The planting plan process

The Planting Plan Process

In this lesson, I'll explore the detail of putting together a plant palette and translating this into a planting design that is layered to provide year-round interest whilst being practical to maintain.

Putting Together a Plant List

When developing a planting plan, it's always worth putting together a plant list. Plant lists make it easier to then draw up a detailed planting plan. Both the list and plan help you in several ways, including:

• Deciding the tone of the planting and what goes into it,
• Establishing what you're planting for, where and why,
• Allowing you to lay out the plants on paper before easily transcribing this layout into actually Laying them out on the ground,
• If you're working with a team, it allows you to pass this detailed information on, so the specifics of where everything goes can be easily communicated,
• Being there as a record and baseline to refer back to as the garden evolves and develops.

Key Principles of a Planting List

• Use the list to divide your plant palette into trees, shrubs and perennials.
• Remember woody plants (trees, shrubs and climbers) provide the structure, so place these first.
• Consider your climate, e.g. this close to the sea, we tend not to get frosts, so we can use a slightly exotic palette of plants that are quite tender.
• Make sure to cater for sunny areas, shady areas and areas with other particular microclimates.
• All the plants on the list should be compatible with each other as a palette, even if they're going in separate parts of the garden. They all need to relate to each other in some way, so that when you go into the garden, it all registers as one cohesive planting and one overall mood.

Working Out the Numbers of Plants

When working out the numbers of perennials you will want, I take an average and imagine the plants are all 30 cm apart. I then draw an icon representing a 30 cm area and flood the whole planting plan with those. Then I fill in those icons in sequence: emergents first, then mid-layer perennials, then ground covers.

• Each plant of course has its own particular way of growing, but 30 cm is a good average that will allow you to work up a planting plan with approximate numbers.

Once I've got the approximate numbers for the space, I can fine-tune this according to the plant size and purpose; for example, whether I want dense swathes, like Iris lazica, or distinct exclamation marks, like Acanthus.

Constructing the Perennial Layer

Once I've drawn up my plant list and put all the plants in alphabetical order, each plant is given an icon, and the icons are then placed according to how I want the plants to go into the garden.

1. My first step in putting a perennial planting plan together is to identify the emergents.

• These rise above the layer to provide drama, height and an anchor point, e.g. Sanguisorba – from which I can start to build out other connections of plants.
• Alternatively, emergents can just be particularly long-lasting plants that are relatively constant throughout the season, e.g. mounds of peonies.

2. Then, I think about where to place these emergents to create height and animation.

• Although I've given everything a 30 cm spacing, I know some plants, e.g. Acanthus, will get much bigger, so I put those further apart. I can then tuck other plants underneath these to create layering.
• I often organise emergents in groups that step across the site to create connections between areas. Usually, there is a jump between groups so that it looks like the plant has seeded around and started to naturalise.
• A key technique in naturalistic planting is to create mother colonies with breakaway satellites
• Though I want Acanthus next to the wall, I might step them out into the garden.
• To create height elsewhere, I've used trios of Sanguisorba plus one breaking away.

3. Then I think about what would sit well underneath the emergents, and start to fill in the mid-layer of perennials that mingle at a lower level.

• For example, I might work a geranium through underneath the Sanguisorba.
• I think about what will sit easily in the shadow of the evergreens. For example, white Anemone 'Honorine Jobert' provides a lovely spangling against the dark foliage.
• Often at the back of the border I will put something that registers quite quietly.

4. The next layer below that is the ground covers. These glue everything together, coming right down to the path edges and mingling amongst the plants that rise above them during the season.

• The taller perennials give the ground cover plants some shade and shelter, while the ground covers protect and cover the soil.
• Ground covers provide a constancy in the layering.
• Evergreen ground covers, like Iris lazica, Tellima grandiflora and Tiarella, provide supportive planting underneath the trees and shrubs.

5. Finally, I make a bulb planting plan.

• This is often just a very simple shading over the previous plans, to show where I want groups of bulbs to appear amongst the perennials.

Designing a perennial layer is a process of elimination. Identify and place your key plants first, then fill in the layers that flood between them, and finally, add the ground covers that tuck in underneath.

The Colour Journey of Your Design

When I'm thinking about how to bring a planting together, with moments of excitement and quieter moments as a counterpoint, I consider the journey the garden can take you on using colour.

I've made the central open glade of the walled garden the place where the colour field happens. You come into the garden through the shade of the evergreens, then emerge into a pool of light and colour.

• Moving towards the edges of the garden, these shadier areas call for a much more muted, restful and refreshing feel, which I create using a palette dominated by greens.

I also consider how I can harness microclimates to feed other senses. Against the west-facing wall, I've used scented plants: when the evening sun heats up the wall, the scent is liberated and fills that corner.

Planting Is the Most Intricate Near Paths and Occupied Spaces

If your borders are deep, you can play with the quantity and intensity of plants. The most complex planting tends to be alongside paths and around seating areas, where you can see into the edges. The planting then gets simpler the further you get from the paths, finishing with very simple moves at the back.

Leaf Size and Texture

Creating an Underpinning Framework of Leaf Textures

It's important to always think about a framework of good form and texture. The textures of greens and foliage underpin and support the ephemeral moments of colour that come and go in a garden.

So I've got quite large areas of this garden – probably about two-thirds – that are predominantly green. We've played with contrasting leaf forms and textures, which all work together to provide interest.

For example:

• In one corner, I've put big groups of oak-leaved hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). These have large leaves that are matt, puckered and make a great backdrop.
• We have one evergreen magnolia with matt leaves and then some other evergreen magnolias – Magnolia grandiflora 'Kay Parris' – that have very shiny leaves.

The Impact of Leaf Size

In other parts of the site where I don't want the eye to be caught up in dramatic foliage, I've used small foliage with low-key textures.

• The Olearia at the herb garden entrance helps you move through that gateway very easily because the leaves are very small, so your eye is drawn through to what lies beyond.

If you want to draw the eye, you can use large foliage to achieve the opposite effect.

• I've used the large-leafed Hydrangea aspera by the pool, which holds your attention in the place where you sit.

You can use the leaf form, texture and size to modulate how a space feels and is moved through, where your eye gravitates towards, and create backdrops to the more ephemeral colours from flowers.

Upkeep and Access Considerations

When putting a planting plan together, it's important to consider how many hours you might need to put into maintaining this garden. Here, the beds are densely planted with ground cover to reduce weeding.

The back sections of the walled garden are nearly all evergreen. The remaining three more dynamic front sections make up most of the maintenance – this is where the perennials are that need to be cut down once a year and perhaps divided every few years, and where a little staking may be needed.

Areas of lower maintenance, such as evergreens, still have access and upkeep considerations. Here, we need to be able to get to the clipped forms to clip them, so we can't plant too densely around them.

• This is another reason groundcovers are useful: they allow you to easily move around evergreens, gently treading amongst the groundcovers and then raking off the clippings easily.

So alongside thinking about the aesthetics of the planting, we're also thinking very practically to ensure the garden functions well, that it's easy to move through, and that it's easy to work in the areas that require maintenance.

Plant Directory

Iris lazica

Sanguisorba

Anemone × hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'

Tellima grandiflora

Tiarella

Panicum

Hydrangea quercifolia

Magnolia grandiflora 'Kay Parris'

Olearia

Hydrangea aspera