![[DESIGN SHOW 8] Garden plants – how to choose the right landscape plants for your garden](https://149359669.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DESIGNSHOW8covNEW.jpg)
In this episode, professional, international garden designer Rachel Mathews will discuss her tricks of the trade for choosing the right plants for your garden.
Learn how to avoid the BIGGEST planting mistakes
She’ll show you how to avoid the most common planting mistakes and help you save money at the garden centre.
To plant a garden successfully, it’s critical that you get the right plant in the right place. So a bit of time spent researching which plants will grow in the conditions you have in your garden will make the world of difference to your success.
Rachel will show you a case study garden that she’ll be creating a planting plan for in the next episode. If you’d like to answer her question and tell her how you would make the planting border bigger.
The 3 Fundamentals of Choosing Plants
- RIGHT PLANT, RIGHT PLACE
- ALLOW ENOUGH SPACE
- GET THE RIGHT HEIGHTS
It’s important that the plants you choose are not only going to grow well in your garden, but also look good. So what makes a garden worthy plant? For starters, don’t be seduced into buying a plant just because it’s rare or unusual. If you need a magnifying glass to see its leaves or flowers, it’s probably not garden worthy as it won’t have the impact in the garden.
Choosing plants that are multifunctional (they do more than just flower) will make for much better planting schemes. So have a list and tick off if you are choosing a plant only for its flowers or if it has additional benefits like evergreen foliage, an interesting shape etc.
The 3 Fundamentals of Plant Combining
- MULTIFUNCTIONAL PLANTS
- STAR PERFORMERS
- COLOUR
BUT do be warned, plants alone will NOT give you a stunning garden – you have to get the design layout right first. If you don’t know how to do that then…
Attend one of our FREE Fast Track Garden Design online classes…
Register on this page: https://www.successfulgardendesign.com/freeclasses/
21 replies to "[DESIGN SHOW 8] Garden plants – how to choose the right landscape plants for your garden"
Thinking of buying plants this Easter? If so you MUST watch this video
first! Lots of top tips on how to avoid making big mistakes and wasting
money on the wrong plants!
Very interesting! I am looking for information on designing and planting gardens which are exposed to air and noise pollution. I am surprised to find there isn't too much information available on this topic – does everyone have a large, secluded garden and I am the only one with a small garden next to a busy road 🙂 ?
Very interesting! I am looking for information on designing and planting gardens which are exposed to air and noise pollution. I am surprised to find there isn’t too much information available on this topic – does everyone have a large, secluded garden and I am the only one with a small garden next to a busy road 🙂 ?
Hi Andreea – in that case I will add it to my list of things to cover on the blog. BTW did you see episode 6 on front gardens? That did cover air pollution a bit – though the garden featured wasn't that small. Might be worth taking a look at though https://www.successfulgardendesign.com/show6/ it was towards the end of the episode.
The narrow border problem can be solved using several methods:-
1. Trim back the face of the hideous Leylandii hedge. This will retain a green canvas backdrop which will highlight the planting in front. Leylandii have their place, but in general not in a back garden!
2. Remove the Leylandii hedge and replant with a more suitable hedge species which is easier to care for. Leylandii have a nasty habit of becoming overgrown if not maintained regularly. They also create a very dry soil zone around their base.
3. Slightly reshape the lawn to increase the border width.
4. Plant species which are upright in habit e.g. clump forming bamboo or grasses (shade depending).
Thanks for all your great suggestions Neill – you can see which option we went for in the next episode in a couple of week’s time 🙂
YOU ARE THE BEST….
Thank you Baljeet! :o)
Thank you Baljeet! :o)
Thanks Rachel for this wonderful post. My wife is really passionate about gardening and she always used to plant flowering plants in our garden. But I like herbal plants and trees rather than flowering plants. We have a plan for hiring a landscape designer which will help us to include more plants and bring some professional touch to our gardens. Also we need to find out some place for edible plants such as vegetables. Hope this video will help us to make it possible.
You’re so fabulous! And funny!
Not to mention talented!
I like your “tell-it-like-it” approach, very american!
+gypsyvanneraddict Ahh thank you! 🙂
Choosing the Best Plants for Gardens is something we should learn about. thanks to this video!
I love an overgrown cottage-y English garden.
Love that storybook look but I do enjoy neatness in my garden so I’m sure
to prune, deadhead and replant areas I find too wild, boring or not doing
so well.
I have a shade garden with zen elements as well as that Cottage storybook
look- the key has been potting things that go wild and giving away plants
that don’t work in my space.
I’m currently tackling the from garden of my home-
I have hazel nut, pomegranate, camellia and hibiscus Trees, one nasty
(renter) neighbor and too many irises that never get enough sun to bloom.
As an admired gardener- I’ve been so busy with my
Mini masterpiece in the back of the house- I’ve all but neglected the from
of my home.
I got rid of a dead, poor, sad dogwood tree and removed several heirloom
crinum lilies which I potted.
Needless to say, I’ve got tons of work to do in front of my home to meet my
gardening standards and desires!
I love this Channel!
+gypsyvanneraddict Thank you – gosh sounds like you’ve got quite a lot going on with your garden. It can be a labour of love sometimes and no sooner do you get one bit right then there’s something else to do!
Hope the latest episode gives you lots of ideas – some very English cottagey gardens at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show!
I love an overgrown cottage-y English garden.
Love that storybook look but I do enjoy neatness in my garden so I’m sure to prune, deadhead and replant areas I find too wild, boring or not doing so well.
I have a shade garden with zen elements as well as that Cottage storybook look- the key has been potting things that go wild and giving away plants that don’t work in my space.
I’m currently tackling the from garden of my home-
I have hazel nut, pomegranate, camellia and hibiscus Trees, one nasty (renter) neighbor and too many irises that never get enough sun to bloom.
As an admired gardener- I’ve been so busy with my
Mini masterpiece in the back of the house- I’ve all but neglected the from of my home.
I got rid of a dead, poor, sad dogwood tree and removed several heirloom crinum lilies which I potted.
Needless to say, I’ve got tons of work to do in front of my home to meet my gardening standards and desires!
I love this Channel!
I like your upbeat, chatty (and humorous) style 🙂
Geez you sounds like me I just started doing landscape horticulture in
college and my parents let me loose in there garden looks like me however
I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of plants free and I have convinced them
to lemme do under there maple by the fence because absolutely no grass
grows there unfortunately my problem seems to be the bugs :S
Geez you sounds like me I just started doing landscape horticulture in college and my parents let me loose in there garden looks like me however I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of plants free and I have convinced them to lemme do under there maple by the fence because absolutely no grass grows there unfortunately my problem seems to be the bugs :S
I have the same problem with a narrow border alongside a hawthorn hedge which I hope to replace with something more gardener friendly some day. My garden is hardscaped, which I did after doing your small garden design course, and I like the garden design, so I am not going to make my border any wider. I am toying with the idea of having very large and frost resistant pots with a mix of plants such as shade-tolerant grasses that will look splendid in the winter, and in fact, a mix of spiky, flat and round shaped perennials that trail down and look lovely around the year. Easy to look after. I wonder if that is what you did. Your garden is very much larger, though, and perhaps you just made the border wider.
Hi Elizabeth,
That sounds like a lovely solution. No, we did something a bit more radical in my parents’ garden. You can see exactly what, here: https://www.successfulgardendesign.com/show9/