Making a garden plan the easy way

1. Buy some A3/ A4 squared paper
2. Measure up your garden
3. Draw your garden boundaries on the A3/ A4 squared paper to scale as best you can
4. Plot the features and plants you want to retain using triangulation and scaling
5. Use a pencil and rubber to sketch and test your ideas for new overall designs
6. Use t'internet or a book to find the sort of plants that you like
7. Check the plants look well with each other (complimentary and contrasting)
8. Check the plants can cope with similar sun/ shade and soil conditions
9. For each planting area, plot your chosen plants to their 'mature' spread on the squared paper using circles, 'thought bubble' and other shapes

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Good plant #9 - Narcissus

I love daffodils - all dwarf and mini varieties virtually. Maybe it's because I've got some welsh ancestry ;^) In the flower world, it is such a cheerful plant in whites, yellows and orange (occasionally pink) colours and combinations.

Some of the early varieties herald the start of spring. Whilst others bridge that awkward period between spring and summer blooms.

I tend to go for dwarf and mini varieties because the large varieties blow over in strong wind. Saying that, my favourite daffodil of all is a medium/ large one but is a late flowerer - Narcissus 'Pheasant's Eye'. If you buy this one, I recommend you elevate it slightly (in a planter) as the flowers point downwards slightly, hiding their 'faces'.

I buy all narcissus bulbs in autumn and plant them in well drained grit and compost (as much as 30:70) much closer together than recommended to create more natural looking groups. When they are just sprouting, I plant them in gaps in herbaceous borders. After they have flowered but before the leaves have browned off, I feed them with superphosphate to maintain their vigour for the next year.

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Buying and planting herbaceous perennial plants

In general, there are two seasons when herbaceous perennial plants are supposed to be bought and planted:

(1) Spring
(2) Autumn

The idea is that, planting in these seasons gives time for a perennial plant to settle, including its roots. Those that take longer to settle and/ or flower earlier in the year should be planted in autumn - e.g. peonies.

In general, I plant in early spring - March/ April. Why, because this is generally when the nurseries and garden centres have them in stock :^) In my experience the best plants are always on the shelves in the early season.

My rule of thumb in spring is to plant when I see some healthy new growth on a plant - but not too much. If there's too much growth, the perennial plant is well out of its winter dormancy phase and will not always do as well as one that is planted earlier in its growing cycle.

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Good plant #8 - Phlox Paniculata

This is a marmite plant in my experience. This perennial group of plants comes in many different types and nearly all of them are so showy they can drown out other plants when they flower. For me, they are a winner because of the showiness - the snails and slugs love them too :^)

In the main, they come in single colours and combinations of white, pink and purple. For a perennial herbaceous border, two of my favourites are Phlox Paniculata 'Eva Cullum' (see picture) and 'Harlequin' The latter has variagated leaves, although I have found it slightly temperamental to propagate. I propagate these phloxes every three years, splitting them in half or even quarters with a spade right through the woody root in early spring - this also helps maintain vigour. These types of phlox seem to cope with most soils and sites but do best in fertile and well drained soil in farily sunny sites.

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Good plant #7 - Rudbeckia Triloba 'Brown-eyed Susan'

This is a late but profusely flowering summer/ autumn perennial beauty - yellow flowers with a brown centre.  It is perfect in a prairie garden mixed in with large ornamental grasses or as a drift in any warm coloured herbaceous border.  One of its great virtues is that it flowers from seed (with an early sowing indoors) in it's first year - which is unusal for for flowering perennials. Seems to tolerate most soil conditions but does best in moister conditions.

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Good plant #6 - Ligularia Dentata 'Britt-Marie Crawford'

If you're into large leaf perennial foliage plants - this one's a cracker.  It has masses of structural mahogany leaves and produces bunches of golden flowers in late summer which stand  proud of the mound of leaves.  This plant has to have moist conditions and seems to prefer a little shade, although I've grown it in full sun, .  I add a fair few water retaining chrystals to the planting hole just to be sure it doesn't dry out.  To propogate, when the shoots start appearing in early spring, just dig out couple shoots with some roots attached.

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Dealing with slugs and snails

In my opinion, it is nigh on impossible to completely get rid of slugs and snails.  I've tried every type of deterrent from blue coloured pellets (nasty and more environmnetally friendly), copper strips, broken shells, coffee grinds, nematodes, sharp grit, broken egg shells, garlic spray, beer, milk - the lot.  I have come to this conclusion, your slug and snail infestation is a function of three things:

1.  The tastiness of your plants to slugs and snails - use more of the ones they don't like and plant sacrificial plants
2.  The amount of time you spend hunting them down and removing them - best done after a downpour in the evening in torchlight
3.  The number of all the deterrents you use - the more the better

Of all the deterrents, nematodes, pellets and garlic spray (lazy garlic and boiling water left overnight to cool) work well, especially in combination.  All of them need to be used frequently.

Remember if you use pellets, collect the dead slugs and snails up so birds and other predators do not consume the poison.

However, if you do not hunt them down and remove them as well, your efforts will be largely in vain.  They hide in sheltered spots like under stones and the lips and undersides of pots and planters.

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Back garden design made easy

1.   Take a good photograph of your existing garden from your back door in good light
2.   Print at size A3/ A4 - A3 is best
3.   Buy some A3/ A4 tracing paper
4.   Place a piece tracing paper over your A3/ A4 photograph
5.   Trace over the plants and features you want to keep
6.   Sketch your new design ideas
7.   Agree your designs with your partner - I said garden design made easy, so skip this step  ;^)
8.   Plan your garden project - plants, features and timelines
9.   Do your garden project
10. Enjoy the results

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Good plant #5 - Philadelphus Coronarius 'Aureus'

If you like scent in the garden, this deciduous shrub is amazing.  It also has really bright green/gold leaves and produces bucketloads of white scented flowers on mature specimens.  You have to be quite careful pruning because if you hack at it too much it won't flower so well, if at all.  It does best in sunny sites and will tolerate some drought.  You can do cuttings in autumn.

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Good plant #4 - Spiraea Bumalda 'Goldflame'

Hard to think of a better deciduous flowering shrub.  In spring it produces a profusion of red coloured leaf buds that look like flowers, which are followed by gold leaves and massive clusters of tiny pink flowers.  Even in winter, the dead flower heads provide some structural interest.  You can propogate with cuttings in the spring and autumn.  I prune these very hard as soon as the first leaf buds appear, which helps maintain a compact shape a dense colouring.  It does best in a sunny position but will tolerate some shade and most soils.

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Good plant #3 - Erodium Manescauii

A real belter of a perennial plant with great foliage and magenta-purple flowers.  The more you remove the flower stalks, the more replacements you get.  It does like well-drained soil and is tolerant of droughts. It does well even in quite shady spots but excells in sunny spots.  It is easy to propogate in mid to late spring when growth is underway  but before flowering - just scoop an edge out with some roots using your trowl and put in a very well drained compost mix.

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Good plant #2 - Lychnis Coronaria

Great silver foliage perennial plant usually with cerise flowers - another personal favourite.  Comes in a few other flower colours too.  This plant seeds prolifically so you will have a host of new plants after a couple of years.  Seems to prefer dry sunny borders.

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Good plant #1 - Achillea Millefolium F2 'Summer Pastels'

Astionishingly good perennial plant and personal favourite.  It flowers profusely for a long time for yours and insect's enjoyment. The slugs and snails don't seem to like it that much. It seems to tolerate all sorts of soil conditions.  It is easily divided in late winter/ early spring.  You can either (a) shove your spade through the middle of it and dig half of it out and replant it, or (b) take a load of side shoots with roots on and plant these round the side of a pot full of well drained compost and grow on.

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Want to know which plants grow well in South Manchester?

Weeds of course!  My plan is to update this blog with plants that I know can do well in South Manchester.

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Tulip bulbs being eaten by squirrels?

They don't like quinine. So give your bulbs a dip in some of your tonic water, which contains quinine.

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