HOME S & INTERIORS PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE


Now, this is fine if you planted these plants 25 years ago and know what the plant is, but do not worry if the garden or the whole world of plants is new to you. The wonder of technology means that instant plant identification is at your fingertips with mobile phone apps like PlantNet and once identified, plant care and advice can be found online. Alternatively garden designers will often offer a garden audit service.


When redesigning a mature garden, the structural trees and shrubs are the bare bones of the garden and key to any redesign. It would be deplorable to remove a healthy 200-year-old oak or magnificent Japanese maple, but sometimes ill-considered choices and planting locations mean it would be better for the garden to remove a tree, in which case, planting a more suitable replacement in a more appropriate location will compensate for its loss.


With shrubs, often when they get too large, they are clipped into rounded blobs of green to control them, when they would look far better in their natural form. By controlling them in this way, it only stimulates more growth by removing the apical dominance end encouraging even more growth at the cut points. I think this can give the garden a dated feel and would suggest restoring the shrubs to their natural form. The best way to do this is to remove a third of the woody limbs at the base each year to stimulate new growth and return it to its natural form, however this will not work for conifers. Make sure to check when the best time of year to prune is for that specific plant as it can vary. For those not confident to attempt pruning, find a professional, qualified gardener through the Gardeners Guild to do it for you.


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After a year of observation and recording, and your assessment on the key structural planting in the garden has been made, you will have your lists of plants and bulbs and their locations you want to keep, relocate, or dig up to give to friends or neighbors or local community groups.


But what about the existing garden features and hard landscaping? Remember hard landscaping is inherently expensive, so ask yourself can it be given a facelift? Can the patio or terrace


JULY 2021 - THINGS TO DO:


New Moon - July 10th 2:17am Full Moon - July 24th 3:37am


Plant out annuals to fill gaps in the borders Deadhead flowering plants to prolong flowering period


PLANT OF THE MONTH – HELENIUMS


These delightful daisy-like flowers bring a hot splash of colour when planted in drifts though borders. Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer'


This is one of the earliest helenium to flower, with flowers streaked with yellows, oranges, reds and coppery browns.


could be professionally cleaned to look brand new, instead of green and slimy? Do the fences need replacing or can they be refreshed with a lick of paint? Can tired walls be rendered or clad?


It might be that features are in the wrong place, and if this is the case can you re-use any of the materials else where in the garden.


After all that observation and assessment, now is the time to turn to the design principles I explained last month for designing from a blank canvas*, only this time mark in the key structural planting and garden features and work your design around it.


Next month I will be discussing the different types of gardeners we all are, and how we approach planting and gardening our gardens.


*Missed last month’s column, you can catch up with it on my website.


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