How to Plant Groups
of Plants
Even in small gardens
and borders, planting plants in groups is a good way of getting
harmonious results, whatever your garden’s style. It's worthwhile
making a planting plan, however sketchy, so that you can see exactly
what you are trying to achieve and work out how many plants you
need to buy or propagate. If you are revamping an existing border,
you may prefer to work out a plan on the ground. Or a combination
of the two may be better still. Adopting this approach will help
to avoid spotty results. Use groups of shrubs to make a backbone
of solid planting, creating bays for lower growing plants, and a
setting which shows off your individual stars - special plants that
you will use sparingly.
What You Need:
Plan a backbone. Decide on your shrubby backbone of plants. Plan
to plant smaller shrubs (to 1.5 m tall) in groups of 2 or 3 of one
type. Give shrubs enough space to develop for at least 5 years without
requiring heavy pruning. Place them randomly, pulling them forward
rather than in a straight line, for a fluid effect.
.
Step 1
Choose your feature plants next. They’ll probably be either
shrubs or herbaceous. Position them within the planting framework.
Repeating the same feature plant at key points in the same border
or different parts of the garden gives a rhythm to your planting.
For example, in the centre of a long border, at the wide point of
a curving bed, where two paths intersect, at opposite sides of the
same garden compartment and so on.
Step 2
Now work out your mid layer planting. The smaller the plant the
greater the number you plant them in. Use mid-layer plants in groups
of three or five. Add the really low growing bottom layer of plants
which you will need to plant in larger groups. Either decide that
you want to make large drifts of these, or to mix up neighbouring
groups, for a more random natural effect. If you adopt this approach,
try to match the relative vigour of plant neighbours, so that one
does not rapidly outgrow the other.
Step 3
Finally, decide on your bulbs - choose ones that suit the nature
of the border, Interplant these amongst the low growing plants in
groups of the same type of bulb for best effect.
Step 4
Having set out your plants on the ground and/or sketched them on
paper, you can now prepare and plant up your border, starting from
the back with the larger plants. Spring bulbs should be planted
in autumn. When you have finished, water the whole border well.
Then add a 5 cm layer of decorative bark mulch, gravel or cocoa
shells to the area. This will help to retain moisture around the
plants and suppress annual weed seeds, which get disturbed as the
soil is cultivated. It also helps to show off your plants. Make
sure that new planting does not dry out completely during warm,
dry spells.
Source: Greenfingers.com
