The lovely people at The Orchard (I LOVE their site) came up trumps again and this week sent me one of Poppy Forge’s wrought iron obelisks to try out. I’d been looking at some in the garden centre recently and fancied giving one a go so it was very timely.

The wrought iron design makes for a sturdy yet elegant garden feature – I got the 4ft high one which is a perfect size to create a nice vertical feature for a dull corner. I hadn’t really thought through where I was going to put it, or what to plant around it for that matter, but I soon hit upon a solution.

I’ve been digging up all the Spring bulbs we have in pots to replant on a multi-layering basis to give lots of different blooms for a longer length of time. I found a perfectly sized planter for the obelisk, layered up a load of bulbs and then planted sweet peas all around the base of the obelisk.

Perfect, now we’ll have the sweet peas through the Summer and then when they die back the bulbs can do their thing, well that’s the plan anyway. It doesn’t look much now but I’m sure once the sweet peas have climbed their way up the legs it’ll be quite lovely.

If it works well then I might get a couple more for climbing veg or possibly a clematis or two. At £34 for the 4ft one, and £38 for the 5ft and 6ft ones, they’re pretty good value too and will last for years.

@theorcharduk

www.theorchardhomeandgifts.com