Plant recommendations from David Domoney. David is a Chartered Horticulturalist with over 40 years of experience growing and caring for plants. David has also worked on UK national television for over 2 decades. As a garden designer, David has won over 30 RHS medals for his garden designs at leading UK gardening shows and events.
It was another great Love Your Garden episode for series 4 – here’s what we learned from the show this week. Plus find out how to create that formal look at home!
1 Formal can be fun
Hands up who thought formal gardens were just for stately homes? I hope we showed you otherwise! The formal style is just as effective in everyday gardens, and it is great for people who want things clean and simple.
Use symmetry and sharp lines, and keep the shapes simple and well-defined. The result is plenty of open space, making the garden feel calm and balanced. It’s modern and yet timeless too.
Use strong focal points to pull the eye through the garden, and keep the colour scheme simple. Make triangles – three is a visually pleasing number because it’s strong and even.
Get the Love Your Garden look
We created a green and white garden, in the style of Sissinghurst. The white flowers included star jasmine, white lavender, White Cloud climbing rose, Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, Agapanthus africanus ‘Albus’ and Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’.
Then we used green foliage like Cupressus totem and Buxus sempervirens alongside green and white foliage like Hosta patriot and Euonymus harlequin.
2 There’s a science to steps
Many gardens have a slight incline that is best broken up by steps. But if you want to install some new steps, make sure you do the maths.
First, measure the incline. Hold a piece of string horizontally from the top of the slope to measure its height and length. Then divide this figure evenly to decide the number of steps and their size. The minimum tread (length of the step surface) is 250mm, and the minimum rise between steps is 150mm.
3 The best gardens have year-round structure
There’s nothing worse than a garden that looks great in summer and bare the rest of the time. Permanent plant structures give the garden height and shape, even in the depths of winter. Trees are ideal for this, as are conifers and hedges like laurel.
You can also take a tip from Alan and use topiary structures. Box is easier to shape than people think! Use one in a pot, so you can put it up on a table and turn it round to check it looks even. You can buy metal cages that help you define the shape, or use Alan’s string guide trick. Prune in early summer and again in autumn to keep it looking neat.
4 Edging is the icing on the cake
Edging is the easiest way to give your garden a professional finish. If your lawn edge is curved, used a plastic strip. It’s easy and inexpensive, and it stops grass growing into your border. Dig a trench slightly deeper than the edging, push it into the soil and backfill the trench.
If you want something broader, use edging tiles. They are very shallow bricks, meaning you don’t have to dig too deep to get them in. Aim to get them flush with the lawn, so it’s easy to mow over. And remember to point them properly or the grass will grow between them and make it look unkempt!
5 Building a border is just maths
Build a cohesive border by using repetition. Borrow forms from other parts of the garden. If you have lots of circles, use plants with spherical forms like alliums and hydrangeas.
Now repeat the colours. Different shades of the same colour is more effective that lots of different colours. And don’t just think in terms of flowers – there’s a huge range of colourful foliage out there.
You can also repeat plants too. Using the same varieties again further up the border, or in the border opposite, will bring the planting scheme together.
Finally, don’t forget about seasonality. You need to have a mix of plants that flower at different times. If the entire border flowers in June, it will look bare in September. Mix in evergreens and long-flowering varieties to make sure it always looks good.
Hydrangeas are popular garden shrubs that flower in pink, white and blue. They bring an abundance of colour to any garden. They also have an old-fashioned, cottage style charm.
There are two types of flowering hydrangea – mophead and lacecap. Mophead varieties have large round flower heads resembling pom-poms. Lacecaps bear round flat flower heads.
The most popular variety is Hydrangea macrophylla, which comes in mophead and lacecap. Other good varieties include Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ and Hydrangea paniculata (Pee Gee).
Hydrangeas like moist but well-draining soil and a sunny or partially shaded spot. They do not grow as well in windy conditions. The plants are easy to care for and fully hardy.
Over the winter hydrangeas lose their leaves, but they grow back the following spring.
Did you know?
Some hydrangea flowers can change colour depending on the soil type. The blue or pink flowered varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla, H. involucrata and H. serrata are all known to change colour.
This is down to soil pH, which affects the availability of aluminium. A low pH (acid soils), increases the uptake of aluminium, resulting in pink flowers. Neutral pH will give mauve flowers, and high pH (alkaline soils) will give blue flowers.
It was another great episode for series 4 – here’s what we learned from the show this week. Plus find out what plants we used to make the most of smaller spaces!
1 Small gardens are tricky
This was the smallest garden we’ve ever done on the show, but I know that it’s a reality for so many people. I hope we showed that a lack of space does not stop you having a great garden!
The main thing to remember is to use less hard landscaping materials – two or three will suffice. And don’t fill it with small features! They make it feel disjointed and cluttered. Choose a couple of big, complementary features for much more impact.
Everyone loves flowers, and you can fill your garden with them very easily. It’s not just about beds and borders – plant them in pots, ponds and crevices in walls and patios. For height, try climbers, window boxes and vertical walls. And don’t forget the front garden!
Plus mix annuals in with your perennials. Annuals are great for instant colour and they are smaller than established perennials, so they don’t compete for root space in the soil. We used poppies, cosmos, nemesia, geraniums and petunias.
3 You can do lots with a balcony garden
No space is too small to host a garden! Make it immersive by putting plants and flowers all around you – in containers, up walls and on the floor too! Follow my tip for stunning windowboxes – make holes in the lining and push plants through it to get overflowing colour! Trailing plants like ivy or petunia surfinia are also great for wall containers.
With smaller spaces, simplicity is key. Stick to a simple colour palette, and choose a range of flowers and foliage that complement each other.
4 It’s easy to attract butterflies
They make a great addition to any garden, and the good news is that they love flowers! We used sedum, salvia, lavender, dianthus and philadelphus on the show, but the choice is huge! Butterflies also love thrift, phlox, catmint, marigolds, wallflowers and buddleja, obviously!
You can also attract them by making a feeder that mimics the nectar they love so much. Find out how here.
5 Put plants on the roof too
I loved the green roof on the shed! It’s a great way to naturalise your garden structures and improves the view from the bedroom window. Choose low-growing plants that will withstand any wind up there, such as sedum, saxifrage and other alpines.
Follow Alan’s advice and drench the root ball before you plant them – it will ensure they don’t dry out!
