10 inspiring plant ideas for a successful garden

It’s time to start writing down your plant ideas.

As the summer ends, make a note of things you’ve loved in your garden and other people’s. Use your notes and pictures to steer you through the autumn seed and bulb catalogues.

All my pro gardening friends tell me that that’s the best way to make sure your garden looks its best next year.

These are some of my favourite plant ideas and combinations from 2016.

Grasses used in different ways

This shot at Heale Gardens in Wiltshire is one of my favourite combinations of 2016. Stipa and lavender. Beautiful!

Panicum ‘Shenandoah’ with petunias in a pot in my garden.

Grasses have been big for many years now. Designers are beginning to turn back to shrubs again. But grasses are a valuable part of the planting palette. In these pictures, they provide sculptural shape for the mid to late summer garden. They work well in pots, too.

I particularly loved the use of grasses at Heale Gardens in Wiltshire.

Silver birch surrounded by a ‘box’ of grasses at Heale Gardens.

In the pictures above and below, grasses have been used in quite a formal way. Instead of clipped box around the tree, there are waving grasses, set in a neat square.

The same silver birch. You can see the grass ‘box’ around it.

Using colour to link the house and garden

Some of the most inspiring plant ideas I’ve seen this year have been in front gardens. The owners have used the background of the house as part of the garden colour palette.

This front garden in Whitstable showcases bright colours against a dark wall.

Closer up. I really love the use of plant colour against the grey.

More traditional but still gorgeous. A peach standard rose against a blue door.

For more front garden ideas, see this post on ‘The best front garden ideas.’

Grow vibrant plants from seed

If you’re limited in how much space you have to grow from seed, then grow just one or two really striking plants to pop in the gaps. This year I grew red amaranth (love-lies-bleeding) and Cleome ‘Violet Queen’. They have both added a punch to the garden for a total outlay of less than £5.

I love the way the light falls on this red amaranth. It was easy to grow from seed.

Very well named – Cleome ‘Violet Queen’.

Many gardeners do find fennel a bit too invasive, but it has a wonderful structure and texture. Seen here in the rain at Parham Gardens in Sussex. See here for more about the beautiful gardens at Parham.

Use self-seeders and spreaders

If you have neglected corners of the garden, fill them with self-seeders and spreaders. I’ve been given a few scraps of Phlomis russeliana by a friend and it has clumped up beautifully within one season. Sisyrinchium and crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ fill ups the gaps in my garden without any help from me.

Sisyrinchium and phlomis russeliana brighten a dark corner of a garden.

This is a corner of Tom Croft’s garden. It’s being renovated gently and slowly, so self-seeders and spreaders are allowed to take over the wilder areas. See here for more about how this garden is being restored.

Cotinus coggyria ‘Grace’ with self-seeded crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ in my garden.

Veg gardens in containers

I’ve seen some wonderful vegetables in containers this year.

Gardening writer Francine Raymond does wonderful pots. Here she has a cardoon in an old galvanised industrial container.

Francine’s veg garden is in a mix of cattle feeding troughs, industrial salvage and raised beds.

I passed this outside a restaurant in Granary Square, Kings Cross. It’s part of an initiative called The Skip Garden. It’s a whole vegetable garden in a container made of recycled scaffolding boards. And it’s on wheels.

Take risks

When I spotted some candy-pink echinacea at Madrona Nursery, I thought they might be just too much. But they’ve attracted so many compliments and have added zing to the garden for months on end.

Echinacea ‘Southern Belle’ from Madrona Nurseries.

So what are your favourite plants and plant ideas from 2016? Do share them, and if you’ve enjoyed this, do share it using the buttons below – thank you!.

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