A Contrary Gardener - The Best Laid Plans?

I have just been through the somewhat exhausting experience of trying to design a garden for a competition, [which I didn't win]. I am not a garden designer and I haven't even done as much as a correspondence course in the discipline. So please allow me to share my frustrations at trying to design a garden from scratch on paper. It was hard, very hard; initially faced with a flat, very empty, very white sheet of paper, and then attempting to transfer the resulting idea(s), to scale, on to graph paper and then into a perspective drawing.

The brief was very open but to be considered; the show takes place in July; the garden had to be open/viewable from three sides; visitors could be allowed to enter the garden [or not]; the design was for a charity and the budget would be tight, the build being mainly done by volunteers - this was not a big Chelsea number. It also had to include a cat of some description. In some ways a blank space for a 'show' garden is easier to fill than dealing with an existing plot. In show gardens you can get away with planting for full-on effect for the space of time that the show is held for rather than all-year interest, and you don't have to allow for patches of shade, lousy soil, drains, kids, pets etc.

Getting started
Step 1 - Bought a 'How to Design a Garden' book
Step 2 - Investigated CD garden design packages
Step 3 - Give up on CD packages as would take a lot of time to learn and deadline looms
Step 4 - Borrow another garden design book
Step 5 - Sharpen HB pencil
Step 6 - Chew end of pencil, scribble a bit, erase a bit, chew pencil again
Step 7 - Spend money on some coloured pencils, a circle drawy thing and a bendy ruler
Step 8 - Tear up and put in recycling bin the 20th draft plan - go and make a cup of tea

I became obsessed with this project and was absolutely determined to see it through to the bitter end. Not only did I have to draw and plot, I had to attempt to calculate how much stone I would need for proposed stone walls, thankfully the BTCV handbook came to my aid, even then at one point I grossly overcalculated the amount required, which could have been interesting on site to say the least; I also had to try to specify how many metric tonnes of earth needed excavating and how wide the proposed pool needed to be to accomodate a 6 foot jet of water and a cost effective method of triggering the jet, aargh!

And then there is the planting, 30% of the overall marks for the gardens when they are being judged are allocated to this element of the garden realisation.

The idea
I wanted the design to be a bit different, not a 'domestic' style decking sort of a garden or anything 'soft'. I wanted exuberant and started with the idea of something erupting from the earth, an expression of positive earth energy, not a specific creature but something sinuous that dives in and out of the ground to disappear into a cool, calm pool. The charity in question gives a people their lives back and this was about celebrating new energy. In addition I wanted to introduce a surprise element, another expression of 'energy' and decided that a water jet triggered by people's movement in the garden would be both fun and unexpected. The overall theme came together over a number of weeks as 'The Rhythm [of Life]'.

Initially I thought about using earth covered with turf to describe this 'earth creature' but when I thought about it a bit more I remembered seeing gardens that had used turfed earth banks and herbaceous plantings seemed to disappear against the green of the turf. So then I looked at drystone walling and felt this could work, the effect would be less of a large 'ripple' moving through the garden, more a backbone plunging and emerging again. Simple apart from the experts needed to build the low stone walls and interpret the sinuousity better in reality than my drawings. I decided to root the garden to some extent in a Cheshire context, the walls to be made from grey/pink kerridge stone on the advice of the local stone walling association and the pool became a 'mere', dark and mysterious.

The planting
Initially I sat down and combed through plant books listing out everything that would be starting to peak naturally in July [no cold storage to produce tulips in late summer or any other such Chelsea fantasy]. The list got longer and longer. Some plants I knew already and could visualise the heights and colours, others I cross referenced and discrepancies sometimes arose in flowering times and eventual heights. I think if I had got to build the garden some 'calls' would have to have been made and similar plants that looked good on the day used so some changes would have been inevitable. At least in July a lot of herbaceous perennials would have reached their full height.

Over the weeks I started to refine the plantings to better reflect the idea of 'rhythm', limiting the palette of colours used and the number of different plants and employing repetitions of colour and plant cultivars. Halfway through the project the adage 'less is more' came and sat on my shoulder and stayed [I hope].

The planting colours were to be hot and exciting and then cooler as the 'energy' moved towards the central 'mere'. I ended up using quite a few grasses to try to keep some of the planted areas 'clean' and sharp rather than potentialy ending up with a muddle of herbaceous material.

Firstly I needed to decide on some tall plants to give a sense of 'being in the garden' but without the budget for shipping-in large shrubs and trees. I chose Amelanchier lamarckii as the 'hardest' height giver, the new leaves are bronzy and even in summer the green retains an element of this colouring. The growth is loose and open which makes it a graceful little tree with the bonus of early sprays of white flowers in the spring, very delicate and pretty. I chose two main shrubs, Rosa x odorata 'Mutabilis' a very open growing delicate looking China rose with copper/bronzed foliage and delicious apricot single flowers that turn a gentle pink. It flowers for many weeks over the summer and on into autumn, a lovely 'natural' rose. Hydrangea 'Blue Wave' is one of the more airy flowered hydrangeas, the aim was to use it as a solid backdrop for other plants rather than as a main feature.

Herbaceous height givers included Bronze Fennel [Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum'] by full summer at peak height and carrying its umbels of yellow flowers; Stipa gigantea [Giant Oat Grass] to provide an airy 'eye stopper', the golden hawns catching light and movement; Miscanthus floridulus [or similar] to provide a flowing 'backdrop' shape, and the somewhat clichéd Verbena bonariensis for its lightness and to attract butterflies. Gunnera manicata was part of the design for planting around the pool, but I wasn't sure how tall you could get these in containers as opposed to how big they grow in places like Cornwall where they definitely add a 'wow' factor.


Bed 1 [Click on image to enlarge]
This bed at the front of the garden kicked-off the heat and energy part of the rhythm, the focus plant was to be a Stipa gigantea. Height was also to be given by mature Bronze Fennel which was to run through this bed. I decided to interplant with Carex testacea which has orange tints and russet green foliage as opposed to the more obvious pure bronze of C.buchananii which I felt would be too heavy in combination with the other plants. For this late summer planting crocosmia were an obvious choice, 'Gerbe d'Or' with yellow flowers and 'Dusky Maiden' with deep tawny/orange flowers, both with bronzed foliage; Achillea 'Feuerland' a fiery tangy orange/red to provide some 'stable' middle height. The cool part of the rhythm was picked up in this bed by 'washes' of powder blue provided by Perovskia [Russian Sage]. I decided that apapanthus were the cliché of the season and too obvious, much like alliums in May. I was determined to use annuals in the overall design, for this bed I chose non-trailing nasturtiums in a salmon/apricot shade, although if I could have found trailing types in the right sort of shade, a touch on the Giverny's wouldn't have been unwelcome.


Bed 2 [Click on image to enlarge]
This was kicked-off by another Stipa gigantea leading the eye from bed 1 and the height topped off with an amelanchier to give the 'resting point'. This bed was continuing hot and combined Dahlia 'David Howard', one of the 'acceptable' dahlias with deep purplish foliage and gorgeous orange/bronze flowers. I did look for other dahlias that would 'fit' but came back to this one. Then came Lilium 'African Queen', rich deep orange/apricot scented trumpets and an emphatic 'ta da!' in the middle of the bed, Heleniums were another obvious choice for July, 'Riverton Gem' in this instance, a cultivar I don't know but sounded right. Hedychium 'Tara' was chosen for its 'chunky' feel as this bed needed to be fairly strong to balance the gunneras planted opposite. The blue rhythm was picked up by Salvia nemorosa 'Ostfriesland' another plant I am not familiar with and Veronicastrum virginicum 'Fascination', tall growing with sizzling, fuzzy spikes of mauvish/blue flowers. Moving towards bed 3 I used another annual, Cleome 'Orchid Queen' backed by the verbena to mark the main transition between the predominantly hot to the increasingly cool and to attract insects to make the garden feel even more alive.


Bed 3 [Click on image to enlarge]
Getting cooler now, the 'anchors' being the second amelanchier and the hydrangea. Macleaya microcarpa was used as a tall bronzy element complemented and pulled through colourwise by Achillea 'Lansdorferglut' a salmon colour which was echoed further down the planting by Sedum 'Autumn Joy' [or similar, nothing too pinky pink]. The pale yellow spires of Digitalis lutea picked up the job the veronicastrum was doing in bed 2, and the purple backed Lilium regale echoed the 'ta da!' of L. 'African Queen'. The salvia from bed 2 was repeated as the planting moved out from the confining 'wall' and into the pathway. I chose to use Dahlia merckii in this bed which has small single off-lilac flowers, this was one of the plants the sources disagreed about on final heights - difficult call if you want it for a 'back of border' in this instance.


Bed 4 [Click on image to enlarge]
Planted into fine gravel this combined Elymus hispidus an intense blue grass with wider blades and looser feel than the festucas such as 'Elijah Blue'. Eryngium bourgatii continued the metallic blue element and Jasione montana or 'Sheepsbit Scabious' the final blue element. This scabious is an acid loving biennial native plant which could grow in Cheshire, other scabious would have done as well. The salmony shaded rhythm was picked up by the sedum and then more emphatically by the annual Eschscholzia ' Apricot Flambeau' . The Eschscholzia handing on some of the fiery colours back to bed 1.


Around the pool itself I wanted a very cool and simple planting, but strong. For this I chose Hosta 'Sum and Substance' which has gloriously large leaves that have a hint of gold sheen to them which makes them lighter than some of the other monster hostas [variegated hostas were out of the question]. These to be interplanted with the native Carex pendula which has strong shiny green leaf blades and arching tails in summer and grows well in moist semi-shade.

The final decorative element was to be a large woven willow cat, a representation of leaping, joyful energy rather than 'cutesy', to be made by a local Bath environmental artist, Julie Starks.

So there we have it
If you have followed the article this far I hope you found it of some interest and got some planting ideas. I am sure that 'trained' designers would have been sucking their teeth and tutting at my naive attempt at show garden design and I have probably unknowingly committed some terrible errors. But I did it.

I shall probably go back to the 'digging holes in the ground' approach to garden design, wielding my favourite bed making tool 'the lawn edger'. When I am seen with this tool the beds can only get bigger and the lawn smaller.

I wish all the best to the winning design for The Anthony Nolan Trust which will be seen in July 2004 at the RHS Show at Tatton Park.

Some references:
Books
RHS Garden Planning [1996/1999] Robin Williams
Garden Design Book [1991] John Brookes
BTCV Handbooks - Dry Stone Walling
Colour Your Garden [1991] Mary Keen
The Gravel Garden [2000] Beth Chatto
Christopher Lloyd's Garden Flowers [2000] Christopher Lloyd
Chelsea Gold [2000/2001] John Moreland [particularly for Dan Pearson and Fiona Lawrenson]
Rix & Phillips - various

Web sites
The Dry Stone Walling Association
Andy Goldsworthy Sheepfolds Project
Cottage Garden Flowers
Julie Starks - environmental artist
Smartdraw - garden design software/trial
For more garden design software packages have a look at Garden Design Software and customer reviews on Amazon

Thank you to all the people who responded to my emails

@Karisgarden February 2004