt as much from his feedback as I did from completing the assignment.

This week, we're looking at perennials in their habitat and will be exploring how some plants are adapted for specific environments and how we can use this knowledge to plant effectively in 'problem' areas.