The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Own Dream Garden

Welcome to the only post you will ever need to design your own dream garden. This guide will give you so many garden planning ideas, that creating your own garden will be easy peasy!

Garden design secret🤐 – everyone can design a Garden

I absolutely believe that everyone can have a garden, irrespective of size of space. In fact, even homes with no outside space can have an interior garden of some kind. I am also absolutely convinced that anyone can design a garden. Moreover, have a read of my post Passion, obsession and taking the website plunge, as this describes my journey into gardening and proves that anyone can do it for any reason.

Over the years, I have read so many garden design books, websites and ‘garden design idea’ posts, that even though I am not a qualified garden designer, I have a pretty good idea where to start. I do have a diploma in interior design though (I know, impressive eh?), and really what is a garden than just an extension of the home?

One of my favourite books is ‘RHS Encyclopedia of Garden Design’ by Chris Young (Editor-in-chief). Seriously, I love that book. This post is inspired in part, by the things I learnt from it, coupled with all my years of research. This is how all my garden planning ideas now come into being, and I use the same methods for in the home too.

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“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Chapter 1️⃣ Garden Planning Ideas – the Secret to Garden Design

Before you start designing your landscaping and planting schemes, there are three things which must be given serious thought. If you really consider them, you will generate a plethora of garden planning ideas and end up with the garden of your dreams.

Purpose, feeling and time, are the three essential things you really need to think about before you make any plans. They will underpin your project and you can use them to create so many gardening planning ideas to use yourself, or you could even brief a garden designer if you so choose.

Trust me, it will save you time, effort and money, because the more you think about these points, the more you will get excited about your project. And then I have every confidence that this will result in something you really love.

Garden Design Secret🥇- Purpose. This is all about you darling!

For many people who don’t have a clue where to even start, we are going to begin with the gold medal of the garden design secrets: YOU! Firstly, ask yourself what you want to do in your garden, what is the purpose of it? For example, it might be that you want a relaxing space to sit in after work, or that you want to enjoy a scented, scenic walk along the pathway from your gate to your front door. Furthermore, perhaps you want to have an indoor space where you can sit quietly, surrounded by plants whilst you’re having your morning coffee.

This is the key – generate so many garden planning ideas that you are spoilt for choice! Don’t forget there are a plethora of things you can do in even a small garden that you shouldn’t limit yourself to one or two ideas either. Be greedy! You really can have it all and you will get the most joy out of your green space when you create something you want. As well as your own thoughts, if you head over to my Pinterest profile you will find lots more garden design ideas to inspire you.

Garden Design Secret🥈- Feelings. I wasn’t joking when I said this is all about you!

Garden Design Secret🥉- Time. Did I mention that it is all about you?

The three foundational design tips really do make a difference to your end result, so much so, I use them to start every single project I do! They can be used for literally everything. From garden design, both small and large spaces to interior design when redecorating a room. They can even be used for planning and cooking meals!

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Chapter 2️⃣ Garden Planning Ideas, Awesome Site Assessment

Right, so you now know what you want to use your garden for, how you want it to make you feel, and how much time you have to maintain it. So in this chapter we are going to progress onto the space itself and why site assessment is so important. Then, we move on to the ‘how’, which looks at assessment, aspect and creative influence. As a result you will be one step closer to the garden of your dreams.

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“To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow”

Audrey Hepburn

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🥇 Great site assessment = great garden design.

The first point I want to talk about is how you assess your space. And assess you must, because a good garden design relies on you knowing what you’re working with. Moreover, there really is no right or wrong way of doing this, or any particular order to it. But it is important that you do take the time to do it. 

So, get yourself something to write on, whether that is good old fashioned pen and paper or something electronic, and let’s get going! Excited yet?

Measure

Firstly, awesome site assessment starts with knowing what size space you are working with. Thus, you need to measure the area you are looking to transform. Now, this can be your whole garden, or it can be just the piece of space you are doing something with. For example, I have a reasonably large garden, and I specifically want different areas. These are also known as garden rooms. So my preference is to tackle each ‘room’ one at a time so I don’t get overwhelmed.

Because you are going to plan what is going in the garden and where, measurements of width and length are really necessary. Then you will be able to work out how much of a particular material or how many plants are needed for your design.  

📝 Once you have measured your garden, draw it as close to scale as you can. If you can, duplicate it a few times so you have some copies to play with.

Stop and stare

Secondly, I want you to stare at your garden. Now I happen to be an expert at this 😆! So just go sit in it and really look at what you have got.

Start with the layout

Ask yourself questions. For example, what shape is your space? And does it have a slope? Where would you like to sit in your garden? And do you need to be able to see your garden when you are in your house? You get the picture.

Look at existing structures and planting

Next, look at existing structures and planting. Firstly, is there anything you need or want to keep, such as a shed. Whilst you may not like your shed, you can move it, or disguise it within your design. Then look at your existing plants. Have you got any plants you really like? In which case are they in the right place and are thriving? Because if they are not, you should move them so they give you the displays you want.

Open your senses to the sounds and smells

Finally let’s go all Zen! You will be amazed at what you can discover. This is what makes your site assessment truly awesome. For example, what can you hear in your garden? Do you need to try and block out the sound? Because this will need to be factored into your plan. Equally, are you overlooked and would like a bit more privacy? If so, you will need to think about how you are going to shield your neighbours view. 

So. Many. Questions. And of course, the more questions you ask yourself the more garden planning ideas you will create. These questions are imperative for proper planning. And we all know that proper planning prevents poor performance!

📝 Start to draw on your plan any permanent structures such as sheds, patios or trees. Note where you might want to have height to prevent being overlooked, or plants that you want to keep.

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🥈Aspect – site assessment’s most important garden design secret!

So the next point that you really need to get your head around is which direction your garden faces. This is probably the crux of site assessment. Now, when I first started gardening I wasn’t really bothered about this little point. Yep, I hear some of the more experienced gardeners sniggering, and I don’t blame you! However, it is vital knowledge for a number of reasons, and this is why is it one of the most important design principles.

Firstly, It doesn’t matter how amazing your garden design is, if you don’t put your plants in the right places they probably won’t do very well. And if they die (yes I have murdered my plants many, many times), you will be wasting time, effort and money. 

Secondly, it is also important to know the aspect to make the most of what you want to do in your garden. For example, if your seating area is in full sun, you may get too hot. Equally, if its always in the shade, you probably won’t want to sit there very long, if at all! 

What is aspect?

So, when gardeners talk about aspect, they are talking about which direction the garden faces. This is relevant as it dictates where the garden gets sunlight at certain times of the day. The easiest way of working out the aspect, is by using the compass app on your phone and standing in your garden with your back to your house. Equally, whether you are working out your front or back garden aspect, it is the same methodology. So, if your compass points north, then you have a north facing garden. And if it points south, you have a south facing garden and so on, and so on. 

However, the thing to remember with any aspect, is that structures such as your house, shed, or even fencing can affect where the sun hits your garden. For example, you may have a south facing garden which predominately gets the sun most of the day. But at the east and west sides of the garden, if you have tall fences, they will cast shade at either ends of the day.

📝 Make sure you record where the garden is in sun and shade throughout the day. This will be worth its weight in gold when it comes to the fun bits of garden patterns and planting.

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🥉Creative influence – another one of my design secrets is to find your design muse!

The final point I want I want to discuss with you here, is inspiration. And this is where I really get all my garden planning ideas from. Now I love this part of the design process. I could sit all day every day just researching gardens. Moreover, unless you are exceptionally talented or creative (I’m not) then the best way of nailing down what you want your garden to look like is to get inspiration from others. 

How do I find inspo?

I do this by research. Firstly, I love books and I would live in a library if I could. Consequently, I have a number of books that are just photographs of various gardens around the world and I get a lot of my garden planning ideas from just this. Hence, I quite often just sit with one of them on my lap whilst I am watching TV and leaf through the pages, because I find that when you really look at the images, you see different things every time! 

My second favourite source of inspiration is social media. I love Instagram. But one of my favourite inspiration secrets is Pinterest. This is because there are so many different garden planning ideas here that you can get lost in them. So, to give you an idea of how I use both these medium, have a look at my Instagram account click here and for my Pinterest account click here. Providing that you follow my pointers, by the time you get to your research phase, you will already have an idea of what you want.

How to use inspiration in your site assessment

An example of how I use inspiration, is when I wanted part of my garden to be Japanese themed. Now, I especially wanted a walkway. Thus, I got a bit carried away and researched Japanese walkways, for many, many hours🫣. Whilst I was doing that, I came across other posts from which I took inspiration and ended up with a mixture of garden planning ideas. As a result, I formed a coherent garden design plan from an amalgamation of them all. Nearly all of my gardening exploits have come from ideas I have found this way. 

📝You can now create a design board. Either on Pinterest (my favourite) or you can go old skool and use pen, paper and pritt-stick! To give you a flying start, click here for examples of mood/design boards on Pinterest.

The first picture above is one I took when in Japan and it gave me inspiration for my own Japanese garden. The second picture is my garden, and was taken just after I had landscaped it. Finally, the third picture is what it looks like now.

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So by now, you will have started to gather a nice pot of garden planning ideas and will know exactly what you want from your garden, as you will have assessed what you already have, and generated some pretty good ideas of how you are going to achieve it. Therefore, you are now ready to move on to the next part of the process – the garden layout. 

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Chapter3️⃣ Garden Planning Ideas – The Logical Layout

This chapter is all about the importance of ensuring a logical layout.  I say logical, because I have lost count of the amount of times I have had to redesign my garden due to not thinking things through well enough.

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“The most lasting and pure gladness comes to me from my gardens”

Lillie Langtry

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Why is a logical layout important in garden design?

Because your garden must be practical as well as beautiful of course, and a logical layout is crucial this. So, how you get from your house to the areas in the garden you use the most, and how you make the most of that space, is one of the key’s to having a great garden. 

Personally, I find it useful to think about the layout as a map. Firstly, you need your main paths (motorways) to get you quickly to the areas you need to access the most. Then you need your footpaths or scenic routes (B roads), to allow you appreciate the space you are moving through. Next, you can add little seating areas (viewing points), small ponds (waterways) or maybe even an outdoor kitchen (coffee shop!).

Once you have these things, add the scenery. Do you want to travel though a small wood? Then put a few trees and woodland plants in your garden. Maybe you would you like to visit the beach? Then add a sand pit for your children and surround it by coastal plants. Perhaps you would you like to stroll through a meadow? Then plant some wildflowers in a patch of unused ground and watch how they transform it.

Do you see how you are creating more garden planning ideas by thinking about your garden and how you move about in that space a bit differently?

Whatever you would like in your garden, a practical, logical layout is the key. So how do we achieve a logical layout? By following the 3 tips below of course!

🥇 Work out your motorway

I have read a number of design books and most of them have advised considering the outline of your garden before you plan the routes around it. I have done this on a number of occasions, but it never quite worked out that well for me. As a result, I now plan the primary route(s) first, that is the one(s) that you will use the most. And I go for practicality, which includes things like speed of getting from A to B, and width of pathway.

📝 So get your plans out and start sketching where your garden motorway is going to be!

Learn from my experiments, aka my mistakes! So, in my garden, I need to get from my back door to the bottom of the garden where my greenhouse is. When I originally planned my garden, I didn’t take this into account and built a more scenic route because I wanted to take the time to walk through my garden.  

Practically, this was a daft decision because it then became quite a long way between the two points. And then I got fed up with how long it used to take me, so I ended up cutting across the flower beds 🥴.  I eventually had to redesign the path. Not only did this cost me time and money, it cost me significant effort as I had to change most of the design. Honestly 🙄.

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🥈 Garden pattern

Once you have your most important route, you are now ready to work out what the layout of your garden will be.

So, you already you know what you want to use your garden for because we worked that out in chapter 1 To recap that would probably be things like entertaining, or somewhere for the kids to play. Thus, you would need structure, such as seating, a playing area or even an outdoor kitchen.

And, you also already know where the best places for those things will be, because you worked that out in chapter 2. To recap that means you know the right places for your plants, whether they can survive in sun or shade. You also know where you may want some shelter, or some taller plants or structures to give you some privacy in your garden as an example.

As a result, you now know what your requirements are, so you can use them to work out your garden pattern. I find it useful to think if each element as a building block, and assign each block a shape.

Making your pattern

Personally, I find the best way to do this is to keep it simple. Your blocks can be formal such as squares or circles, or they can be informal and irregular. Equally, you can use just one shape and fit everything in it, or you can it multiple times. Thus, you can mix and match shapes so you come up with the design you really like.  

There are so many ways you can do this you can really let your creative side loose! 

📝 The benefit of having several copies of your basic plan is that you can draw multiple versions of your garden pattern and then choose which one you like the best. Don’t forget to include some of the inspo you found during the research phase. Click here for inspiration from my Pinterest page.

For example, these three photos, I think, demonstrate a great use of shapes. I took them when at the potager garden in Villandry, France. A potager garden is effectively a veg patch that has been designed to look pretty. And don’t these gardens look soooooo pretty? (Ps. I am creating my own potager garden, you follow my progress here).

These photos show how the designers have used a myriad of shapes to create their look. They have used squares and rectangles in lovely patterns which are similar to each other so they compliment, yet are so different. I love the symmetry of them. I especially like the central square in the centre of each little garden and the four main ‘highways’ that lead to it.

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🥉Work out the scenic routes and the scenery

Once you have your highway, and your basic pattern, you can now think about the scenic routes. These are the footpaths which connect the spaces in your garden. Also, you can consider where you want the scenery to be. By this I mean where are you going to put your plants? You may want flowerbeds but you may also want a few trees. By the way, I don’t think having a smaller garden precludes you from either of these things. In fact, the right tree makes a small garden look bigger.

At this point you are not working out what plants you want, as that is a planting plan and comes later. Now, you’re just working out where you want to see plants in your garden. But the beauty of any garden is that you don’t necessarily need to have plants in the ground. You can do some amazing things with plants in pots and they are so versatile you can change them with the seasons. So if you have a lot of hard landscaping i.e. concrete/patio etc, that doesn’t stop you from having a lush garden.

This chapter has hopefully helped explain why a logical garden layout is so important. It really doesn’t matter the order in which you plan your layout, just as long has you bear in mind the points above when generating your garden planning ideas. Just have a go!

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Chapter 4️⃣ Garden Planning Ideas – Embellishment

This chapter is about how we turn your garden from being nice, into something special through embellishment. There are so many ways to do this, it can be overwhelming. So, I have tried to simplify the process for those of us who are not professional garden designers, or who don’t have the money to hire one. This is also for those of you who may not have the time to dedicate hours and hours to planning!

This chapter will give you my top three embellishments, which I think will give you loads of garden planning ideas and really make a difference to your garden.

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“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments”

Janet Kilburn Phillips

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🥇Height, the ultimate embellishment

This may seem an odd embellishment but actually having things in your garden which alter your eyeline can have a profound effect. It can make a small garden look bigger, it can shield you from prying eyes and it can make you feel enveloped and safe. 

You can add height a number of ways.

Man-made Structure

You can add a pergola or archway. Include artwork, such as statues. Manufactured screens are a great way of concealing or dividing your space, which then creates a completely different feel. These screens come in such variety that you can tailor them to your garden design. There are organic screens like bamboo or willow, as well as metal or plastic screens.

Natural structure

Without getting all demanding, you must add some trees. I am a big fan of trees. There are trees for any size garden, in all sorts of shapes, colours and height so you are spoilt for choice. You will be amazed at the difference it will made to your design.

You can also use the height you already have in your garden but camouflage it. Grow climbing plants up your fence or around an archway. Or add a tall obelisk and grow a plant up that.

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🥈Embellishment through Vistas

When I first started reading garden design books, I kept seeing the word vista. To me, vista was a bit of a flouncy word and something that was only seen in stately gardens or homes with huge green spaces. But actually that is not true. A vista is just scenery. It can be a glimpse of a thing that draws you towards it. Or a full on view of a beautiful flower scene that you must just go and smell. The reason I encourage adding vistas when you are thinking about garden planning ideas, is because they give you something to look at in your garden. They make you curious and encourage you to explore the space. 

You can add vistas in a number of ways:

Use different objects

Some of the best garden planning ideas I have seen have included non organic items such as art work or random things, into the design. You can display them like you would in your home. One of my absolute favourite things to include in my garden is mirrors. They make you feel like your garden is bigger and if you get one which looks like a window, it gives the optical illusion that you are peering into another place entirely.   

Add a focal point

Steal the view

In general, most gardens will be surrounded by something else that you can see from your garden. If you’re lucky, this may be a view you can incorporate into your own garden. Does your neighbour have any trees? If you can see them from your garden, you could design your space to make it look like the tree is in your garden by covering your fence or wall in greenery for example. By designing your garden to incorporate the views outside your space, you can create the illusion that your garden is bigger. 

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🥉Embellishment through Texture, sound and light

The last embellishment I want to talk about is texture. Texture is a really good way of both connecting and separating your garden. You can use the same textures throughout your design to bring everything together and create a nice flow. You can create many garden design ideas through adding texture, and you can do it in a number of ways:

Materials

Firstly, you can use the same material to join things up. E.g. you could use the same paving stones to create your patio as you do your main path. You could use the same garden bench in a few different areas of your garden. For edging, use the same material such as a garden sleeper, or some bricks. This way, even if the areas in your garden are used for different things, they are still cohesive and allow a visual flow between each space.

However, you may want to completely separate your space, in which case you can use different materials in different areas. Perhaps a patio in one part of the garden and a deck in the other.

Whilst, this post is not about planting, it would be remiss of me to point out that plants are material also. You can carry on the trend by using the same plants dotted around your garden. Or create little garden rooms where the planting and material are completely different so you feel like you are going from one room to another as you walk around your garden. 

Water

Secondly, I want to talk about water. Water brings sound, light and wildlife. In your garden, water is a must and personally, I don’t think any garden is complete without it. So many garden planning ideas start with a little pond, or a container with water and plants because they will both do wonders for your garden and your inner peace! Water will bring you sound. There is nothing better than listening to the gentle trickling of a small pond to create a serene, zen feel in your garden.

Of course, you can adapt the sound however you choose, and even use it to camouflage other noises. If you can’t get electricity into your garden, you can use solar pumps or even have no sound at all. A wildlife pond will sit silently in your garden and will quietly serve insects, birds and nature. 

Lighting

Lastly, you must add lighting to your garden, because not only is it practical and will allow you to see in the dark, it is great at altering the feel of your space. Again, there are so many things you can do with it, and like water, if you have no electricity you can use solar lights. I have some wired in lights out the house, but the majority of my garden lighting is solar. Not only is it cheaper, but you can move it around and change it whenever you feel like it.

You use lighting to be really creative with your garden planning ideas. For example, spotlights can showcase your favourite plant, up-lighters can enhance the branches of a tree, or down-lighters can create funky looking shadows. Fairy lights around a tree trunk, or draped over a fence will create an ethereal look. Seriously, do some research, get some inspiration and have a go.

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The above two pictures show examples of light and water. The picture on the left I took at the winter walk at RHS Hyde Hall. It’s such a beautiful use of light and colour. The second picture is my own Japanese zen garden. The fountain creates such a lovely sound, although the pond doubles up as my dog’s drinking bowl, so quite often gets wrecked!

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So, by now you should have generated plenty of garden planning ideas and have a pretty detailed outline of what your garden is going to look like. The final chapter of this post is all about the planting. My absolute favourite part of designing a garden, and I cannot wait to talk to you about it.

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Chapter 5️⃣ Garden Planning Ideas – Beautiful Blooms and Branches

This chapter is my favourite as it contains all my favourite things. Fantastic flowers and tremendous trees! I don’t profess to be a plant expert and I learn something new about plants and flowers pretty much every day, but I will try and pass my knowledge on to you. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I have writing it. 

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Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful. They are the sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.

Luthur Burbank

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The final piece of your garden planning ideas puzzle is working out what plants you are going to have in your design, and where they are going to go. Professionals call this the planting plan. Click here to see examples of planting plans on my Pinterest account.

Now, on this topic, I really could go on forever. There is after all a reason why people study plants, or write books about them. I cannot possibly convey everything I would like to about plants in this one post, but what I can do is try and pick out what I consider to be the most important parts of adding plants to your design. Some of these points could be whole posts in themselves so I am going to try and simplify the topics. 

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🥇 Right plant, right place = fantastic flowers!

A useful tip to work out what plants would suit your garden, is to look at where they grow in natural environments around the world, and as an added bonus, this will also give you plenty of garden planning ideas too! For example, plants that grow in the dessert like sun, sand and drought. Whereas, plants that grow in the rainforest, like shade, rich soil and moisture. So, this is why right plant, right place is so important. However, the thing that these examples all have in common is that the soil, sunlight and moisture levels are crucial. 

Soil

Assessing your soil is a necessity when working out what plants will do best in your garden. Personally, I advocate doing the soil work at this point, because by this stage you know where your plants are going to be. Assessing your soil involves identifying the pH levels and soil structure.

Soil pH is important because some plants need a certain soil pH level to survive. Whilst some do better in acidic soil e.g. azaleas and rhododendrons. Others prefer alkaline soil, such as roses. However it is easy to find out your soil pH level, just conduct an acidity test. This is a small kit that you can buy in loads of places and it gives you specific results. 

The other way you can assess your soil is by looking at what plants you already have and whether they are thriving or not. How do you find this out? Well, without going into plant groups here, the plants that are doing well in your garden will indicate what type of soil you have, and you can research which ones to buy, by comparing the ones you already have. 

Importantly, soil structure indicates moisture and nutrient levels. For example, sandy soil can be dry, because it is loose and the water and nutrients drain out of it quickly. So, plants that like sandy soil are ones that can cope with drought and sun. Whereas clay soil is typically, well, like clay! So whilst it can hold water and nutrients when wet, it can also get very dry in the summer. Therefore, the best rule of thumb for any soil is to add some soil improver. Manure, leaf mould (rotted down leaves) or compost are all really good additives for instance.  

Sun

During chapter 2 of this post I droned on about assessing your space, and garden aspect in particular. To recap, you need to know which parts of your garden are in the sun and which in the shade. This is because every plant has different needs and irrespective of how amazing your garden planning ideas are, you must take this into account. Whilst some plants like to bathe in the sunshine, others are shy and prefer to stay in the shade. There are even some who are not fussy and you can put them anywhere. But to get the best out of your time, effort and money, put your plants where they will do best. 

Feeding and watering

The last tip for right plant right place is food and water. Yes, like children, plants need to be fed and watered 😆. So to nurture them to grow up to be productive adults, sorry – plants, you need to know what growing conditions they like. Again, some can fend for themselves, and need little additional care. Whilst others need a bit more TLC, additional nutrients and water. 

The more you give your plants the conditions they like, the better they will grow for you. So if you are not sure, do some research and find the right place for your plants. If only the same could be said of children!

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🥈 Use plants of different heights

I believe the key to perfecting any garden planning ideas you may have, and making your garden look perfect, is the right planting scheme. And the key to the right planting scheme is to use different types of plants. Therefore, trees, shrubs and flowers are the mainstay of my garden, and if you have a good mix of all three you can’t go wrong. Plus, you can have these types of plants either planted direct into the ground or in pots.

Trees

I love trees. I think I may have mentioned that before. This is because trees come in all shapes and sizes and in a multitude of colours. Furthermore, you can put them in the ground or in pots. Plus they create instant height and can add feeling to your garden. Additionally, they can make a small garden look bigger, and a big garden feel cosy and intimate. Finally, trees can be useful as screening, as well as attracting birds and other wildlife into your garden. So Have I convinced you yet? Get some trees!

Shrubs

Shrubs are generally long lived plants, which are termed perennial because they survive year after year. Some can keep their foliage permanently (evergreen) whilst others lose their leaves in the dormant season (deciduous). Shrubs can range from smaller plants to really large ones and will provide structure and framework to your garden. Moreover, they also come in a variety of colours and shapes so can really add to your garden. And if you’re baffled by garden terminology, I have just the post for you! Click here to read it.

The below photograph I took at Gravetye Manor. It is a superb garden. Here you can see a beautiful mix of shrubs, trees and spring flowers.

Fantastic Flowers

Oooh flowers. They are so pretty. Fantastic flowers generally come in three groups. First there are annuals, which is where they go from seed to flower in a year and then die off. Secondly, there are biennials, where they grow one year, flower the next then die. Thirdly, there are perennials which live for years, dying back in the winter and regrowing in the spring. For more detail on plant terminology click here.

Flowers, also come in various sizes. Which ever plants you use, get ones that you love the look of and that make you happy. Over the years I have grown so many fantastic flowers, that they have their own Insta account! Thus if you would like to see all the flowers that have bloomed in my garden then please Click here.

The key to using flowers effectively within your garden planning ideas, is to plan when they bloom. For example, find flowers that have colours which complement each other and bloom at the same time. Equally find others that bloom at different times of the year so you are never without flowers in your garden. A final tip is to look for complementing heights, shapes and foliage.

For example, the below two pictures are great examples of planting fantastic flowers. The picture on the left shows a mix of perennial and annual flowers, cosmos and petunias to name a few. Whilst the second photo shows repeated planting and the use of different flower head shapes and foliage to create a beautiful effect.

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🥉Seasonal interest

Try to create a garden which looks good all year, not in the summer. To do this, find plants that are at their best at different times of the year. For example, dogwood, is a shrub which during the summer months is a bit nondescript. But in winter, when it has lost all its leaves, it has beautiful coloured bark which really stands out. Also, use evergreen shrubs and trees which keep their leaves and colour all year round. Additionally, some fantastic flowers look even better if you leave the blooms to turn into seed-heads. And there are some flowers which come as bulbs that flower from January (crocus, hellebores), when nothing else will.

You really can have a year-round garden with some thought and the right plants.

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Garden planning ideas – final tips for truly fantastic flowers

Find the plants you love. And if they fit your conditions plant them. If they don’t, try and manufacture the conditions. By this I mean, put them in pots, use the right soil, feed and water them correctly and move them to where they are in the right growing conditions.

Consider planting more than one of each shrub or flower. You can also do this with trees depending on their size. I don’t know why, but odd numbers work best. Therefore I plant in clusters of either 3 or 5 as I find this creates more of a visual impact, and much like using the same material through the garden, allows for connectivity and flow.

Think about where you are going to put your plants depending on where you can see them. Just because a plant is tall, doesn’t mean it has to go at the back of the garden. For example, a tree can go in the middle of the garden and draw everyone’s eye. And if you have flower beds that you can walk all the way around, put the taller plants in the middle do you can see them from all angles. 

Think about the smells too. Because plants like lavender smell amazing, so put them next to seating areas, or line a path where you can reach out and touch them as you walk past. That way you will release their scent and it is just heavenly. 

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Conclusion to Garden Planning Ideas

It has been very difficult to keep this post to a reasonable amount of words as there is just so many wonderful things to learn about garden planning and plants. I have tried to keep it as simple as I can so that you can design your complete garden from the information contained within these five chapters.

I hope you have enjoyed my ultimate guide to garden planning and more importantly have been able to take these garden planning ideas and design your own dream garden.

If you have any comments or question then please get in touch and in the meantime enjoy your new garden!

Happy designing!