We’ve all seen them… the customers at garden centres with their trolleys loaded to the sky with instant blooms.
They will go home, plant their purchases and for a few weeks, their garden may well look glorious. But what comes next? What happens when those annuals die off or the shrubs, which have been planted cheek by jowl, grow bigger?
When we plan a garden, our vision is for five years ahead at least. This gives a garden time to evolve, time to become established and time for all the plants to find their place.
Of course, everyone wants their garden to look attractive straight away – and there are ways to achieve this. But it has to be done carefully and with an understanding of plants, their lifespan and how and where they will flourish.
I think that is one of the hardest things for us, as garden designers and horticulturists, to explain to our clients. Managing expectations can be tricky but the worst thing we can do is to overplant a garden. Then it is just chaos.
Gardens continually grow and evolve and we need to make sure the plants work together so they all fulfil their potential. It may sometimes look as though we have put a few sticks in the ground, and it may not look like much there… but return a year later and it will look fantastic. Of course, there are ways to mitigate this, it is a question of knowing how plants work together for short- and long-term impact.
Knowledge and understanding are everything, and if you put the right plant in the right place, it will thrive. I went to a garden recently where previous owners had been to a garden centre and got ‘one of this and one of that’. Now, 15 years later, there’s no cohesion. Every shrub was different and some which had been planted too closely together had just merged.
The secret to success is to get the balance right. Planting perennials close together is fine because you can take them out when they get too big, or you can divide them up and replant them where they are needed. But you can’t do that with shrubs. You have to work out in advance how big a shrub will grow over its lifetime and take that into account, otherwise they will just grow into each other.
Some perennials are also quite short lived. So, for example, Anemanthele grasses grow quite luxuriously for about five years and then die off. They are a beautiful copper grass so are really useful as a short-term garden filler as other shrubs grow and reach their potential. Other perennials, such as peonies, can live for up to 100 years… but they make take time to become established even though they will earn their place in the long run. Whereas bulbs, such as tulips, are a great way of making a new garden look attractive quickly while it evolves and matures.
Fabric on beds is an absolute ‘no’ in my book; it is a nightmare. Some people use it for the short-term benefit of keeping weeds down but in time the weeds just grow into it. It also means the soil underneath dies because it can’t get the nutrients it needs. I never use it.
You must always consider the aspect of a garden. If it’s north facing, for example, you won’t get success with delphiniums or other sun loving plants, like dahlias. It is a question of choosing the right plants and thinking ahead to how they will all work together in five, ten and even 20 years. To discuss how we can help your garden reach its potential, contact us by calling 07813 203464 or email us at wendy@theplantsmith.co.uk
