How plant's are arranged in there bed's or site's is as important as the design and construction of the garden. Plant's should provide color and interest all year round and can also do the following. Act as screen's to block bad view's or provide privacy.
Give shelter from prevailing wind's, shade, and make division's within the garden itself.
Build up a framework of background plant's shrub's, tree's, climber's and fill in the other area's of planting with lighter colorful material can be varied annually if desired.
Shape's of plant's can be chosen to reflect the architecture of nearby building's.
The garden near a building where there are arch's, spire's may contain many similarly shaped plant's with tall spike's of flower's as Lupins, Delphinium's or evergreen's which are spire shaped as conifer's etc.
The aspect of a garden affect's the amount of light at different time's of day in various season's. Observe how much sun is received by any part of the garden and where to plant up.
Find out which plant will enjoy that situation as light need's of different type of plant play a major part in where to position them. Many will thrive only in full sun or full shade.
A piece of ground that receive's half day's sun in summer may see none at all in winter, frost is likely to remain longer and soil temperature's will be lower, which may rule out plant's that are only moderately hardy.
The further north the garden is located the shorter the growing season will effect the type of plant's that can grow the east of the country is less mild, drier than the west.
Inland area's, maritime districts generally have a more even climate with fewer frost's though stronger wind's. It can therefore be easier to cultivate less hardy plant's provided they are wind tolerant or given some protection from the worst of the wind's.
Most garden plant's will cope with many type's of soil from sandy free draining to heavy and damp. Other's cannot tolerate soil's that are too light or too heavy. Lavender will grow in pure sand but has a short life in clay, rose's flourish in well manured moist clay soil but will struggle in poor sandy condition's.
It is possible to make alkaline soil more acidic it is better to concentrate on growing plant's that delight in alkaline soil's as pinks, wallflower's, stock's, clematis, rhododendron's, azalea's, camellia's, and most heather's. Do a ph test on the soil to check acid alkaline content.
To avoid problem's try to assess at the planning stage the time you can allocate to maintaining a planting scheme.
