…and a sneak preview of my first full garden redesign!

The sun is shining and it feels like spring! For now! The most important thing to do of course is just enjoy this special time of year. Soak up the sun and top up your Vitamin D. It feels so good after a long and exceptionally grey winter.

I have been thinking a lot about planting schemes lately, mainly other people’s gardens rather than my own. This year I am fully launching my new garden design business, exciting and challenging!

For those of you who are more experienced gardeners – you will know how a bit of planning goes a long way to creating a great garden. And for those who are relatively new to gardening, I hope you find these quick tips helpful.

Plan your planting

As you grab a few warm rays of sun (I hope it’s shining where you are), have a think about your planting and any areas you want to improve. Now’s a good time to plan additions but before you rush off to buy a trolley-full of plants that look tempting at the garden centre or on a website, remember the golden rules:

Right plant right place: it always pays to research first and buy later (though I know we’ve all done it the other way round at times!). So, if you have an area in mind, perhaps a shady dry spot under trees, research plants that cope in dry shade, draw up a list and only then go to the garden centre!

Less is more: fewer varieties of the same plants, repeated or in groups, always looks better than individual specimens dotted around.

Go for groups: for perennials, massing them in groups of 5,7 or 9 will give the best impact. In this design I recently created for a courtyard garden, you can see how I have both repeated groups of plants and planted in good numbers. This not only looks good but also gives a sort of rhythm to your garden, adding to its coherence and atmosphere.

PS You’ll have to wait a while to see before and after picks for this design; my clients have to do work on their roof before they can start on the garden. The idea was to create a cosy courtyard garden, surrounded by lush planting, and to improve the views looking out from the house towards the garden (currently a dull lawn). I would love to see this design come to fruition!

Choose your colour scheme: colour is a huge topic and I will probably come back to this one in a future post. The key thing is to have a colour scheme in mind. And then stick to it! Harder than it sounds. I am always breaking this rule, but grudgingly admit that restraint pays off and looks great.

You can create different moods with your colour choices. Soft pastels are calming whereas hotter vibrant colours really energise the mood. Just go with whatever feels good for you!

So tell me what your plans are for your garden, are you planning any changes?

What’s in a name?

PPS I’d also love to get your opinion on the name for my garden design business. Been mulling this for a while now. So far I have been using Sel Calderbank Garden Design. But am thinking of changing it to Garden Design by Selwa. More personal and friendly somehow. What do you think?