LJN Blog Posts

I am often asked this question and I suppose the response will be different depending on the company you approach.

At  OGC we would give a resounding 'Yes'. Most of our design projects are from start to finish, so we normally offer this as part of the landscape design process. Also I strongly  believe that hard landscaping has to be married with imaginative plantsmanship and one cannot co-exist without the other.

However, the other part of this question is "What if I don't want a new garden design, but would like some creative planting for existing or renovating borders?"

And here we just have to balance individual requests against our usual 'design' practice.

There's no doubt we answer lots of requests from non-clients trying to source a particular plant, shrub or tree.

Although it's easy enough to recommend particular plant nurseries,  it might be that the client  (as is usually the case,)  has a very limited plant knowledge. So we're really sending them off to buy plants that might not be suitable for the spaces or aspect of the garden or in time may grow too big or become a nuisance.  Which is not a good thing and does our reputation no good at all.

So it's a tricky balance. Replacing plants that have not fared well or died can be a costly exercise for the non-gardener. When you use a knowledgeable plants person, you are taking away the risk of planting the wrong thing in the wrong place. Or you have bought something that dies on you because you weren't aware of its non-hardiness or growing requirements,

Planting is a very creative skill in itself and not to be underestimated. Unlike painting a wall in a house interior, which can be changed very easily when you tire of it, planting, especially shrubs and trees are a permanent every-growing feature of a garden that will change in size and scale with the passing of the years.

Good planting is something that requires thought, experience and artistic license.   Good planting will mature over the years to become an intrinsically valuable aspect of the garden. It is also one of the most joyful and expressive aspects of the design process and even the most experienced plantsman will continue to experiment and develop this creative craft as the years go by.

It would be very easy for a design company to do the same old plant combinations. However, that's a lazy and uninspiring route. It is not a static thing. A valuable plantsman will keep up-to-date with new trends, plants, hybrids or cultivars coming on to the market. Every time we plant a border, we are bringing fresh ideas to life, combining new, traditional and different plants in an innovative way. Planting, plant selections, new cultivars etc will change year on year, in relation to fashions, weather patterns and the designers' own caprice.

Which is just as it should be.