Best Way to Build a Plant Enthusiast’s Garden

The design of the plant enthusiast’s garden has been carefully thought out to offer the plant enthusiast the greatest number of different habitats in order to grow the widest possible range of plants within a fairly limited area. The design also ensures that the plant enthusiast has a garden that is full of character and interest but is bal­anced and linked together.

Plants from many groups can be found, from poppies to roses, and from climbers to grasses. Every conceivable space has been filled with interesting and diverse plants, making this a plant lover’s idea of heaven.

There is always something to do amid the ever-changing planting, and the enthusiast will be able to indulge their passion all year round. The small areas of different garden styles enable the keen gardener to grow many speciality plants and show them off. A lot of small areas can look cluttered and mis­matched, but this clever design links every­thing together.

The garden will need attention all year round, and some of the tender plants will have to be moved into the greenhouse in winter, but for a plant enthusiast this should not be a problem. In any high-maintenance garden doing little often will prevent the jobs from piling up and becoming overwhelming.

Features

The main attraction in this garden is the planting, and the design is intended to create the perfect places to show off the plants. A pergola projects out from the house, creating a shady seating area on the patio. Cloaked in a selection of climbing plants, it offers pri­vacy and shelter from the sun. From the per­gola the garden can be seen through the roses and the gentle scents of the plants appreci­ated in the air.

In front of this area is the rose garden, which is covered with gravel. The hybrid teas and floribundas are planted among a clipped box hedge, which forms a miniature knot garden. The path is of small, unobtrusive, grey-tinged pavers.

Different coloured gravel makes a bold statement against which grasses, such as Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’, Phalaris arundi-nacea ‘Picta’ (gardener’s garters) and Hakonechloa macro. Aureola’, together with Yucca gloriosa, Phormium ‘Bronze Beauty’ and other specimen plants can be seen to best effect. Scree will show up well against the red bricks, focusing the eye on it; the grasses will be set off perfectly by the yellow gravel.

The greenhouse is sited in a position where it will get the best light, and although it is partially hidden by the wall it is very eas­ily accessible.

Planting

Annuals are grown in the bed close to the house. These can be changed seasonally and offer a chance to grow favourite plants in a sheltered site.

The colours of the flowers have been cho­sen to blend together to create a gentle, har­monious feel, except for the main flowerbed, which is packed with plants in bright, bold colours to create a ‘hot’ bed. The vivid and warm shades of Papaver orientate (oriental poppy) draw the eye, while among the inter­esting climbers are Akebia quinata (chocolate vine) and Bougainvillea ‘San Diego Red’. Mote climbers are grown on the trellis beside the garden shed.

A wonderful side-effect of having many different plants in a garden is that there is automatically a wide range of forms and tex­tures, which are blended together to give flow and movement to the shape of the beds. Some of the plants have quite heart-stopping beauty and form, such as Eryngium alpinum Amethyst’, with its spiky, sharp leaves and wonderful blue flowers, and Lunaria annua ‘Variegata’, with its characteristic desiccated oval seedpods.

The back of the garden is planted with a range of shrubs, and near the shed are some fruit trees, which will produce a fine harvest in late summer.

The shady area under the overhanging branches of the neighbour’s tree is damp, but it is the perfect place to grow ferns, hostas and other shade-loving species. Woodland species are grown here for interest and sea­sonal colour, too.

The raised island bed lifts the eye-line and hides some of the rest of the garden, immediately arousing interest because it is clear that there is more, unseen garden beyond. The island bed itself is the perfect place for a rock garden and alpines, and alpines grown in scree beds provide colour and interest all year round.