Here’s how my parent’s garden looked a few summers ago, pre-heatwaves…
This year things did not do well! Unsurprisingly, they now want a makeover for their garden – the summer heatwaves all but finished it off…
We did the garden over 20 years ago, so it is definitely time for a re-vamp. The planting had lost coherence with the things that had been stuffed in every time a gap appeared. As I mentioned in my previous article they want something that is more resilient and looks good all year round, rather than just during the summer months.
They’ve requested conifers – the one thing I have NEVER designed with in over 30 years of being a professional designer!! With a bit of photoshop jiggery and AI fixing the dead lawn – here’s what it should look like…
Why Conifers Can Be Difficult To Design With!
Conifers are often fairly solid lumps. Their density compared to other softer plants, which change over the seasons and move in the breeze, is missing. This solidness can make them hard to incorporate with other plants, they just don’t blend in.
The occasional conifer in a border is no issue but as soon as you put several together it becomes very dense, very quickly.
Plants that go well with conifers
Plants which can offset the denseness of the conifers are heathers, grasses and large flowered shrubs like Hydrangeas, which can look great as we saw at the Bressingham Gardens. Unfortunately for me, my mother dislikes grasses but she’s agreed to dwarf Phormium Black Adder and Festuca Intense Blue. We can’t grow the heathers because we’re not on an acid soil.
Planting Density
Another issue with conifers is they are slow growing but can get quite large. Several of the varieties I’ve chosen are technically too big for the space, especially planted in groups, so we will need to keep them trimmed.
As you can see below, my rough draft is quite scribbly so I tried to get AI to make a neater version. It’s done an approximation, though no idea why it’s put the Taxus fastigiata Robusta inside the greenhouse! 🤷♀️
But what about colour and wildlife?
They’re keeping all the flowering plants closest to the house and just having the conifers at the very top. Hopefully, doing it this way will give them and the pollinators the best of both worlds.
Whilst I don’t particularly like conifer gardens, I can see why my parents have decided on them. They will certainly provide a good evergreen backdrop to their flower borders.
What about water shortages?
They are going to install some IBC tanks in the vegetable garden to make sure the conifers can still be watered if there’s a hosepipe ban. Conifers once established can tolerate quite a wide range of conditions but not when they are first planted.
The trick with ANY planting plan
Regardless of what you use, the main thing to consider is how plants will look together in combination. To help you with this I’ve created a course called the Plant Design Formula which is half-price offer until the end of November to celebrate 17 years of Successful Garden Design!
There’s also up to half-price offers on my garden design courses too: https://www.successfulgardendesigner.com/17
