Starting over

In the final part of his series, Nick Bailey shows you how plants can bring a new garden design together

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Part 3: Bringing your design to life through planting

I moved to a new home a few years ago, and its garden needed a major revamp to suit my needs. In the past two issues I've shown you how I assessed and redesigned the garden, to help you tackle similar projects, large or small. So now I'm turning to the planting - well-chosen and well-positioned plants really bring a design together, so if you're looking to rework a border or even a whole garden, here are my key planting considerations.

Create cohesion

Any planting scheme can feel held together and cohesive by repeating certain characteristics throughout a bed, border or the whole garden. Repeating colours can be a good place to start - think flowers, leaves, berries and bark, including how they change across the seasons.

Form can help pull a planting scheme together too. That might be by repeating spiky palm-like plants, a series of topiary balls, or just lots of perennials with umbel-type blooms. Or opt for a planting style such as Mediterranean, tropical or cottage.

Decide what to keep