Plants
If a beautiful garden is what you are after, then it’s the plants that will really bring it to life and make it sing. In this section you will find information about a range of different plants and how they can be used to best effect in your garden. Amongst other things, we look at: solutions for tricky areas; how to create impact with plants in a particular season; and topics such as plant structure, texture and colour. Read on to find out more.
Long Flowering Perennials For Your Summer Borders
A well-designed garden provides interest from early spring through to late autumn. If clients are looking for a low maintenance… Read more.
Really Useful Little Plants
Every designer has a "go-to" list of trusty plants that they use many times and love because they will always… Read more.
The Planting Plan Process: How it works
With the weather starting to warm up and having spent a lot of time on designing and implementing planting plans… Read more.
Using Planting Texture in Design
This post looks at an often forgotten tenet of garden design - texture. If you're looking to add some texture… Read more.
Shrubs to add winter sparkle to the garden
The festive season has begun and as the temperature falls the garden is often seen as gloomy and dull and… Read more.
Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea)
The copper beech, also known as purple beech, has to be one of my favourite trees - I'm fortunate enough… Read more.
Plant Focus: My Two Favourite Asters
If Salvia ‘Caradonna’ is one of my go to plants for early-mid Summer, then Aster amellus ‘Violet Queen’ & Aster… Read more.
Plant Focus: Ornamental Alliums
One of the most widely recognised and used perennials, the ornamental Allium is a tough, easy to grow plant with… Read more.
Plant Focus: Salvia ‘Caradonna’
This is definitely one of my “go to” plants when preparing planting plans as it is so reliable, well behaved,… Read more.
Low Maintenance Front Garden Planting
We recently completed the planting for a front garden for a client in Twyford. This planting needed to be low… Read more.
Plant Focus: Rosmarinus ‘Miss Jessopp’s Upright’
A Rosemary? Yes, I am extolling the virtues of a simple, commonly available Rosemary plant. What's to like? Rosmarinus ‘Miss… Read more.
Winter doesn’t have to mean a dull garden
The cold weather has arrived and Christmas is quickly approaching. This is the time of year when your garden does… Read more.
Trees for Autumn colour
Autumn, for me, is the time for trees. When you think of autumn you likely think of the fiery reds,… Read more.
Adding structure to planting borders
A very common request when discussing planting requirements with clients is for a garden with year-round interest - it normally… Read more.
Plant Focus: Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’
Love the flower and wafting scent of Lilac, but put off by the fact that they grow too big too… Read more.
Plant Focus: Nandina domestica & its smaller relatives
Until recently, Nandina domestica was little known and rarely used by gardeners in the UK, but it is now gaining… Read more.
Plant Spacing – The Garden Designer’s Dilemma
Clients often ask me how I know how far apart to space plants when designing a new planting scheme. And… Read more.
Using Spring bulbs to add extra colour
Spring bulbs are the underused category of plants that can really lift your garden and add a pop of colour… Read more.
The Garden in Winter
Let’s face it, gardens don’t always look their best in mid-winter. Yet, looking out at my back garden this morning,… Read more.
Helleborus niger –The Christmas Rose
You know it’s nearly Christmas……. when the first thing that greets you at your local garden centre is a vast… Read more.
Plant Focus: Pittosporum tenuifolium & its cultivars
As any ALDA Landscapes customer will tell you, I am a great fan of Pittosporums, and they feature in some… Read more.
Value For Money Plants
At last we have had some rain, and lawns have begun to take on a hint of green - although… Read more.
Drought Tolerant Plants
As I sit in my office writing this blog, the sun is shining gloriously outside, and it is very warm… Read more.
Plant Focus: Salvia ‘Royal Bumble’
Some people love bright red. But many gardeners shy away from using red flowered plants in their gardens for fear… Read more.
First Glimpses of Spring
As I sit here writing my January blog, the sky outside is grey and overcast. It seemed to take forever… Read more.
Plants To Lift The Winter Gloom
Is it just me, or does it seem very grey and dark all of a sudden? As I sit here… Read more.
Veggies For Small Gardens – A Few New Ones To Try
As our clients will know, my veggie coffins (beds) have been in use for two years now, and I have… Read more.
Mediterranean Planting
This is the second in a series of blogs looking at using plants for creating different effects, and considers Mediterranean… Read more.