Planning and planting a formal English garden of 12m x 64m is no mean feat – especially when the garden is half a world away! UK designer Chris Beardshaw’s amazing gold-winning Ellerslie entry no doubt prompted many punters to go home and dig a new border! But designing a garden like this takes a good deal of skill and forward thinking. Even a more modest rendition requires plenty of forethought and the onset of winter is a fine time to start.

PLANNING

Winter is the ideal time for a spot of armchair gardening. Relax with a pile of magazines and plant catalogues and draw up a wish-list of plants suitable for your climate. Draw a scale plan of the area, marking existing features you want to keep. Ascertain the main vista and focal point, keeping all elements of the garden proportionate to the size of your garden. Draw in new hard landscaping features like walls, portico, paths, built-in seats, etc. Add structural planting, including hedges, feature trees and background plantings. Lastly, add cottage-garden plants, making sure you juxtapose any complementary colours and interesting textures as well as plants that flower in different seasons. Once you are satisfied with your basic plan, you can start on soil preparation

PLANTING

By spring, soil should be ready for planting. Complete hard-landscaping projects before commencing the main planting. Add some extra compost and slow-release fertilizer pellets to the planting holes of main plants and hedging. Plant cottage perennials last. If the plants you want aren’t available yet, fill spaces with summer annuals. Top-dress the entire border with controlled-release fertiliser, water well and mulch with a 10cm to 15cm layer of fine bark to retain moisture. Lastly, prepare and sow lawn.

SEASONAL COLOUR

WINTER

Structural: Camellia, gordonia

Filler: Daphne, pieris, citrus, azaleas, witch hazel, ericas

Cot tage plants: hellebore, cyclamen, polyanthus,

violets, erlicheer bulbs

SPRING

Structural: Viburnum, camellia

Filler: Rhododendrons, lilac, choisya, deutzia, forsythia

Cot tage plants: Campanula, roses, felicia, scabious,

primula, dicentra, bulbs

SUMMER:

Structural: Magnolia ‘Little Gem’, Indian hawthorn

Filler: Hydrangeas, plumbago, cannas, artichoke,

weigela

Cottage plants : Alstroemeria, delphinium, helenium,

roses, penstemon, lavender, bulbs

AUTUMN:

Structural: Camellia sasanqua

Filler: (As for summer)

Cottage plants : Anemone japonica, echinacea, rudbeckia, roses, aster, salvia

WATERING

Thorough, weekly watering is the most important task here. Regular spraying with foliar fertiliser or liquid seaweed will boost plant growth and immunity to pests and disease. Cull unhealthy or overcrowded plants. Spray for bugs if necessary, deadhead flowering plants, feed roses every month and enjoy.

MAINTENANCE

By autumn, borders will be more mature and harsh-textured. Colours may be richer with the addition of vivid autumn-flowering dahlias and rudbeckias. Deadheading will be a constant chore and once you’ve given the garden a late-autumn tidy up, it will be time to fork through another generous layer of compost, to get the soil ready for next season.

HEART AND SOUL

Prior to spring planting, thorough soil preparation is paramount:

NEW BORDERS

Dig over soil, turning over clods of earth to bury lawn or weeds (or rotary hoe the soil).

Leave soil to weather.

After a few weeks, remove any weed growth.

Spread a 10cm to 15cm layer of compost and dig through the top 20cm of soil.

Fork blood-and-bone through the top 10cm to 15cm of soil.

EXISTING BORDERS

Start with a clean slate by removing all plants (you can replant them later if desired).

Leave any large specimens that are to be retained.

Follow the instructions for new borders, as above.

HOT TIP

Make four copies of your planting plan, then take some crayons and colour the plants according to what will be flowering in each season. Seasonal colour plans will show you if there are discrepancies in colour – or any awful clashes!