I’m often struck by how bland the majority of gardens are – shapeless borders, indistinct planting, and a complete lack of any structure. And there’s no better time than winter to take stock and see if your garden fits that category!  And, if your garden fails the shape & structure test, here are a few things to consider:

Strong clean lines & a simple bold layout provide shape & structure around a reflective pool

A strong ground pattern can make all the difference (and I don’t mean paving pattern, but rather the overall shape of elements such as paving, paths, lawns, borders…). Ground patterns can be formal or informal, but if you’re using an organic shape, make sure it’s a strong one. In a small space be consistent with the type of shape you use (eg stick to geometric patterns or informal curves, but don’t try to mix the two).

Use evergreen planting to add year-round structure to your borders – and give shrubs enough room to grow the way they are meant to, and avoid the ‘group of shrubs merging into an indistinct blob’ look. 

Structural planting in a formal setting at Athelhampton House, Dorset

Evergreen hedging (however high) is a great way to add backbone to a garden.  It can be used to divide a garden into distinct areas, or as the perfect backdrop to more ornamental planting. 

Yew hedges used to divide a large area & show off a Silver Birch to its best advantage

Deciduous hedging such as beech & hornbeam still has great presence in the winter as the leaves hang on until new growth starts in spring.  Evergreen planting and hedges can be successfully clipped into a myriad of shapes to add interest.

Deciduous hedging shaped into pillars and looking good all year round at Wisley

Even in winter, trees (especially those with ornamental bark) have great presence in a garden, so position them carefully.

The paperbark maple (Acer Griseum) is a stunning tree for winter structure and interest

Permanent features such as pergolas, trellis screening, arbors and arches offer great structure in winter even if the planting on them has died back temporarily.   Choose a style and material to suit your overall scheme.

A hardwood pergola designed to suit a contemporary layout

Walls don’t necessarily have to just have a practical function, and they can also be used purely as an aesthetic feature.  Use to divide the garden, add shape, add texture, or to provide additional seating and screening.

Walls can be used for aesthetic purposes as well as for functional reasons

Think about adding extras such as sculpture or large pots to provide focal points in the garden throughout the year – especially valuable when the borders become bare in midwinter.

It’s easy to write off the garden in winter and to just concentrate on creating a lovely outdoor space for the summer months, but even if you don’t spend much time outside between November and March, it’s still worth having something beautiful to look at – all year round.  

If you’d like to discuss creating a garden that looks fantastic 365 days of the year, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Cornus alba underplanted with Carex Evergold

Cornus alba Elegantissima is one of my favourites as I use its creamy white variegated leaf to brighten up dull corners (it’s perfectly happy in partially shady areas), and then in winter the stunning red stems are a real treat. 

Cornus 'Kesselringii' at Hillier Arboretum

Cornus stolonifera 'Flavimarea'

Cornus will grow in almost any soil, but they do prefer wetter soils.  Whilst they will grow in some shade, for winter interest they are best where they catch the sun – so they work well planted in the summer shade of deciduous trees and shrubs. To maintain the stem colour they should be coppiced (entirely or partially if you prefer) in March, and for maximum effect, plant in large groups.

Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire'

Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ really lives up to its name with stems of red-orange-yellow, and a lovely fresh green leaf turning a buttery yellow in autumn.  In my experience this variety isn’t as happy on drier soils as Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ has proved to be, but it’s an easy reliable shrub with a lot of interest for most of the year.

Rubus cockburnianus

Another plant which offers stunning winter stems is Rubus cockburnianus ‘Golden Vale’. It grows in full sun or dappled shade in well drained, fertile soil, and has white stems. Like Cornus, it will benefit from serious pruning in spring every year, and if left unpruned will reach a height of up to 2.5 metres.  This is a vigorous plant which will sucker and spread, so it really needs a lot of room if you’re not prepared to control it!   

If you’re looking for other ideas for beautiful winter stems and have a moist soil, consider Salix alba ‘Yelverton’.  This willow should also be coppiced in spring if you want to keep it shrub-like at 2m high (as opposed to a  7 metre high tree).  Like the dogwoods, it looks great in groups, and near water.

Another great plant to consider using for winter stems is Phyllostachys Aureocaulis, but I really would not recommend planting this bamboo (or its black-stemmed relative Phyllostachys nigra) unless you have a lot of room, or can retain its roots with some sort of barrier.

So if you want a garden with stunning colour in the depths of winter, don’t be seduced by all those amazing flowers on display in the garden centre in May. Really give your garden some thought and plan ahead for every season. Or call us, and we’ll do the planning for you!

Picture credits : Janet Bligh & www.photoforsale.co.uk

If you are keen to start growing vegetables this year, then this is the ideal time to plan.  By June you could be picking your own home-grown salad and veg.

And if you have enough freezer space you could be eating your own berries, currants & beans well into next year!

The first thing to do is to find a sunny area which you can turn over to crops.  Think what you’d like to grow and decide how much space you will need.  If you’re short on space I suggest you go for things which costs a lot to buy or which aren’t readily available in your local shops.  Or go for food which tastes so much better when it’s picked really fresh – sweetcorn or strawberries for example.

On a practical level, site your plot within easy reach of a water supply.  If the summer is dry you’ll be glad of a nearby tap.  Also think about access for wheelbarrows so that you can manoeuvre around the area easily if you need to bring in heavy sacks of compost or take rubbish away to your compost heaps.

To avoid the likelihood of pests and diseases, it’s best to ‘rotate’ crops, which basically means making sure that you don’t grow the same type of vegetable in the same bed 2 years in a row.  It’s important to understand what ‘plant family’ your vegetables belong to and what conditions they will grow well in.  You can then grow plants which like the same conditions together.  For example carrots & parsnips (classified as root crops) will not do well in ground which had manure added the previous autumn, whereas squash & courgettes thrive in recently-composted heavier soil.  For more information on crop rotation this is useful website

http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/crop-rotation/

I design kitchen gardens with beds which are 1.2m wide so that whatever is grown within them can be reached by leaning over from the side, thereby avoiding the need for standing on the soil. Especially where soil is heavy, I recommend building raised beds from mini-sleepers or softwood planks held in place with corner posts.  Raising the soil and adding organic matter (manure or compost) will improve the condition of the soil, help it drain better, and also help it to warm up quicker in spring.   So if you are gardening on clay soil, this is the ideal way to grow veg.   

Pathways between the beds can be paved, or use a layer of bark chippings or gravel over a weed-suppressant fabric. 

One advantage to using gravel is that it deters slugs, so you may improve your chances of success as a result.  Though I can’t guarantee that!  Top tip – grow more seedlings than you need to begin with, so that if the slugs or snails take the first batch, you’ve got more in reserve.

I grow my currants and strawberries under netting, but don’t usually have problems with birds eating loganberries or raspberries.  If you are in an area where rabbits and deer are a problem then you will need to fence off individual beds or the entire kitchen garden.

Just one note of caution – growing vegetables on a large scale is hard work!  Over the summer you need to plan for you or your gardener to be around to pick fruit & veg. regularly, to keep the weeds and slugs at bay, and to do lots of watering – assuming we are lucky enough to have some decent weather.  From my own experience on an allotment with heavy soil, no two years are the same weather-wise and I never know what will succeed from one year to the next.  But there’s no getting away from it, growing – not to mention eating – your own fruit & veg. is a seriously satisfying way to spend your time. Go for it!

Uplighting with recessed light in lawn

With clients now wanting to spend more time in the garden and to use their outdoor spaces late into the evening as an extension of the home, I integrate lighting into new design schemes more and more often.  

As well as being used for practical purposes, garden lights can also really add drama to an outdoor space.  Statues or architectural plants look fantastic when lit from below, and deciduous trees are great subjects for uplighting – especially in winter.  I particularly like to light silver birches as the white bark looks stunning at night. 

Recently I included an underwater light in a sunken pool to illuminate the sheet of water falling from the raised pool above.  Seen from the house as well as in the garden, it provides a focal point all year round.

The choice of lights available can be bewildering but LED lights are becoming more popular due to the fact that they are much more energy efficient than halogen lights. They are low-maintenance as the bulbs last so long, and are very cost-effective. 

Fibre optic lighting can be used to great effect if you want something a bit more flamboyant.  Twinkling effects or changing colours can be used for a more theatrical effect in the garden, but in most gardens I think that on the whole, less really is more. 

Copper pagoda style path light

It’s very easy to get carried away with lighting but usually I find the more subtle approach pays off.  In rural locations it’s also important to take light pollution into account and to go for low-key lighting schemes.

Lights come in all shapes and sizes and the choice just gets bigger and bigger as garden lighting gets more popular and the technology develops. There are many finishes available from stainless steel and copper to powder-coating in an array of colours.  The main thing is to choose lights to suit the style of the house or stonework especially if they are to be integrated into a wall or step. 

Copper step lights in Yorkstone walling

I tend to go for copper finishes where the lights are fitted into red brick, and I find copper is also good at fading into the background (for example within a planting scheme where the light should not be the focus of attention during the day). In more contemporary schemes stainless steel or grey and black powder-coating finishes work very well.

And there’s no doubt about it, a well thought out lighting scheme will more than pay for itself in terms of adding value to your garden – all year round.

Spotlights in brick step

Picture credits (night shots) : http://www.photoforsale.co.uk

In this part of Hampshire we have the Hangers – ancient beech woods covering the hills nearby and which can be seen for miles around. They are a brilliant coppery orange at the moment. Stunning!  

My work takes me in every direction from Petersfield which means I get to design planting schemes for very varied conditions.  Up around the Surrey borders the soil is predominantly acidic, so trees like Acers (Japanese maples) and Liquidambars do very well. At this time of year, it’s great to drive around and spot the brilliant red of these trees in gardens all over the area.

Liquidambar styraciflua

Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Worplesdon’ is a particularly attractive tree (with leaves not unlike an Acer) and it makes a great focal point as a single specimen. It prefers soils which aren’t too dry (so no good on shallow chalky soil) and reaches a mature height of about 15 metres, so it needs space. It will grow on more neutral soils, but the best autumn colour is achieved on acid soils. If you have alkaline soil, apparently it’s possible to improve the leaf colour of Liquidambars by adding sulphur to the soil (by spreading sulphur chips). It needs to be done over a number of years and takes a while to take effect.  It’s not something I’ve ever done, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has tried it.

Betula jacquemontii

In my own garden where the soil has a neutral pH, I have a multi-stemmed Silver Birch tree (Betula Jacquemontii) whose leaves are currently a bright buttery yellow and look fantastic next to the brilliant white of its bark. Silver birches are very tolerant trees, thriving in most (but not waterlogged) soils, and they are great value throughout the year by virtue of their stunning bark.  I use them a lot in gardens for that reason (often in chalky soil where choice is more limited).  I particularly like them in small groups, and preferably with an uplighter in the ground below ensuring they can be seen at night too when they make a statuesque addition to the garden.

If you would like to know a bit more about why leaves change colour at this time of year, the Royal Forestry website has lots of interesting information.

http://www.rfs.org.uk/learning/autumn-colours

There are many beautiful small trees to choose from for autumn colour  – Acer palmatum and Amelanchier lamarckii to name but two – or you could take your pick from the Cherry (Prunus) family and also Crabapples (Malus).  One of the best crabs for autumn colour is Malus Tschonoskii, and of course the other advantage to planting a crabapple is that they offer not only lovely spring blossom and autumn colour, but also coloured fruit in autumn.

Take some time now to identify where your garden could benefit from a splash of colour at this time of year.  Looking at which trees are succeeding in your neighbours’ gardens is also a useful way to get an indication for what will work for you, and with the tree-planting season underway now, you can add some spectacular autumn colour to your own garden for years to come.

Autumn colour at Hilliers Arboretum, Hampshire

Picture credits: http://www.photoforsale.co.uk/

If you would like to grow apple trees in your own garden, then now is the time to plan, as trees should be planted ‘bare-root’ (ie dug out of the ground) in the dormant season (November to March). As well as making sure you don’t buy trees which will outgrow your space, it’s important to choose the right varieties of apple for pollination purposes.  All apple trees need a pollination partner, which is another apple tree which flowers at the same time but is of a different variety.

If you want to grow fruit trees in areas where space is limited, you can also think about growing the trees against walls or fences (as ‘Espaliers’), or as low ‘Step-overs’. 

Step over at Woolbeding Gardens

On my allotment where we can’t grow full-size trees, I planted ‘Cordons’ which I grow as free-standing columns. A very neat solution, and still lots of fruit to be had. 

Apple cordons at Woolbeding Gardens

As well as growing a variety of dessert apple trees, why not consider planting local heritage varieties and a few cooking apple varieties too?

I like to design orchard areas where the grass around the trees is allowed to grow longer and wildflowers can do their thing. Paths can simply be mown where needed. 

Bear in mind also another reason to have your own apple orchard – and something which is often overlooked in all that talk about the fruit – apple blossom is one of the prettiest blossoms around. A real bonus for any garden.

Picture credits (blossom & apple): www.photoforsale.co.uk

Is your garden empty, drab & boring in February? Well it’s not to late to do something about it! One of the simplest & most cost-effective ways to brighten up a garden when not a lot else is happening, is to plant some bulbs now which will flower in spring. There are so many bulbs available it can be hard to choose what to plant, but three of my favourite and less well-known bulbs are the miniature Iris, Camassia and the Snake’s head Fritillary.

Iris reticulata is a stunning little (and I mean little!) plant. It only grows about 6 inches high, but it’s really beautiful, and very early–flowering in February or March. To succeed, it needs a sunny spot and, like most bulbs it needs to be planted in soil that drains well (so no good in a heavy clay soil). These Iris work particularly well if you have a raised bed (or even pots) in the sun where they can be seen to best effect.

If you have slightly heavier soil, then you could try Camassia leitchlinii Caerulea. It has gorgeous spires of blue flowers with tiny lime green centres, and long strappy leaves. In time it forms clumps about 1’ across, but the leaves die down before a lot of other plants get going, so it’s a good filler for May in areas where other plants aren’t doing much. This Camassia does well in some shade and also makes a good cut flower.

Camassia leitchlinii Caerulea

For large damp grassy areas you could try Fritillaria Meleagris (the Snakeshead fritillary). It’s a very delicate flower with small nodding heads in white or purple-red in April. A great bulb to naturalize in meadows or, as they will tolerate some shade, in woodland areas.

Fritillaria meleagris

Ideally spring bulbs should be planted in October and November, but I’ve been caught out by frozen ground (and lack of time) before now, and even if the bulbs have gone in late, they’ve flowered on time. But to be safe, plant now! And if your soil is on the heavy side, add a handful of pea shingle underneath any bulbs which need good drainage.

I always include a selection of bulbs in our planting designs which ensure extra colour from January to December. But even if you only have time to put in a few crocus and daffodils for next year, it’s worth the effort. And I can guarantee that the sight of them on a cold dreary February morning will cheer you up!

Picture credits: www.photoforsale.co.uk

Janet Bligh