"For years, I have been dissatisfied with the borders and beds in our back garden. I knew what I liked, but not much else. They looked quite nice in the spring as everything was coming to life, but by the end of June, beginning of July, they were scruffy and colourless. So I asked Jane to come and help me.

 

First she suggested that the beds were too small for the size of my garden (What? Make them bigger? Even more border to go wrong?!), then she suggested that the main bed should be a hotbed, i.e. that it should display colour – purples, oranges, yellows, reds and that these colours could then link, to some degree with the border further down the garden, behind an existing hot tub, which is in a darker spot, using, amongst other things, the lovely red-stemmed dogwoods as winter colour and vibrant crocosmia.

 

Three years on, these beds are stunning. The variety of plants is fabulous, the colours gorgeous, and as plants die away, others take their place, with varying heights, shapes and textures – colour and beauty ALL summer.

 

We painted an old bench and put it down the garden, under a tree, as a focal point and added some wonderful metal screens to enclose the hot tub.

 

So the following year, we tackled the other side of the garden. Once again, Jane re-shaped the flower bed to curve around an existing seating area, then planted it up with cooler colours, using some existing and many new plants, (including a small tree) some bold, some soft and with wonderful variety of leaf colour and shape, from lime green through to deep plum.

 

This has been a cost-effective and easy way to transform our garden, which now gives us the greatest pleasure. You don’t need a complete re-structure of your garden to make a fantastic difference!

 

- Lesley Thomas