Hillside: planting design - part 3

Planting Design - Part 3

Keep Planting Design Interesting

• To keep the planting design interesting, with undulating waves of energy, use plants of contrasting heights.
• Consider how you might see your planting from different angles as you move around the space.
• The lower part of the garden connects very deliberately to the ditch beyond. Garden elements begin to scale down, and it starts to feel slightly wilder.
• To blur the boundary between the garden and the land beyond it, I've mirrored some of the planting from the landscape.
• Ensure the plants you introduce sit comfortably with the plants that occur naturally.
• The native hedge is a boundary on one side of the garden; a grassy path alongside allows you to move easily through the space.

Play About with Planting Intensity

• You can gradually build and reduce the intensity of planting as you move through different spaces.
• Rosa Glauca is the building block in this section and makes a connection with the wild roses that grow in the hedges.
• These building blocks provide 'resting places' that you can build other plants around.
• The meeting points of different areas can be homogenised by introducing similar planting.
• The veranda is one of our places to be and observe the garden; in such spaces, you want to connect with things close to you, while enjoying the long view.
• To add interest, I've layered the planting next to the veranda. This also ensures an unbroken sequence of plants coming up throughout the year.
• Layering is something that makes a garden interesting and enduring. Observe natural plant groupings to inform how the planting should interact in your garden.
• Shade-loving plants should come just before the plants that emerge to shadow them; such knowledge takes a while to sink in. It's a constant journey of learning and evolving your gardening.

Plant Directory

Molinia Transparent

Thalictrum Elin

Deschampsia grass

Iris Sibirica

Ornamental Thistle

Shrubby Willow

Persicaria Polymorpha

Elecampane

Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet

Nepeta Govaniana

Yellow Sweet Clover

Thalictrum

Epilobium Angustifolium

Sorbus

Primrose

Snowdrop

Cow Parsley

Rosa Glauca

Peucedanum

Nepeta Romany Dusk

Teucrium

Verbena Lavender Spires

Salix Purpurea Nancy Saunders

Molly the Witch Peony

Wild Garlic

Bluebell

Buttercup

Knapweed