Unique Planting Plans

If working on a design for a client, it is vital that you talk through your planting ideas before committing to a final design, not only to help them visualize the finished garden, but also to agree on a plan that they can easily maintain.

Excerpted from Garden Design

A Divided Garden

Unless you divide it up in some way, a rectilinear garden holds no surprises. To avoid the "what you see is what you get" effect, designer Fran Coulter created a visual break between a decked terrace along the side and back of the house and the rest of the garden.

Plants Used

Rosa ‘New Dawn'
Clematis ‘Pink Fantasy'
Trachelospermum jasminoides
Lonicera nitida ‘Baggesen's Gold'
Buxus sempervirens
Weigela Naomi Campbell(syn. ‘Bokrashine')
Nepeta nervosa
Vitis vinifera ‘Purpurea'

Design in Focus

When a garden is overlooked by neighbors, especially from an upstairs window, a climber-clad pergola provides privacy for seating or dining areas. However, in this design — the area shown is approximately 11 x 8 feet — the pergola is used as a colorful boundary between a decked terrace to the side and back of the house, and the garden beyond. The wood is painted a matt red to match the Scandinavian-style property. In Sweden, the paint is traditionally made with iron and copper ores, and these tones are picked up in the planting: the purple grapevine, wine-red Weigela, and the complementary pink rose and clematis.

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Excerpted from Garden Design