Making a garden: A PLACE FOR PLANTS

Good planting combinations give your plot structure and impact and getting them right is easier than it looks

- Alan Titchmarsh

The very fact that the choice is so wide makes deciding what to plant in your garden a real challenge. I mean, where do you start? What goes in first? How will you know what will do well and what will simply sulk? As with most problem areas in life, approaching things methodically is the best way forward.

The ideal garden (if such a thing there be) is one which has something of interest all the year round (granted, in June and July this is easier to achieve than in November), one which has form and stature as well as colour, and one in which the plants are growing happily thanks in part to your soil and situation, but also to your ability to offer them a bit of TLC.

The plants you choose will affect the whole mood of the garden and although this can vary depending on the part of the country where you live - how warm, how cold, how sheltered or how windy it is, coupled with the prevailing soil conditions - the approach to planting is the same the world over: start with the big stuff and work your way downwards.

Start with structure 

Construct your garden's planting scheme as if you were creating a human body. Yes, I know your name is not Dr Frankenstein, but this approach offers a good way of remembering that the bones that form the skeleton come first (trees and large shrubs), followed by the flesh (smaller plants and evergreens to offer year-round form) and the features (the colourful, seasonal plants) which are usually smaller, come last. Build your framework - on paper in plan form if it helps - and work out what will look good where. Take your plan outside and see if you can visualise it in reality.