Planting design is……..the selection and use of plants to achieve a designer's objectives.

So some objectives could be:

• You want all year round interest…

  • Choose evergreen shrubs, foliage that changes colour, seasonal bulbs.

• You want a cottage style garden with pastel colours

  • Choose foxgloves, hardy geraniums, lupins, peony’s, roses.

• You want formal permanent structure

  • Box topiary, yew hedges, hebe’s, pittosporum, small tree’s, dwarf conifers

• You want greenery but minimal maintenance.

  • Box, hebe’s, evergreen grasses

• We need plants that thrive in shady, wet areas.

  • Hosta’s, ferns, hellebores, hydrangea, dogwood, astilbe

• We need plants that are good for bees and butterflies.

  • Buddleja, pulmonaria, lavender, alliums, asters,

• We want to create a tropical feel.

  • Big leaves of ginger, fatsia, mahonia, canna lilies, acanthus

  • We want to create a feeling of vibrancy and aliveness.

    • Choose hot colours; reds, purples, oranges of red hot poker, helenium, dahlia, echinacea, lupin

• We want pretty plants that also offer produce and fragrance.

  • Jasmine, roses, clematis, wisteria, phlox, wallflowers, dianthus

• To provide screening and privacy.

  • Bamboo, photinia Red Robin, Ivy, native hedging.

Use this tool to help calculate the size of a planting area that you have and use the sliders to play about with the planting density and average plant cost.