Creating Town garden and
patio
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Once the main planting is complete, you may
want to consider adding a few special highlights to your garden. The purpose of
such plants is to provide something extra - something that will lift your
spirits at certain times of the year. Usually, these will be flowers, but there
are other aspects, such as fruits or seed capsules. Site your highlight plants
where they will carry maximum impact.
Here are some
suggestions:
• Startling bloomers
Rhododendrons and
Azaleas are obvious choices, covered as they are with gorgeous blooms in
spring. However, Camellias offer better value, since their off season foliage
is so glossy and beautiful. Look for the gorgeous but very hardy semi-double
pink variety Camellia 'Donation'.
• Fragrance
Perfume can carry as big an impact as colour. Mock orange (Philadelphus) is
bewitching, especially in a small space.
Choose roses for scent too:
'Flower Carpet White' has gentle fragrance, for example, but 'Fragrant Cloud'
and the climber 'Zephirine Drouhin' are richly scented. Lavender (Lavadula) is
both fragrant and aromatic, and makes a fine edging for a whole assortment of
herbs including sage, rosemary, thyme, chives and mint - all of which smell
wonderful.
• Leafy
Extra foliage, in summer, comes from
the larger Plantain lily (Hosta), lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) and the
felty-leaved lamb's ears (Stachys 'Silver Carpet'). Ice plant (Sedum
spectabile) has fresh green, succulent foliage from April onwards, until the
flowers appear in late summer. Brightest foliage of all is to be found on the
Japanese willow variety 'Hakuro Nishiki'. The leaves are a mix of pink, pure
white and green, but scorch very badly if exposed to sunlight.
• Architectural
Short term architecture can be
fun! Try placing an outsize plant - a mullein (Verbascum), perhaps, or rhubarb
- like Rheum palmatum - in the foreground of your planting. It will be so out
of scale as to look out of place, but the dramatic impact is considerable.
Grow mint in a container, to prevent it from becoming too
invasive. Cut it back regularly, to keep it young and tender.
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