Looking for plants for your garden but don’t know where to start?

I get asked this a lot when people are just at the begging stages of thinking about what plants to put in their garden. Its a mine field as there are many different types of plants with different labels added to them, its so confusing if you haven’t been involved with gardening before. Many people just don’t know where to start so I’m going to try to write some guidence that will help if you are thinking about adding plants to your garden or reviving an old unloved garden.

Lets start where I would begin!

Shrubs

In my mind shrubs are the backbone of any garden, they are going to give your garden all year round shape and colour. However you must be aware that some shrubs can grow very big quite quickly so before you take the plunge and plant it in your garden be sure that you know what you are buying and how to care for it correctly as digging them out is no easy task. You may need to put in a little time and effort each year to pruning your shrubs, this will include homework about the right time and correct method to prune or trim. Shrubs are probably one of the most important purchases you can make for your garden so make sure you get the right ones for you. The basic definition of a shrub is a woody plant which has several stems arising from the base, lacking a single trunk. They can be evergreen (has leaves on all year round) or deciduous (leaves fall off in the autumn and grow back in the spring). If I only ask one thing of you it is not to fall into the trap of thinking that you only want evergreen plants in your garden. Whilst they have a place there are some truly spectacular and really important plants that you should consider. Also some of the plants that we use for winter interest is because they loose their leaves and show the truly dazzling colour or form of the stems themselves.

Herbaceous/Perennials/Cottage Garden

These are the next set of plants that you should look for. As you can see by the title they can be described as many different things but generally (not always) die back completely into the soil for winter only to reappear with vigour in the late spring. They can provide a great variety of colour and shape to a garden as well as providing food and shelter for wildlife. They can take a little more work as every few years you may need to dig them out and divide them. Once a year in late autumn or early spring you will need to take away the old and dead stems of the herbaceous plants to make way for next years growth. I prefer do this in the spring as it allows plenty of places for wildlife to over winter. It may also help you if you don’t remember which were your herbaceous and which were your shrubs as by spring shrubs should show signs of sending leaves from the stems and herbaceous from the base. It could be a disaster if you were to cut your shrubs down the ground as not all them will recover from this treatment. At this point I feel like I should mention that not all herbaceous plants are hardy (have the ability to withstand cold temperatures) some are half hardy (may survive a warm winter) other are tender (they will come back next year but must be protected from frosts). Tender plants are best kept in pots and moved into a garage or shed during winter time. Plants that may fall into this category are Dahlias, some Fuchsias and many tropical style plants but check the label, google or join a specialist Facebook group.

Bulbs

There are many bulbs available that can add a fantastic splash of colour to your garden as well as providing food for pollinating insects early in the year when there is not much else in flower. We all know of the traditional daffodil and I do appreciate that yellow is not everyone’s favourite colour. I am pleased to say there are many bulbs that can give many other colours, textures and shapes, such as tulips which have come a long way over the years and there are now many really fashionable tulips available to suit all garden types. One note here though, not all tulips will come back again so look for plants that have a good chance of ‘Naturalising’ or are described as perennial as it can be an expensive mistake if you were expecting them to come back year after year when they don’t. Another thing to factor with bulbs is that they don’t like to sit in wet soil, so if your garden is wet all year they may not enjoy that and may rot before they have chance to grow. With that said there are many Iris’s that will love these conditions and will also provide early colour. The final bulb I’m going to mention are Alliums. Some flower in mid/late spring and others in the height of summer but one thing they all do is add great shape, form and surprise to any garden. The latest trend is to create a bulb lasagne where you plant a variety of bulbs in a pot at different levels these then flower at different times of the year. I have never tried it but it looks like a great idea for those who don’t have a garden love colour but don’t want to be planting up pots all year.

I could be here all day listing the bulbs you could and should get but if you like the idea you’ll have to do a little digging around on the internet yourself (did you see what I did there?).

One last catch with bulbs, you can’t buy them all year round, they need to be planted in late autumn so are usually available between October and November in bulb form but can occasionally be purchased as plants during their growing season.

Grasses

No garden is complete without at least one grass. and I don’t mean the typical green flat lawn that we are all used too. I mean tall moving grass that has fabulous flower/seed heads in the autumn and will stand tall throughout the winter providing structure movement and hibernating spots for wildlife. Be brave and get a wonderful tall grass, a fantastic structured Calamagrosis or a colourful Miscanthus, not feeling so brave or don’t have a big garden then try Stipa tenuissima, it is only 60cm tall and will provide the same feel but take up a lot less space. Once again do your research as some grasses grow wide and you don’t want to have to try to dig out a grass that has become invasive or grown to wide for your garden. If in doubt keep it in a pot and place the pot in your border. Many of these grasses don’t grow easily from seed so you don’t need to worry about that too much. But what ever you do, don’t ever, ever be tempted to plant a bamboo in the ground. It will run underground and spread wider than you can imagine and come up in cracks and even concrete if it gets big enough. If I learnt one thing working at Chester Zoo it is that one day Bamboo will take over the earth (along with the cockroaches). There is one reason why it is considered the most sustainable wood on the planet and that is its ability to grow quickly, very quickly.

Annuals

Annuals are one of the cheaper type of plants you can buy, this is why so many new gardeners fall into the trap of buying only these for their garden to find that they need replacing every year therefore making gardening feel like its hard work and expensive. Annuals definitely have a place in a garden and have in the past been very popular with various planting schemes. They grow from seed to flower in a very short period of time, usually only taking from March to July to be fully grown and in bloom. Many will set seed which is highly beneficial to our pollinators as they have lots of lovely nectar, they will also provide some of the most spectacular colour in your garden. Annuals can be used in pots and hanging baskets to provide a real splash of colour that cannot be beaten. So many of our native wild flowers are annulals and if you have space for a wild flower meadow you should plant one (This is a huge subject on it’s own) it could be one of the best things we can do to help restore the balance of nature.

Cost of creating a garden

Now I’m not going to lie and say that creating a garden is easy or can be done on the cheep. Creating a garden is expensive and time consuming but once it is complete it is such a pleasure to watch the seasons pass. Plants take time and care to grow and the longer they take to grow the more care they needed and the more they cost to produce. So a seed that comes to its full size in one year costs a lot less than a perennial that will take 3 - 5 years to be mature or a shrub that may take 4 -7 years to be at a size that will establish in the ground.

So when creating your garden buy wisely. If you are on a tight budget accept that you may need to wait to have the full and glorious garden you desire or speak to your friends and family if they already have a lot of plants maybe you can offer to help them to split their herbaceous plants in the spring. This will help them to have plants that will grow with extra vigour and take up less space and provide you with some free plants for your garden. Its is also a very sustainable and community driven way to garden.

Take some time to do your research take notes or photos of the plants you especially like and find out what they are and seek them out specifically. Spend some time on Pinterest looking a different styles of gardens and find out what plants go into that style of garden. Spend some time visiting professionally cared for and matured gardens and see what some of the plants look like when they are fully grown. talk to the gardeners who tend those gardens and ask at plant nurseries, plant fairs and garden centres about how to care for the plants you especially like.

Gardens are not something that should be built in a day, they should be a labour of love and a promise to a better future for yourself and the creatures that will rely upon your creation.

Garden with wildlife in mind

If you have the opportunity or necessity to redo an old or tired garden, spend some time looking at the plants that the wildlife use. For example, where do the birds land or nest, where are the pollinators hovering and taking food in the spring autumn and winter season? Trust me when I say this that birds, insects, mammals and reptiles all remember where good sources of food and shelter are and if they were to head to your garden for either and it be gone it could be the difference between life and death for them so garden with care and consideration.

Sometimes there is nothing that can be done and the site needs to be cleared before work can begin, but where possible replace one beneficial plant for another beneficial plant either in the same space or nearby we should do this and I would go as far as to say we have a moral responsibility to do this. We are custodians of nature and we should do our best to work with it and help it to thrive. This is why I love plants so much. If we only care for the trees and the plants wildlife all over the world will thrive. If we destroy and flatten the earth in order to own every corner, wildlife will not survive.

If you would like some help and advice in your own garden why not treat yourself to a one to one with Jo!

She has been a keen wildlife gardener for many years and has experience with many different styles of gardening.