Garden Planting Re-Design Project – Case Study

This project saw us re-design a considerable area of planting in a large garden predominately around the house terraces. The beds had become heavily overgrown with invasive Ground Elder, wild geraniums and Alchemilla Mollis as well as weed grasses, which meant we had an initial clearance job to undertake to prepare the area. Once clear, we added a layer of topsoil and mulch mix to help improve the soil quality ahead of planting.

Garden Planting Designs

In the meantime, we re-designed the beds, factoring in existing mature shrubs which were being retained. Once the design was finalised, we sourced the plants from an excellent local wholesale nursery and set the plants out as per the design and planted the beds. There was a mix of very sunny, dry areas along with some shaded areas, so we factored these conditions together, along with soil type and pH, when working on the layout.

Behind the Design

We have created a design that, when mature, will provide a beautiful naturalistic scheme in the sun with drifts of pink, purples, blues and white, using Salvia, Penstemon, Achillea & Echinacea along with Sedums, Ornamental Grasses, Verbena and Lavender to name some. In the more shaded areas, we have maintained this colour scheme using Astilbe, Digitalis, Bleeding Hearts and Bergenia’s along with Ferns, Hosta’s and Heuchera’s.

We also designed a spring bulb planting plan to add to these areas with 1500 bulbs planted to bring colour for early in the year, starting with Snowdrops, then Crocus, before we get Camassia and then a range of different Alliums, all adding to the seasonality, colour and texture of the beds.

Garden Design After Care & Maintenance

In this particular case, we have stayed on with the clients to look after the new plantings and start work on other areas of the garden. We have mulched the beds ahead of winter with pine bark to provide protection for tender roots, help suppress weeds and retain moisture and will follow a care and maintenance schedule through the year, drawn up with the planting plan design.