Hillside: planting design - part 1

Planting Design - Part 1

Once you have established the bones of the garden, you can put the flesh on them with the planting.

We allowed ourselves to be guided by the landscape. The green of the wood and the quality of the meadow, in all its layers of colour, inspired the very naturalistic planting here. This means the garden sits very comfortably in the landscape and blends easily with its surroundings.

Planting Design

• It always comes from a place of practicality and is based firmly on what will work on the site.
• Consider the story you are trying to tell with your planting; you should aim to use your planting to make references to the local landscape. Time spent looking at and evaluating your site is a really valuable investment when designing a planting scheme.
• Allow the natural plants around you to guide your palette. You can begin by making a planting list, and then refine it as you go through the design process.
• Include a mix of static elements that will emerge and establish over time, with plants that hide and emerge with the changing seasons.
• Once your list is complete, you can then translate this into a drawing. Place key things initially, and weave in the other elements around these. The components that will make up your planting design are trees and shrubs, climbers, perennials, annuals and bulbs.