Design Tips

I love Nandina, an evergreen shrub with bushy bamboo-like foliage that turns purple in spring and winter.  It works really hard for its place in the garden because it has something different to offer in each of the seasons. 

In the summer it produces large panicles of white flowers which are slightly scented, followed by orange-red berries that last for months.  This picture was taken this morning – the last of the white flowers…

Nandina prefer to be planted in a sheltered sunny spot but are not particularly fussy about the soil as long as it doesn’t get waterlogged.  They are great shrubs for small gardens because they are so well behaved.  With a maximum height and spread of 1.5m they’re unlikely to outgrow their space in the garden.  They need little or no pruning so are fabulous for  low-maintenance planting schemes although can be tidied up if required in mid-late spring.  I have 3 planted around my south-facing sitting area and they just look fabulous all year round, one of the best performing plants in my garden. 

These are the berries when they first appear…

Then they turn a gorgeous red, lasting well into winter…

One of the reasons I love them is that they just don’t really look like evergreen shrubs which often have robust shiny leaves.  The foliage looks soft and feathery bringing texture and contrast to the mixed border. 

Nandina domestica ‘Firepower’ is a dwarf variety which grows to a maximum height and spread of 5ocm – great for banks and slopes or low maintenance planting schemes.  They also look fabulous in pots if you want something to plant that will give all year interest.

I hope you’re enjoying my new monthly Garden Flowers series which I’m writing with Rona Wheeldon of Flowerona.  This month, we’re featuring a very unassuming but pretty plant, Cyclamen hederifolium.  Read more

If you read my blog post on Tuesday then you’ll know a little bit about this project already – a day in Leeds last Friday to work on a “Garden Designer in Your Home” project.  Today I ‘m going to talk to you about the process we went through to develop the design and of course show you the final drawings and concept sketches. Read more

A while ago I shared the new terrace design for a London Town House.  The house building project is almost finished and the construction of the terrace is due to start next week so I thought I’d share the planting design with you. Read more

Part of the design process is to produce a full set of working drawings and a Scope of Works which not only enables the landscaper to accurately quote to build the garden, but also communicates the design in detail so that it can be brought to life as intended.  Within the Scope of Works it is the designer’s responsibility to source and specify the materials to be used and last week I spent time sourcing these for my project in Sutton.  Read more

Most people in the UK, especially if they have young children in the family, would consider a lawn to be an essential element to be included within the design of their garden.  Lawns aren’t considered to be a low-maintenance element of the garden, after all they need to be attended to at least once a week in the summer, but they are a quintessential part of the English garden. Read more

We are soon to enter what’s called the “bare root” season in the horticultural world and it really is the best time to buy and plant deciduous trees, hedging plants and roses.  Basically this means that the plants have been lifted straight from the ground and literally have “bare” roots (they have no soil around them).  The season starts at the beginning of November and finishes in April when the plants are dormant. Read more

I have a meeting on site tomorrow morning with the contractors who will be building the project in Sutton and one of the things I need to do whilst I am there is to agree the colour of the resin bound aggregate that we are planning to use for the driveway.  Read more

Ok, we’ve just had a mini heatwave, but there are a few plants in my garden that are still looking pretty good.  The first star of the show is the Geranium ‘Jolly Bee’ which is one of my favourite plants to use in the garden as it flowers faithfully from May well into October. Read more

It’s been almost 2 months since I last visited Loseley Park so the changes to the garden were really quite dramatic when I popped in there yesterday.  Many of the perennials were just coming to the end of flowering but amazingly, just a day before the garden is closing to the public, there was still something to take photographs of.  Read more