Autumn Planting Guide for Warwickshire Gardens: Bulbs, Plants & Design Tips


Welcome to our autumn planting guide for Warwickshire gardens. One of the things we’re always trying to instil in our clients is that Autumn isn’t the end of the gardening year – it’s actually the start of the next one, and while the leaves may be falling and the evenings drawing in, September and October are usually some of the very best months to get plants in the ground.

Here in Warwickshire, our autumn gardens are blessed with warm(ish) soils, fairly reliable rainfall, and just enough growing season left for roots to settle in before winter. And that means that anything you plant now is more than likely to wake up strong and raring to go next spring.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

And at the end, don’t miss your free Autumn Planting Tips — a practical, step-by-step guide to help keep you on track this season.

Rudbeckia bringing colour and drama to autumn planting in Warwickshire garden

Why Autumn is the Perfect Time to Plant

Many of our clients are used to thinking of spring as “gardening season” and it can feel odd to start planting when the days are getting shorter. But here’s the secret professional garden designers and horticulturalists know: autumn is actually better than spring for planting most things.

Here’s why:

In short: plant now, and by spring you’ll have stronger, healthier plants with less work. Win-win!

Best Plants to Plant in Autumn

So what should you be putting in the ground right now? Thinking about plant types, and in no particular order here are some ideas for you.

Spring Bulbs for Colour

Spring bulbs planted in autumn for colourful Warwickshire garden border.
Tulips planted in autumn bring vibrant colour to Warwickshire gardens in spring.

Autumn is the time to plant bulbs if you want a dazzling display next spring, consider:

Design Tip: Plant bulbs in groups of 3, 5, 7, or more. Odd numbers and clusters look much more natural than straight lines.

Perennials & Grasses

Ornamental grasses adding autumn height and structure to a Coventry garden design

Perennials planted now focus on growing strong root systems over the winter, so they’re usually tougher and fuller next year, think about:

Design Tip: Mix grasses with late perennials as we've done here for a Coventry client, for a soft, naturalistic look that lasts well into winter.

Trees & Shrubs

Cornus shrubs (Dogwood) adding winter colour to a Warwickshire garden design.

Autumn is hands-down the best time to plant trees and shrubs. Some of our favourites include:

Design Tip: Position trees and shrubs carefully — they’ll be the backbone of your design for years to come.

Plants for Wildlife

Butterfly enjoying Sedum in a Warwickshire autumn planting scheme.

It’s easy to forget that wildlife needs us most in autumn and winter too. Planting now helps your garden stay alive with activity.

Design Tip: Mix wildlife-friendly plants into your borders so they look great and support nature too.

Preparing Your Garden for Autumn Planting

A little prep tends to go a long way. Here’s how we suggest getting your beds and borders ready:

  1. Clear away summer annuals – this makes space for new plants and the old growth is a useful addition to composters.
  2. Improve the soil – dig in home-made compost or other suitable soil improvers, especially in Warwickshire’s clay-heavy areas.
  3. Mulch – laying a 5cm layer locks in moisture, feeds the soil, and insulates roots.
  4. Think layers when planting – shrubs for structure, perennials for colour, bulbs for seasonal pops.

Design Tip: Autumn is the time to set the stage. Treat each border like a theatre — the big players at the back, supporting acts in the middle, and the stars of the show at the front.

Garden Design Insight: Thinking Ahead to Spring & Summer

Cornus shrubs (Dogwood) bringing autumn leaf colour to a Warwickshire garden border.

This is where design really comes into play. Autumn planting isn’t just about filling gaps — it’s about planning the story your garden will tell next year.

When we design planting schemes at Blue Daisy, we look for:

It’s easy to get carried away at the garden centre, but a professional plan means you’ll spend wisely, plant smartly, and enjoy your garden more.

Free Resource: Autumn Planting Tips

To help you put this into action, we’ve created a free downloadable Autumn Planting Tips sheet. It covers:

Download your free Autumn Planting Tips here.

Ready to Refresh Your Garden This Autumn?

Autumn planting is the gardener’s secret weapon. By popping bulbs, perennials, and shrubs in the ground now, you’re setting yourself up for a spring and summer that will be bursting with colour, structure, and life.

If you’d like a helping hand:

Together, we’ll make sure your garden not only survives the winter but thrives next year and beyond.

Final Thoughts

The nights may well be drawing in, and the garden might feel like it’s slowing down, but in reality, autumn is where the magic begins. With the right plants, a bit of prep, and a touch of design, you can create a Warwickshire garden that feels alive through every season.

Let’s roll up our sleeves, plant some bulbs, and look forward to a spectacular spring!

How to Make a Small Garden Look Bigger: Expert Design Tips

Small Garden Design: Big Impact

It’s a common dilemma for homeowners: gardens are getting smaller, especially in new builds, and clients often ask how to make their small garden look and feel bigger. The good news is that limited space doesn’t mean limited potential. With thoughtful design techniques, a small garden can feel spacious, layered, and full of personality.

Here are six clever ways garden designers create the illusion of space.

1. Use Perspective to Make a Small Garden Look Larger

Small garden utilising perspective with diagonal and angled pathways and paving to help make the space feel longer.

One of the most effective tricks in small garden design is using perspective. Just as artists use vanishing points to create depth, garden designers guide the eye through space with narrowing paths, staggered planting, and changes in scale.

2. Divide Small Gardens into Zones

Small garden divided into zones with dining area, planting beds, utility space and relaxing sun spot for a spacious feel.

It may seem counterintuitive, but breaking up a compact garden into smaller “rooms” can make it feel bigger. Instead of revealing the entire space at once, divide the garden into zones such as a dining nook, seating area, or planting bed. We created 4 distinct zones in our client's garden shown here - an entertaining space, planting, relaxing and utility zone all encompassed in one, compact garden space.

Pergolas, trellises, or even a change in paving material can define these areas while keeping a cohesive feel. Screening part of the space with plants or hard materials adds curiosity and encourages exploration, helping the garden unfold gradually.

3. Go Vertical with Planting and Features

Vertical planting adding height and interest in a compact garden.

When ground space is limited, look upwards. Vertical design elements such as wall-mounted planters, trellises, green walls, or espaliered trees add layers of interest and draw the eye skyward.

Climbing plants like clematis, jasmine, or climbing roses soften hard boundaries and add seasonal colour and fragrance without taking up precious ground space, illustrated beautifully in this little corner of Sissinghurst.

4. Use Lighting and Mirrors to Expand Small Spaces

Small garden lighting with uplight creating depth and evening atmosphere

Lighting is a powerful way to enhance the sense of space. Uplighting a tree, backlighting planting, or adding subtle under-bench lighting creates depth and atmosphere, particularly in the evening. We chose to uplight a patterned screen in our Solihull clients' garden, shown here, to throw interesting shadows onto the boundary at night.

Mirrors are another clever tool. Positioned carefully, an outdoor mirror can reflect planting, light, or sky, making the garden feel twice as big. To keep it natural and safe for wildlife, angle mirrors slightly or partially conceal them with plants.

5. Choose a Cohesive Colour and Planting Palette

Small garden with cohesive colour palette of paving and planting for a spacious feel

In smaller gardens, too many materials or colours can make a space feel cluttered. Instead, stick to a harmonious palette of two or three hard landscaping materials and a restrained plant selection as we did here for a Tamworth client.

Repetition of shapes, colours, or textures creates rhythm and flow, helping the garden feel calmer and more spacious.

6. Add a Focal Point to Draw the Eye

Focal point water feature invites exploration and movement through a small garden.

Every small garden benefits from a focal point. This could be a sculpture, water feature, specimen plant, or even a beautifully designed bench. A well-placed focal point anchors the design and gives the eye somewhere to rest.

Positioning a focal feature at the far end of the garden, or just out of immediate sight, encourages movement through the space and makes the garden feel deeper than it really is. We offset this beautiful water feature away from the patio doors in our Meridan client's wide but shallow garden. Our clients could hear the water but couldn't see it directly from many parts of their indoor space, drawing them outside to explore.

Conclusion: Small Garden Design That Feels Spacious

Designing a small garden is about creating illusions, managing perspective, and guiding the viewer’s journey. Through smart zoning, vertical planting, cohesive materials, and clever use of light and focal points, even the smallest garden can feel generous and inviting.

Thinking about redesigning your own small garden? Get in touch to find out how we can transform your outdoor space into a beautiful, functional retreat.

The Problem with Narrow Borders

The term ‘less is more’ is used a lot, we say it ourselves for many reasons, however, when it comes to borders, more is most definitely more!

Narrow Border Constraints

We are often asked to develop a planting scheme or suggest plants for people that haven’t had their garden designed but have had their garden changed and built by landscapers who’ve ‘left the garden borders ready for planting’. Unfortunately, what we sometimes find are very narrow borders, often just placed around the perimeter of a garden.

Whilst this is by no means a criticism of landscapers, or clients, very narrow borders do make it difficult to create an impactful planting scheme. Sometimes narrow borders are simply due to either landscapers or home owners not realising or understanding the potential for borders to be used to as part of our garden design toolkit to change the whole look and feel of a garden; to bring ambience, for instance, or create surprise, to draw the eye or direct it, to create balance and proportion to the space. They don't appreciate that it is usually far better to have one or two large garden borders than lots of really tiny ones. Then again, it could be that homeowners want a low maintenance scheme and think that a narrow border means lower maintenance, when actually, a very narrow border can make it difficult to achieve lower maintenance status.

No Room for Growth

To illustrate this final point let’s consider an evergreen shrub such as a Choisya – a great, low maintenance shrub that flowers in spring – once you plant it, there is very little to do to it. Whilst there are a number of Choisya varieties available, for this example our shrub will naturally grow to around 1m width once the plant is established. Now imagine a 30-40cm deep border - which isn't unheard of - which means that if we did use it, our poor Choisya would have roughly a third pushed up against a fence and another third hanging over the border edge often getting in the way of a lawn mower resulting in the plant never really looking that attractive and homeowners never being that happy with it. As such, so many garden staples that are lower maintenance just can't be used in narrow borders and if they are, would outgrow the available space in no time at all. Had the borders been wider a lower maintenance scheme can be more effectively achieved.

Sentries in a Row

Picking up on some of our earlier design points too, narrow borders make it impossible to, quite literally, create any sense of depth in a border which, if available, brings with it opportunities to utilise other design principles such as using various textures, sizes and shapes of plants to create drama and visual impact. Instead, in a very narrow border a row of similar shaped plants - or indeed the same plant - might need to be used in the space in order to make the best of the available space and create some sort of cohesion, but the down side of that strategy is that it can often end up looking a bit like peas in a pod or sentries in a row. Even a very contemporary garden – which often uses a more limited planting palette – would still benefit from deeper borders.

Expand the Border

When faced with narrow borders we do usually try to convince a homeowner to 'expand' at least one border if it is at all possible to allow for a richer tapestry of shapes, form and colour in the garden, as well as to bring more balance to the overall feel of the space. And when we design a garden, we will always design it with a more balanced proportion of planted to non-planted areas, utilising deeper borders and the positioning of them to allow us to create a planting scheme that delights the client and wildlife/pollinators too.

So, if you are designing the layout of your own garden do try to consider the size and positions of your borders a little more because where they are concerned, more is most definitely more!

Colour in the Garden - The Benefits of Blue

When it comes to using colour in the garden, did you know that blue is a fantastic colour to use because it's so versatile? It has a recessive quality to it which some people may find ambiguous but it is that exact quality that makes it such a useful colour to use in a garden design. Simply by receding, it can be used to blend other colours together in planting; or to create an illusion of depth be that in planting or within the landscaping materials; it also has an ability to pick up the mood of its neighbouring plants too.

Blue can add depth and space to a garden so it’s a great colour to use at the back of a border to make it seem like the vista is extending even further. There are so many different hues and tones of colours - pale blue for example, can bring lightness, through to intense saturated hues – think of the vibrancy of cornflowers on a hot summer's day! Blue also works really well in shady areas as it picks up the light and is a colour well known for creating calm, restful and contemplative spaces. So, with that in mind blue can offer you opportunities to help obtain the right feel and ambience that you are trying to create.

Some well known blue plants you might think of immediately are Ceanothus, Muscari, Iris and Geraniums but here are a few others that we use in our planting schemes:

Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ is popular for its globes of blue flowers which contrast so well with other plant forms, they stand around 1m in height and 45cm in width so are ideally suited to the middle or back of a sunny border. Echinops are magnets for lots of pollinating insects to your garden too which can only be an added bonus!

Salvia x sylvestris ‘Mainacht’ has indigo blue flowers on spikes that liven up a border in early to mid summer; it stands around 80cm in height and 50cm in width. It looks great in an herbaceous border and is a reliable perennial which will keep coming back year after year making it a good investment. It prefers well drained but moist soil, plant this and you’ll notice pollinating insects visiting your garden!

Salvia 'Blue Spire' (previously classified as Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’) is also known as Russian sage, (see main pic) it has aromatic leaves and upright silvery grey spires with blue tubular shaped flowers. Often mistaken as a perennial it is in fact a shrub and will typically flower in August and September. It can get to around 1.2m in height and 1m width and is happiest in full sun. Plant it near a pathway where you can enjoy its fragrance.

Don’t forget you don’t have to just have blue flowers in the garden to create that blue theme; you can match your gates, doors or even paint obelisks in this colour too which will create dynamism, cohesion and flow right through your garden.

We’ve created a Pinterest board for ‘Blue’ in the garden, take a peek here www.pinterest.com/bluedaisyuk/colour-wheel-blue/

Building to Protect Gardens

Considering having some building work done on your home? If so, now is the perfect time to factor your garden into those considerations too. As Garden Designers who often follow on after builders have left a property, we can find some pretty shocking things. Not all of the time thankfully, but enough to know it’s an industry wide problem for many homeowners so it’s good to get ahead of the game if you can, and some – if not all – of the points below are a good idea to discuss with your builder preferably at quoting stage or at the very least, a pre-build meeting.

Think about your garden/s (both front and back if you have them) and try to be clear about what – if anything - you want to protect. Identify those things right at the outset, before any building work begins – before you’ve even got quotes for building – for instance, garden plants and trees, family space and/or access, elements like patios or water features, etc.

If builders know at the outset (i.e. at the point of being asked to quote) what it is you’re expecting of them you can both agree how things might happen throughout the build, for instance:

Protect gardens from compaction: Often known affectionately as 'tonney bags' bulk bags are heavy! (the clue is in the nickname!), so storing them under trees, right on top of a tree's roots is not a good practice. Tree roots need to breathe so compaction will be detrimental to a tree's health.

Some builders will have their own set of ‘green’ credentials but it’s important to ask to see them and ask everyone who's quoting how they will look after your land whilst transforming your home. Whilst homeowners need to be realistic about impending deliveries and storage requirements for hard landscaping materials, builders need to also know that all of a homeowner’s property is not a free access-for-all and sundries, so compromises will need to be made on both sides. But what you don’t want is to have to spend even more money needlessly dealing with contaminated or compacted soil or waste in your garden or a long list of damaged or dead and dying plants once builders have left (which has, unfortunately been the case, for some of our clients). So agreeing a plan of attack at the outset – and getting it written into contracts – is in both parties’ best interests.

Existing home owners at least have the opportunity to potentially influence what happens in their gardens during a build. We have also designed gardens for new build properties and our experience of these gardens is quite scary; very little viable soil, ground that has been badly compacted and contaminated; buried waste, severe drainage issues and often poor-quality turf laid to cover what’s left are just some of the horrors our landscapers have discovered. At the moment there’s no real legislation for builders to leave the earth in a good condition after they’ve finished so many don’t (though there is a Defra released, non-binding Construction Code of Practice for the Sustainable Use of Soils on Construction Sites); our industry is pushing for codes like this to become binding but we’re not there yet. So, if you’re able to influence things right from the start, we’d highly recommend it!

Plan Now For Your 2025 Garden

Winter border including bright dogwood stems against tree bark.

Get ahead for 2025

The end of one year and start of another often sparks thoughts of both reflection and of possibilities to come. Gardeners, of course, are masters of thinking ahead but typically, we’ve found that that many of our garden design clients are slightly less so! Often those interested in having their garden professionally designed don’t start thinking about it until the weather starts picking up in the spring - at exactly the point that they want to start enjoying their garden in full; little realising that the process from planning through to build and then to planting can actually take months.

Even if you’re not planning on working with a professional garden designer winter is the perfect time to make the most of that ‘end of one year, start of another’ mindset that is ingrained in us all. But by applying it to your garden, which often doesn’t get a look in at this time of year, it allows you to get ahead - hopefully to the point where your garden will be ready for when you want to enjoy it in 2025.

Review your existing garden

So, thinking back, consider what has worked well for you in the garden this year, what were your highlights and, more importantly, what didn’t work so well for you. Try to think about all the different elements that make up your garden - the planting, the hard landscaping and all of the people, pets and wildlife that interact with it and how, then add into the mix the weather and how that affected the use of your garden. Try to think about function and form, for example: did your garden accommodate everything you wanted from it; when you wanted it; does it look how you’d like it to look, when you wanted it to look it.

It can be a good idea to break down your review by months. So, for instance let’s start with January. You might not engage with your garden in January but that may purely be down to the weather so would a garden shelter for instance make your garden more usable in those inclement weather months? Would all weather furniture make a difference along with an outdoor form of heating? Would slip-free surfaces make your January garden life better? If you’re really not interested in being outdoors in January does your garden still give you something beautiful to look out on at that time? More structural elements in your garden perhaps, and probably way more evergreens than you currently have!

Identify improvement areas

Do this for every single month and chances are you’ll end up with a long list of potential improvement areas, and while these ideas aren’t exhaustive, if you can become aware of the gaps or shortcomings of your garden - or in some cases potential dangers that arose during the previous year (for example surfaces may have become slippery in damp weather) - you can then start planning ways to address them for the coming one. And once you know what you need you’ll then be able to consider the methods required to achieving them.

Professional garden designers

Some of those solutions may well be achievable on your own and sometimes some professional help might just be the ticket. For the most part our clients choose to work with a professional garden designer because they know what’s not working for them in terms of their garden but they can’t quite see the wood for the trees in finding the best way forward for them and their budget. They also find comfort in the idea that we can recommend landscapers because we’ve worked with them on previous builds. But either way, when a professional is involved - whether that’s a garden designer, a landscaper, or both, then for most of us that will mean finding someone reliable and that can take time. Then they have to be available, because, let’s face it, the good ones are often booked up for some time but you can begin to see why now might just be the perfect time to be thinking about your 2025 garden.

What the Great British Bake Off Can Teach Us About Garden Design... no, really!

If you’re anything like us you’ve been watching the trials and tribulations of this year’s wannabe star bakers getting to grips with Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood’s stretching, if not seemingly impossible (for us mere mortals), weekly baking challenges in the Great British Bake Off (GBBO).

But watching the initially optimistic bakers’ dozen succumb to the pressures of the signature, technical and showstopper challenges over the last few weeks it’s got us to thinking and as mad as it sounds we think the GBBO has lessons about garden design hidden in its depths.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here’s our take on what the GBBO can teach us about being a garden designer.

  1. Ingredients
    A core component of a successful GBBO challenge is the ingredients of a bake that combine to make a hopefully beautiful whole. It’s exactly the same for garden design – get the ingredients wrong and the results can be disastrous. When putting that ‘recipe’ together, whether for the oven or the garden it pays to think ahead. Creativity and flair make for exciting results but garden designers generally tend not to throw ingredients in on a whim!
  2. Measuring out
    Linked to the above, the measuring out of those ingredients is crucial to a good bake. Getting it wrong will change the chemistry of a bake, and from that everything else follows: taste, structure, consistency, look, etc. Get your measurements wrong in garden design and you’ll potentially be looking at a disproportionate, imbalanced result, not to mention a probable under or over spend on materials and a garden that might not be fit for purpose (paths too narrow, steps too high, patio too small, for instance). It might not feel very creative, but garden designers love tape measures and other measuring instruments. The lesson is clear - take the time to measure things out and the results will look all the better for it.
  3. Timing
    There’s no getting away from it – good baking is all about timing and the GBBO takes that timing and turns it into high pressure for the bakers every week. Garden design is a little less time sensitive for most of us (unless there’s a show garden involved, of course!) but it does still play a key role in a garden design project. Timescales from idea to concept through to build and planting can take months rather than weeks so it’s important for clients to know what’s involved before things even begin to happen; the timing of materials delivery can either help or hinder the progress of a build phase while the seasonal timing of planting up designs can have implications for cost, risk and visual impact, to name a few. Timing also needs to have a degree of flexibility and judgement thrown into the mix too – in GBBO terms that manifests itself as ‘shall I take it out of the oven’, ‘shall I leave it in’, ‘is it cooked’, ‘shall I turn it up, or down or just leave it’; these are all GBBO dilemmas that we see week in week out but similar judgement calls also need to be made in garden design projects too, many led by the weather! The lesson:– have a plan, but be prepared to be flexible.
  4. Creativity
    This one goes without saying – every week in the GBBO kitchen we see creativity in spades. A GBBO winner is never going be short on creativity and neither is a good garden designer. But creativity doesn’t have to be all singing, all dancing and showy, it can be subtle and clever too; hidden in the depths of the flavouring, and so it is with garden design too. A good, creative garden design doesn’t have to smack you in the face! It can creep up on you slowly and win you over with subtle, clever touches of genius; so don’t forget garden design isn’t all about the show stopper!
  5. Confidence
    We see it often in the GBBO – a contestant trying to face down Paul Hollywood’s sceptical blue eyes after they’ve outlined their plans to him. Garden design can sometimes feel like that, especially when presenting a concept! But we’ve also found that non-believers can and often do become converts – the proof, as they say, is often in the pudding. Paul Hollywood is big enough to admit when his scepticism was misplaced and a good dose of confidence also goes a long way in garden design where, unlike the GBBO, the ‘pudding’ will never usually get to be made unless you can win someone over to the ideas first. The lesson for a garden designer - present your ideas with confidence because if you don’t have confidence in your design your client definitely won’t.
  6. Scale & Structure
    Scale and structure crops up time and again in the GBBO – bake 36 identical these; 3 tiers of those; a freestanding this; a centrepiece made out of that – it’s not enough to make a great biscuit for instance in the GBBO: instead you’ve got to make a biscuit scene or structure and week in, week out the bakers generally rise to the challenge. The lessons are clear: a methodical, unflappable approach, calmness in the face of adversity, being able to think on your feet (and occasionally outside the box), adapt plans, avoid distractions, work to a plan and a timetable while remaining technically sound and keeping a sharp eye on the details along with a flair for 'joining things' are all required to win out. These skills need to be the preserve of the garden designer too.
  7. Consistency
    Everyone agrees – you have to be good to even win a place in the GBBO tent but when the competition starts in earnest you have to be consistent too. You don’t have to be star baker week in week out to win either, just consistently good. Consistency counts and it’s a good trait for a garden designer too – you don’t have to be a celebrity garden designer to be a good one.
  8. Expertise
    The GBBO wouldn’t be the success it is without the highly experienced and respected Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith (and Mary Berry before her). It is their expertise that adds the extra pressure onto the contestants which in turn is so engaging to watch. It is their opinion we all hang on to – it is them the contestants want to impress and to be like in the kitchen – it is them that are the safe pair of hands in the collective and proverbial baking kitchen of the nation. The GBBO wouldn’t be the same without that level of expertise – it is a key ingredient of its success – and garden designs benefit from a good dose of expertise too. Sure we can all have a go and do it ourselves – the contestants themselves are testimony to that for the most part in baking terms, but disasters do happen, quite often, and you can’t help thinking that if Paul, or Prue (or Mary) were baking x, y or z, it would be a pretty disaster-free affair. The GBBO lesson for being a garden designer: know your stuff.
  9. Humour
    GBBO's sidekicks Noel Fielding and Alison Hammond (along with Sandi Toksvig, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins previously) aren’t to everyone’s taste but their contribution to the success of GBBO with their silly, easy brand of humour and tongue in cheek innuendos is indisputable. Their humour is the constant thread throughout the GBBO; it is the tension reliever, the stress buster and sometimes even the disaster averter. And while it’s not a requirement for a garden designer, the lessons of the GBBO apply here too – however plans go awry, and for whatever reason, hang on to your humour!
  10. Taste test
    There’s no getting away from it, taste matters in the GBBO tent and so it is with garden design too. Whether you’re baking for Paul and Prue or your family; or designing a garden for a client the desired outcomes are the same: the taster has to love the result. Hopefully the other lessons learned will contribute to a positive outcome but one of the tricks in this regard is to keep the particular taster in mind while applying those lessons. Taste is subjective after all, and there is no accounting for it as the old adage says, so it is important to cater for a specific taster (client) when thinking about garden design – it is that bespoke application of skill and knowledge that will ensure success.

So there you have it, 10 lessons that GBBO can teach us about being a garden designer. A stretch? Maybe… but silliness aside, the lessons still apply!!

The Bare Root to Border Planting Success

Acer in autumn

Evaluate your border planting

It’s a perfect time of year to evaluate your borders, and especially some of the more structural garden planting in your gardens because with bare root plant season upon us it’s a great opportunity to add some specimen plants to your borders for a much more affordable price.

Bare root plants are typically grown in a field (i.e. open ground) and are then dug up when they’re dormant, the soil removed from them, and then sold as bare root plants.  So, bare root plant season in the UK, generally runs from November through to March, making your winter garden the perfect time and place to change, create or add to your garden planting plans.    

Bare root plants offer savings

Because bare root plants aren’t containerised, they are often a lot more affordable than their potted peers which means that you can generally buy bigger, or more, plants; essentially making your budget work harder for you.  So, this is a great way to buy plants generally, but trees and hedging plants especially.

With no (usually) plastic pots to dispose of, bare root plants are also considered to be a much more sustainable and environmentally friendly choice for purchasing plants.  And as long as they are planted correctly, bare root plants are thought to establish much faster than planted container plants too and are arguably less likely to fail because they’re being planted when dormant; which also means, that less water is required than for plants that are planted in full bloom during the summer months! 

As garden designers bare root plants are a no brainer for us but for many of our clients as the weather changes, their minds turn away from their gardens in autumn and winter, often not returning to them until the weather picks up again in the spring.  Unfortunately, at this time, bare root season has ended, and with it the opportunity to avail our clients of some serious savings on plants, since most of our clients don’t want to wait until the following winter for their planting.  If this is you, it might be worth evaluating your borders now in order to make some savings on plant costs before bare root season ends.

Review and plan

We can help, of course, and our plant prices are extremely competitive, but to do it yourself look at the plants you already have and consider whether they are working together or against each other; is the border missing anything like colour or height or seasonal interest; is there enough variety of forms and textures of plants; is there a good mix of shrubs, perennials, trees, groundcover, etc; is there enough foliage, or too much foliage, too many flowers or not enough; are there any gaps that need filling, or is everything congested and could do with cutting back or dividing or thinning; does the border look and feel how you would like it to, does it fit with the rest of your garden?

Make a note of everything you’ve observed along with the aspect, size and shape of the border and then try to create a plan of it as you would like it to be. If you can draw your border and the general sizes of your existing plants to scale it will help you visualise the sizes and positions of any additional plants you may need. If you’re creating a new border the same principle applies, although obviously a lot more plants will be included on your list.

When choosing plants make sure they will work with the existing plants you have as well as the sunlight levels, space, soil type and pH that will be available to them in your border.  If you can start thinking about it now, you might well be able to make the most of bare root season too so not only could you make some savings on plant costs, but your newly spruced up border will be ready and waiting for those first rays of spring sunshine!  Win-win all round!

Don't forget where we are if you need help with your garden border planting, bare root season or otherwise! Contact us to find out more.

Cool Gardens - the pleasure of off-peak

Gardeners and garden designers often talk about extending the season of interest in the garden and for the most part we’re usually referring to plants – great plants for winter interest or autumn colour, for instance, but this time around I thought we’d look at ways of making the garden a lovely place to be beyond those balmy summer days. We’ve actually met people that don’t venture into their gardens at all from the point that the temperatures drop in the autumn until it rises again with those first sunny days of springtime, and for us, that’s way too long to be avoiding your garden! So, here are our top 4 things to think about, that if tackled, might just entice you back out into your autumn, winter and early spring garden again…

Comfort

We all love a bit of comfort but if we’re going to enjoy some throughout the cooler, wetter months then our comfort needs to be practical. Opt for furniture that can be left out in all weathers and/or design in some incidental, all weather sitting stops so that finding somewhere to sit doesn’t become a job in itself. For extra comfort choose cushions that are covered in weather proof fabrics and/or store them either in the seats that they belong to or in close proximity to them. The trick is to make the act of sitting comfortably as quick and easy as possible – if we have to work too hard at it we tend not to do it at all…

Shelter

If you have the room for one, a permanent structure will lend itself better for all year use; think gazebo type – with a roof and open sides – like in our image of Kew, here (although most domestic gardens opt for timber alternatives) - but shelter can be provided in many ways. The rain shadow of evergreen trees for instance may be all you need or the windbreak afforded by some dense border planting can make a cosy, inviting corner; even the meeting point of two fences with a bit of strategic planting can make an inviting sheltered spot. Suit the shelter to your style of garden and its environment and position it for optimal benefit and use. Anchor it by planting around it and leading pathways to it and if you’re designing your garden get that structure into your plan first so that it beds into your overall design.

Warmth

Of course for off-peak garden visitation we recommend wrapping up warm before you set foot outside of the house but to make a real event of it warmth is where it’s at! South facing walls will be naturally warmer than other aspects but for extra oomph you can’t beat a fire and for the real thing there’s a dizzying array of possibilities from corten steel fire pits to brick built outdoor fireplaces and clay or metal chimineas and log burners to suit any style. Fire pits look brilliant but if your site is even vaguely windy chimineas and fireplaces deal with smoke much more effectively. Check the eco-standards of wood burning options before buying though; the Government is cracking down on them! If you love flames but don’t want everything that goes with burning a real fire consider gel or bioethanol fires and if you just want heat without the flames gas and electric patio heaters come in many shapes and sizes including floor standing, ceiling rigged and table topping (electric heaters are generally more versatile and eco friendly than gas).

Ambience

Ambience is what will make your outdoor space one that you want to spend time in. Shelter, comfort, warmth all contribute to the character and atmosphere of a place but add lights, planting, views (whether near or far) and other decorative elements to your off-peak garden and it can be transformed into a truly magical place. Sipping a hot drink, wrapped up and warm in the quiet of a frosty winter morning is just lovely – we highly recommend it!

5 reasons to create a fabulous front garden

In all of the years we’ve been designing gardens we’re rarely asked to do anything with a front garden. Not many of us have a frontage like Kiftsgate, seen here in our image, but most of us do seem to think long and hard about what we want from our back gardens but rarely approach our front gardens with the same level of gusto – or indeed with any level of gusto to be fair – which is a shame.

When we ask clients what they want from their back gardens the lists we get back are usually long and multi-faceted but ask somebody what they want from their front garden and most people tend to lean towards the ‘somewhere to park the car’ and ‘somewhere to hide the bins’ approach, and don’t take their thoughts any further. But why stop there? We may not want to sit out and entertain in the front garden but a fabulous front garden is in reach of anyone who has one and in this blog we’re going to try to convince you why it’s worth going beyond the total paving approach to our front gardens and opting instead for a beautiful, planted but still functional space.

So, in no particular order here are our top 5 reasons to create a fabulous front garden…

This list isn’t exhaustive but when so many positive consequences can come from reconsidering and treating your front garden as a garden rather than a car park and bin store why wouldn’t you opt for a fabulous front garden?