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Planning Planting

By Michael Russell 

“Planting” is the term professional gardeners use for…..plants. In other words, trees, shrubs, grasses, bedding plants, etc. and there are endless varieties to choose from. The easiest thing to do is to buy a book with a reference list in it showing the soil type, sun/shade and watering requirements. You can’t plant something which hates bright sunlight alongside something that won’t survive without it, so give it some thought at the outset. Most books also divide their listings into Trees and Shrubs, Climbers, Perennials, Annuals

I’m going to concentrate on flower-beds for the purposes of this article. If you want to grow vegetables and fruit, you will need a separate area which will need different treatment.

• Trees. Be very careful if you have a small garden. Trees have a habit of growing out of control, casting too much shade and their roots may end up digging up your drains. If you must have trees, choose something which doesn’t grow too tall, too quickly. Bear in mind that some trees, such as lilac, need dead-heading once the flowers are finished.
• Shrubs. Some shrubs have flowers and some don’t, some are evergreen and some aren’t. In the main, they need pruning to keep a tidy shape, about once a year but otherwise are fairly forgiving.
• Roses provide lovely colour but they do need a little care. Dead flowers must be removed and spraying against a variety of pests and diseases is almost always needed. Some varieties have been bred to be disease-resistant, so for less effort, choose one of these.
• Perennials. Perennials do nothing for the first year if you grow them from seed so you will need a nursery bed or buy them ready to plant from a garden centre. They will, however, reappear year after year for about 3 or 4 years when they will wear out and need replacing. Some perennials can be split at the end of flowering to increase your stocks. Dead-heading prolongs the flowering period.
• Annuals are lovely for a splash of colour and unless left to seed themselves will need replacing every year. They are great for growing in pots or hanging baskets and they bloom for far longer if dead flowers are removed so are somewhat labour intensive. Don’t grow perennials or annuals in other than a raised bed, if you have a bad back!
• Bulbs and corms. These vary tremendously. Some can be left in the ground year after year with little attention and some need to be dug up and stored. When choosing, consider what storage facilities are available. You won’t want dahlia tubers living in the cupboard under your stairs.

  The easiest way to start is to draw a plan of your garden and divide the beds into manageable areas. On your plan, mark each bed as to the light it gets and whether there is any shade (full, dappled) and the state of the soil (e.g. dry, boggy, etc.).

  Next, decide whether you want to have formal colour-schemes for the whole garden or individual beds. Do you want a “shrubbery” or a “rose garden” or are you going to mix everything in together?

  If you already have pergolas or trellises in place then you obviously anticipate growing climbing plants, so mark these in on your plan.

  For beds which have a boundary fence or wall, work from the back in terms of plant height. There’s no point planting something which will ultimately be four feet tall in front of something which never reaches more than two feet. Bear in mind that plants bush out. When I first started gardening, I was so keen to fill all the spaces that I had to keep moving plants around as they became larger and overcrowded.

  Circular beds (for example in the middle of lawns) look best with plants of similar height but if you want some tall and some short, work from the centre towards the edges.

  Whichever style of bed you have, remember that you’re going to have to reach those plants at the back or in the centre, in order to prune or dead-head them so leave a bit of room to manoeuvre. Better still, put down some flat stones which you can stand on while working in the bed.

  When you’ve decided on the plants you want and have marked them on your plan, make a note of the planting requirements (depth, distance apart), feeding and watering regime and ongoing care (e.g. pruning). You’ll be glad of this organisation when you come to actually putting the stuff in the ground.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Gardening

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