Hot Summer Planting

Put the life back into your garden this summer by adding colour, are you bored with your borders? Add splashes of vivid colours to spice things up a little

Colour Matching
Avoid placing colours right next to each other that clash. You could be co-ordinated and stick to shades of one or two colours, like mauves, pinks and purples; or go trendy and plant red, yellow and orange. But don´t mix these two colour ranges or the result will be like an explosion in a paint shop!

It's a good idea to look at a colour wheel, as you will immediately be able to see which colours go together. As they say, opposites attract, and this works for some colours that are opposite to each other on the wheel - like green and red.

A good strategy is to match three colours that are spaced at equal distances around the wheel - purple, green and orange work well together.

Clematis: Make a superb display and are vigorous once planted. A good choice is Clematis viticella ´Purpurea Plena Elegans´ which flowers from late summer to autumn.

Roses: For a pale and pretty display, choose the white "iceberg" variety.

Choosing Trees

Create a balance
Trees surrounding a country garden, give shelter and privacy. Choose your forms and colours with great care, mix evergreens and deciduous to give your garden balance.

Planting Trees
When you buy young trees you may need to support them, as they may bend out of shape in wind. Hammer a stake into the base of the planting hole before putting the tree in and tie the tree to your stake (avoid the roots!). When you come to fill the hole look for the soil mark on the base of the trunk and plant at the same depth as it was before transplanting.

Hedging
We all plant for screening or hedging at some point in the garden. Fast growing, upright trees are useful for the former, and those with a dense, twiggy habit are ideal. Try to be patient when planting for hedging purposes, we can be impatient and go for fast growing poplars or Leyland Cypress. Both of these can grow rapidly and take over the garden, shading your garden and your neighbours, robbing your other plants of moisture, nutrients and light! Therefore, you should be patient and stick to less agressive, slower growing alternatives. Hedges are often a useful backdrop against which borders and groups of containers can be displayed.

Yew (Taxus baccata) is slow growing but is ideal for sheltering other plants as it forms a thick, impenetrable hedge that does not require a huge amount of attention.

Trees and Shrubs for colour!
Trees that flower are very popular and understandly so - cherries and plums are amongst the most widely planted. Ornamental apples (Malus spp) and rowans and white beams (Sorbus spp) are well adored too - they have a dual season and flower in Spring and Autumn. Autumn colour is a good basis on which to select trees; after all, at its best it can rival flowers for sheer impact. You will do well to remember that good autumn colour largely depends on there being sharp frosts at the right time in autumn, so areas with mild climates rarely see a good show of colour. Many of the best trees are large but you can get smaller ones, such as Bonzai, Amelanchiers and several shrubs, like Euonymus alatus and species of rhus.

Foliage Colour:
For dramatic colour in autumn, Japanese maples are hard to beat, they have a beautiful filigree leaves which turn from tones of scarlett to burnt orange - lush!

Harmony and Contrast in the garden

Soft Harmonies
The delicate blues, mauves and pinks and softly billowing shapes of a herbaceous perennial border in summer are a study in gentle harmony.

Making a garden is an intensely personal business. What one person loves, another may hate. Such varying reactions are often to do with a level of harmony and contrast in the planting.

Very harmonious gardens, where all the colours match, and clashes or surprises are avoided, are soothing, restful places. Those who like more stimulation may prefer gardens with lots of vivid, contrasting colours, or a wide and dramatic range of leaf shapes and plant forms.

Harmony in gardens is relatively easy to achieve with single colour schemes. 'White gardens' are particularly rewarding and straight-forward. Plantings based on colour contrast are more different to get right, and are much more personal.

Mixing strong colours can create results that are vibrant to some, but too obtrusive and clashing to others.

Mixing colours and shapes
Big, bold shapes, like spiky variegated agave, make a striking feature against softer planting. Vibrant colour contrast can be provided by using yellow/green agave and pink sedum.