Chris Young. Garden Design

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Planning your planting

Planning a planting design is a mix of practicality and artistic ﬂair.

The practical considerations include soil type, aspect, and the amount

of shade and sun the site receives. You may also want to consider using

plants to provide shelter, structure, or scent close to a seating area.

Your ideas and inspirations inject the all-important artistic input.

VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUE

You may ﬁnd it easier to visualize your planting if you

mock it up by using garden objects of similar sizes, such

as bamboo canes, buckets, cardboard boxes, and pots.

HOW TO DESIGN

110

FIRST STEPS

Before planning your planting, draw up a site plan (see pp.102–107).

You can then start thinking about the whole design of your garden,

and how planting ﬁts into the overall look. Sketch in the shapes and

sizes of proposed beds and borders, and take photographs of the

garden, too—either an aerial shot from a bedroom window, or from

the area from which your planting will be most often viewed. You

can then use these to help judge the scale of planting you need.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLANTS

You can either start with a list of your favorite plants and work them

into your design, or decide on the look you want and then ﬁnd plants

to ﬁt the heights and shapes required on your site plan. In reality,

though, a planting plan usually ends up being a combination of both.

Whichever approach you take, bear the following points in mind.

First, make sure the plants you choose will cope with the site and soil

conditions; then when arranging plants on your plan, check their

height, texture, and shape in relation to those you will be placing

next to them. Flowering period is important if you are looking to

highlight a particular season; otherwise focus on foliage attributes

ﬁrst. In a small garden, a planting palette limited to relatively few

different types of plants will have the greatest impact. For inspiration,

go along to the garden center and group some of your combinations

together, either in your cart or on the plant stand. No one will mind.

HABITAT MATCH

In this naturalistic planting, drought-

tolerant succulents and alpines, which

require free-draining conditions, are

planted in a bed of gravel and pebbles.

CONSIDER THE SEASONS

Make the most of the available light and

moist ground in late winter and spring

when planting under deciduous trees.

BALANCED FORMS

Choose a range of marginals with different

leaf shapes, such as these irises and

astilbes, for a balanced poolside display.

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WINTER COLOR

Winter ﬂowers are a treat,

so make sure you can see

them from a path or the

house. Several Hamamelis

have the bonus of scent.

SCENTED PLANTS

These are best planted and

enjoyed in warm sheltered

areas of the garden where

strong winds won’t

dissipate their perfume.

PLANNING YOUR PLANTING

111

It is easy to become ﬁxated on ﬂower and leaf color, but

many plants offer other equally attractive attributes that

will add an extra dimension to your planting. Perfume

is an obvious one and is a must near patios and around

doors and windows, while structure—for example, the

domed hummocks of Hebe and the sword-like leaves of

Phormium—can be used to give visual emphasis to a

planting. Many climbers can be trained over trellis to

disguise an ugly view, and tough hedging plants, such

as hornbeam or yew, make perfect windbreaks.

PLANTS WITH DESIGN FUNCTIONS

FILL THE GAPS

Bulbs provide seasonal color and can be

squeezed between permanent plantings.

Spring bulbs will cheer your border before

most perennials appear, and Allium bulbs

(left) in early summer are followed by

colorful Gladiolus and Nerine.

YEAR-ROUND INTEREST

Flower color is often a transient feature,

but foliage has long-term impact and

should be seen as the mainstay of any

border throughout different seasons.

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Drawing up a planting plan

Planting plans don’t have to be complicated, but they can be

a great aid, helping you to organize your ideas and calculate

planting quantities. Just measure your garden fairly accurately

and produce a simple scale plan (see pp.102–107), then use

this to outline areas of plants and, in more detail, the shapes

of planting groups and individual specimens.

PRAIRIE-STYLE DRIFT PLANTING

Interlocking sausage-shaped drifts of

plants give a less contrived look. Make the

shapes a good size for maximum impact.

PARTERRES

The symmetry and formality of a parterre

makes planning fairly simple. Start with the

outline hedging, then add the inﬁll plants.

MODERNIST BLOCKS

Strong geometric shapes are emphasized

and complemented by bold blocks of

planting, such as cubes of hedging.

RANDOM PLANTING

To recreate a natural habitat, place plants

in random groups. To avoid a chaotic

design, use a limited color palette.

SKETCHING ON A PHOTOGRAPH

If you ﬁnd drawing difﬁcult, doodling over

a photograph will help you visualize the

design in the context of your garden and

get a sense of perspective.

BUBBLE DIAGRAM

This type of simplistic sketch, with rough

shapes and annotation, will help you to

position larger plants, such as trees, and

pinpoint key areas of full sun or shade.

HOW TO DESIGN

112

GROUPING PLANTS

The lure of an instant effect often tempts new designers to cram too

much into a small space, but overcrowded plants tend to be unhealthy,

so always bear in mind their ﬁnal spreads when drawing up your plan.

You can achieve a fuller look by grouping plants together. With

perennials, larger groups of three or more of a single species will

have a stronger, more substantial effect than single plants dotted

around, which can look messy. Grouping plants in sausage shapes

(which works well for cottage and prairie styles), or triangles, is

satisfying to the eye and makes it easier to dovetail disparate groups.

Also, try placing the occasional plant away from its group to suggest

it has self seeded for a naturalistic look. With shrubs, you can either

plant in groups for an instant effect, or singly and wait for them to ﬁll

the space. Plant trees at a good distance from your property to

prevent subsidence, and give them plenty of space to mature.

A formal planting design near the house will create a contrast with

natural plantings elsewhere. Try a simple parterre formed of squares

or rectangles enclosing a cross, and outline your design with box

hedging. Avoid making the beds too small, because once planted up

they could look cramped and overly fussy.

One of the simplest ways to visualize a

planting plan for a small garden is to sketch

the view from an upstair’s window. Give full

rein to your imagination and don’t worry

about accuracy at this stage. Next, identify

the views from the house at ground level

(stand by the back door) and consider whether

you want planting to enhance, frame, or block

them. Finally, walk around the plot visualizing

the overall layout, and the shapes and

positions of structural plants, such as shrubs.

Mark these on your sketch as simple shapes.

Take photographs as well, so you can refer

to them when you come to draw your plan. If

you feel conﬁdent, you can sketch your ideas

directly on to photographs; if not, work on a

sheet of tracing paper laid on top. You may

ﬁnd that black and white printouts are less

distracting to work with than color pictures.

Use your rough sketches to prepare a more

organized planting plan.

SKETCHING IDEAS

Foliage plants

that can cope

with some

shade

Trees with

fall color,

such as

Amelanchier

Trees with

climbing roses

at their base

Raised bed

planted

with small

perennials

Plants with

more color

that prefer

full sun

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THE FINALIZED PLAN

This is a planting plan for the border shown

below. The shapes indicate the position

and number of plants within each group.

The plan also shows their ﬁnal spreads,

so you can see how they will ﬁt together.

COSTING UP YOUR PLANTS

If you can afford large shrubs and trees you can

create an instantly mature look; a smaller budget

means young plants and patience while you wait

for them to grow. Perennials ﬂower and reach

their maximum height in the ﬁrst couple of years,

so don’t spend a fortune on big plants.

It is worth asking garden centers and retail

nurseries if they give discounts to designers;

some also offer a plant sourcing service. If you

can show you are a trade customer, wholesale

nurseries allow you to buy plants in bulk.

If you are preparing a plan for your own use you will not

need fancy graphics, but if it is for a client a professional-

looking plan (see symbols on p.22) is appropriate.

On your scale plan, ﬁrst draw the outlines of the areas

you want to plant, then add speciﬁc plants. To help you

position trees or shrubs, draw circles to scale, depicting

their likely spread. Mark perennials in as freehand

shapes. To help you calculate planting densities, mark out

a square meter on the ground and work out plant

spacings for different species using their ﬁnal spreads.

Keep a note of them for future reference.

Draw your plan on graph paper, or on paper marked

with a pencil grid of 1 cm squares—you can then erase

the latter when you ink in the ﬁnal design. The scale you

choose for your plan depends on the size of the beds or

borders you are designing, but for a detailed plan, a scale

of 1:50 or 1:20 is appropriate (see p.106 for more on scale).

Use acrylic tracing paper to copy your ﬁnal sketch and

produce a clean, ﬁnished drawing. Ofﬁce supply stores

usually sell tracing paper. Architect’s ofﬁces often offer a

copying service for large plans. You will need at least two

copies: one to keep on ﬁle as the original and one that

can be taken out into the garden at planting time.

Consider laminating plans to make them weatherproof.

THE FINAL PLANTING PLAN

THE PLANTING DESIGN

Successful plantings, such as Cleve West’s

RHS Chelsea 2008 show garden in London,

will inspire your own ideas, helping you to

visualize how plants look in situ. Carry a

notebook to record combinations that work

well. If you have a digital camera, take

snaps of plantings that catch your eye.

Silvery foliage

cools down

warm colors

A low beech

hedge forms

a unified

backdrop, but

won’t block

views of the

planting

Rose

Lavender

Lupin

Allium

Early summer

bulbs provide

seasonal color

Warm flower

colors pick up

the red of the

brick path

Curved red brick pathFoliage spills

on to path to

soften the line

DRAWING UP A PLANTING PLAN

113

Mentha

Allium

Ballota

Mentha

Buxus

Allium

Salvia

Erigeron

Trifolium

Iris

Sisyrinchium

Astelia

Grasses

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Lonicera

Rose and

clematis

Trachelospermum

HOW TO DESIGN

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Examples of planting plans

Irrespective of the style of garden you’re designing, whenever you’re putting together

a planting plan check ﬁrst that the plants you choose suit the site, soil, and climate.

If working on a design for a client, it is vital that you talk through your planting ideas

with them before committing to a ﬁnal design, not only to help them visualize the

ﬁnished garden, but also to agree on a plan that they can easily maintain.

A DIVIDED GARDEN

Unless you divide it up in some way, a rectilinear garden holds no

surprises. To avoid the “what you see is what you get” effect, designer

Fran Coulter created a visual break between a decked terrace along

the side and back of the house and the rest of the garden.

PLANTS USED

1 Rosa ‘New Dawn’

2 Clematis ‘Pink Fantasy’

3 Trachelospermum jasminoides

4 Lonicera nitida ‘ Baggesen’s Gold’

5 Buxus sempervirens

6 Weigela

NAOMI CAMPBELL

(syn. ‘Bokrashine’)

7 Nepeta nervosa

8 Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea’

DESIGN IN FOCUS

When a garden is overlooked by

neighbors, especially from an upstairs

window, a climber-clad pergola provides

privacy for seating or dining areas.

However, in this design—the area shown

is approximately 11 x 8 ft (3.5 x 2.5

m)—the pergola is used as a colorful

boundary between a decked terrace to the

side and back of the house, and the garden

beyond. The wood is painted a matt red

to match the Scandinavian-style property.

In Sweden, the paint is traditionally made

with iron and copper ores, and these tones

are picked up in the planting: the purple

grapevine, wine-red Weigela,and the

complementary pink rose and clematis.

Rose and

clematis

Vitis

Weigela

Veronica

Nepeta

Hebe

Allium

Abelia

Buxus

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PLANTS USED

1 Pyrus salicifolia ‘ Pendula’

2 Anemanthele lessoniana

3 Euphorbia x martini (turns pink)

4 Miscanthus sinensis ‘Flamingo’

5 Echinacea purpurea

6 Lysimachia ephemerum

DESIGN IN FOCUS

A broad range of plants that bloom

from spring to late summer ensures a

season-long supply of ﬂowers for cutting,

and the rich mix adds to the overall feeling

of abundance. Because foliage is available

from shrubs elsewhere in the garden, the

planting is mainly herbaceous with an

interplanting of spring and summer bulbs,

such as alliums, lilies, and dahlias. Dotted

throughout the garden, spaces have been

left empty for seasonal color from annuals

and wallﬂowers.

A pleached hornbeam hedge (Carpinus

betulus) gives privacy along the boundary

wall (beyond this plan): the top branches

block prying eyes, while bare lower stems

allow a view of a decorative stone wall.

Height was needed to break up the ﬂat

terrain, and the weeping pear (Pyrus),

with its clear stem and airy canopy, offers

color and structure, without blocking the

view. It also responds well to pruning.

Euphorbia

Pyrus

THE CUTTING GARDEN

The client’s brief was to create a traditional cutting garden. The

triangular site, set within a country-style garden and measuring

roughly 15 x 15 x 28 ft (5 x 5 x 9 m), is open and sunny. The owner

also wanted the planting to create more privacy along the boundary,

and the ﬂat site needed some vertical accents to add interest.

Anemanthele

Paving

Summer

bulbs

Miscanthus

Lysimachia

Buxus

Echinacea

Dahlia

Echinacea

EXAMPLES OF PLANTING PLANS

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Nepeta

Miscanthus

Agapanthus

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Examples of planting plans (continued)

HOW TO DESIGN

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When preparing a planting plan, sketch out two or three loose ideas for your

chosen plants, arranging them into drifts or shapes, before attempting anything

more detailed. If you are working out where to position trees, shrubs, and perennials

in a big garden, a scale of 1:50 is ideal; for smaller spaces, using a larger scale

of 1:20 allows you to concentrate on details.

COUNTRY SETTING

The clients here wanted to marry their modern-style house with its

country setting. They asked designer Paul Williams for a planting

plan that relied more on shape and texture than color. This is one

of four matching borders, each measuring 20 x 10 ft (6 x 3 m).

PLANTS USED

1 Phormium tenax

2 Fuchsia magellanica ‘Versicolor’

3 Stipa tenuissima

4 Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’

5 Ceanothus thyrsiﬂorus var. repens

6 Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’

7 Euphorbia x martini (shown cut back)

8 Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla

‘Black Lace’

DESIGN IN FOCUS

In this design, the plants were chosen

speciﬁcally for their shape and foliage

effect. Plants with contrasting forms are

placed next to each other to stimulate

visual action, for example, the upright

sword-like Phormium against the lower

growing Ceanothus. Leaf shape is also

considered and the same principle applied,

with wispy grasses set against the neat

foliage of Euphorbia.

The color scheme is muted with most

ﬂowers falling within the blue, purple,

and pink range, while the evergreens offer

year-round appeal and act as a foil for the

skeletal grasses over the winter.

Sambucus

Ceanothus

Heuchera

Miscanthus

Euphorbia

Stipa

and

Sedum

Euphorbia

Heuchera

Fuchsia

Perovskia

Viburnum

Phormium

Aster

Euphorbia

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EXAMPLES OF PLANTING PLANS (CONTINUED)

117

CITY GARDEN

SHADY AREA

Adam Frost designed this city

garden for the RHS Chelsea

Flower Show in London in 2007.

Soft red bricks are the perfect foil

for the color-themed planting,

which is a sumptuous mix of

crimson, pink, and mauve.

PLANTS USED

1 Salix elaeagnos subsp. angustifolia

2 Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’

3 Rosa ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’

4 Heuchera ‘Chocolate Rufﬂes’

5 Astrantia major ‘Roma’

DESIGN IN FOCUS

At the center of this border, which

measures roughly 4 x 6 ft (1.2 x 2 m), is a

highly fragrant, dark crimson cup-shaped

rose, its glossy green leaves forming an

open framework for the slim stems of

the Persicaria and Astrantia to grow

through. These pale pink perennials

complement the rich tones of the rose and

help reﬂect light into the design, and are

fringed at ground level by a wine-colored

Heuchera.The Salix, with its pale green

ﬁligree leaves, provides the perfect

neutral backdrop to the warm colors.

This 11 ft (3.5 m) square border is

backed by a high stone wall and

cherry laurel. The owners asked

designer Paul Williams for shade-

tolerant planting that would mirror

the formality of the adjacent

garden. The plants here are mostly

green with the odd splash of color.

PLANTS USED

1 Dryopteris afﬁnis ‘Cristata’

2 Gazania

3 Prunus laurocerasus

4 Hosta ‘Krossa Regal’

5 Taxus baccata

DESIGN IN FOCUS

To emphasize the formality of the garden

on the other side of the path, this border

(of which this is one section) is broken up

with yew “buttresses” every 10 feet. Each

section contains a simple planting and an

urn or feature plant. Foliage is important:

the plants need to be shapely and shade

tolerant. Seasonal plants in the stone urn

can contrast with or complement the

surrounding plants.

Salix

Seasonal

plants in urn

Astrantia

Dryopteris

Rose

Hosta

Persicaria

Astrantia

Heuchera

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SET ON A STEEP HILL and overlooked by

neighboring houses, this small garden wraps

around three sides of the house and posed a real

challenge for award-winning designer Chris

Parsons of Hallam Garden Design. The original

plot was unstructured and laid mostly to lawn,

with large mature shrubs enclosing the space.

Yet, despite the unpromising site, Chris has

transformed the garden into a “sanctuary for

the soul”, as her clients now call it. The grass

has been replaced by sweeps of light-reﬂecting

gravel, and the beds brim with ﬂowering shrubs

and perennials, and structural trees.

Chris has designed a distinct area for each

side of the house. A prairie-style garden and

sunny seating area welcome visitors as they

approach the front door, and at the side of the

property, the kitchen overlooks another

gravelled space with

seating. This area is edged

with seasonal perennials,

shrubs, and shade-loving

plants beneath stately silver

birches. The third area at

the back of the house is a

woodland garden, with

a stunning water feature

made from oak cubes

providing a strong focal point. Lighting in this

area injects drama on dark evenings, with a

show of ivory birch stems.

To unify the different spaces, Chris has

employed three main landscaping materials.

Yorkstone paving, quarried not far from the

property, links the front to the back of the

house, and is also used for the steps. A pale

creamy-yellow gravel forms a textured surface

for each of the seating areas, and red brick,

which exactly matches the house walls,

provides a colorful contrast.

The clients gave Chris a free hand, and

allowed her to radically change the look and

structure of their garden; the result is a series

of beautiful spaces where they can enjoy plants

and wildlife every day of the year.

Design case study

Discreet lighting illuminates the gravel, brick, and Yorkstone.

Silver birches give height

to the border design.

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