Choosing the right plants for your garden

● Start with the right balance of permanent and temporary: a scattering of evergreen coverage as a base, then leave room for some seasonal colour. Research your plants, know what they require and how much care they’ll need.

● Don’t waste time or money – buy plants from a good source. Research good quality nurseries in your area, visit the flower shows for some ideas, or go online. That way you’ll get some good quality and often unusual plants. Mix in with that a few cheap and cheerful bargain collections to save money, and limit your garden centre ‘sweetshop’ buys to one or two a season for a bit of instant pizzazz.

● Tailor your planting to your own garden – if it’s very sunny go for sun-lovers, if you have a lot of ugly walls, try a climber or two, if you have a lot of patio, try plants that favour containers. Consider shady spots and your soil type, too.

● Keep it simple – blocks of colour and just a few different types of plants makes for a more cohesive design. Sometimes we buy a hotchpotch of plants but however we arrange them they look haphazard – don’t go too mad to start with; pick and select a few and then add similar shapes and colours in time. Tall plants go at the back, tapering down to smaller plants at the front.

● In small gardens, consider that larger plants often create a more dramatic effect and make the plot seem bigger than using small plants.

● Remember that you can always take out a plant and move it somewhere else – or give it away. Nothing is permanent, so enjoy the experimentation.