'Old school' planted bed

Apart from my main job as assistant manager of Stewarts Office Plants, I also have a single regular fortnightly maintenance rota of my own.

The jobs are our northern-most contracts (Swindon, Gillingham, Yeovil), which as I live on the border of Somerset and Dorset make sense for me to cover. Plus our main plant container supplier is located near Bath, so I go there in person to collect new stock.

Anyway, I'm digressing before I've even started. We've acquired a new building in Swindon to look after for an existing major corporate client. Anyone that heard George Osborne name-check Stewarts twice in his speech on banking from one of their offices last week should be able to work out who it is.

The previous contractor had removed all their plants from a 4 metre built-in-bed in the main reception, leaving a gravel filled trench for me to fill. This is what it looked like when planted up, so empty wasn't much less inspiring.

Now, the trend in office architecture these days is not for built-in-beds at all, and if we're refurbishing old ones, it tends to be fairly minimalist and spiky. But the client here requested "as colourful as possible", so I think my arrangement (large photo above) of large Codieum Excellents and Maranta Tricolour underneath fulfils that brief.

Even if it does look more than a little 'old school'.

Jonathan