Love Your Garden: How to get the New England American look

We loved the garden we created in episode two of Love Your Garden 2015! It was a classic New England American garden, filled with picket fences and flowering plants.

The planting scheme was light and pale with plenty of big, bold shrubs. We used masses of flowers to create real impact in the borders.

The colour palette was white, green, variegated foliage and pastel-toned pink, blue, yellow and purple.

Here is how to get the look at home!

Find information on all Love Your Garden episodes here!

Start with shrubs

These days, shrubs are less popular in the garden than they used to be. They can take up lots of space, and people with smaller gardens are turning to herbaceous perennials instead.

But shrubs are impactful and low-maintenance. They also provide height, shape and structure. Many are evergreen too, meaning they look good all year round.

To create this garden, we used box balls, pink lilac, white hydrangea, ceanothus, rhododendron, viburnum opulus, viburnum plicatum, pittosporum tenuifolium and rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’.

Add flowering plants

We also put in some flowering plants. In fact, that’s an understatement. I think we put more flowers into this garden than any we have done before!

We planting climbers including wisteria and clematis montana. Then we added bergenia, petunias, vinca minor, blue and white agapanthus, lavender, delphinium, white osteospermum and lamium ‘white Nancy’.

See the garden photo gallery here.

Plant up pots

I created some striking containers for the seating area, inspired by the Ritz hotel. They were planted with standard pines and standard viburnum opulus. Standard simply means that they are grown and pruned to reveal a long stem with the growth in a ball on top, like a lollipop.

This leaves room (and light) for under planting them with white hydrangeas and trailing variegated ivy. The effect is really striking.

Make sure to keep plants in containers well-watered so your display doesn’t start to wilt!

Paint in pastel

The final touch was to paint everything to suit the American colour scheme. Most garden features, including pots, planters, arches and picket fencing were painted white. We painted the shed a pastel blue and the wooden fence was covered in navy blue.

See behind the scenes of this garden makeover!

David Domoney

David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.