FRANCIS TOPHILL’S TOP 10 PLANTS FOR A SMALL GARDEN

Edible cherry tree

I have a morello, which gives beautiful blossoms in the spring and beautiful colours in the autumn. It’s also great because it gives you produce as well.

Blackcurrant bush

I love these blackcurrants, yet they’re hard to find in shops and expensive to buy. Grow a shrub for a harvest at home. And good news: they like shade too.

Verbena bonariensis Verbena is so pretty. The stems are invisible and the tops are like little pom-poms of purple. It doesn’t take everywhere – but if it does, it will seed itself all over the place.

Grasses

I have a lot of grasses in my garden. Calamagrostis brachytricha has feathery but robust seed heads which dry really well, so you can use them as a cut flower.

Perennial kale

I grow Keeper; a lot of kale tends to flop over whereas this one stays bushy and shrubby-looking. It has a purple tinge and looks like it should be rubbery in texture, but it really isn’t!

Amelanchier lamarckii If you’re not so interested in produce, this is very wellbehaved. Again it has spring blossom, but it’s small and won’t get too big for an area.

Rosa glauca

This is my favourite rose, with simple foliage. I find the texture of roses quite hard to match to other things, but this is the exception and it’s so elegant. It feeds the birds too.

Perennial herb fennel

It can work in either bronze or green but I prefer the latter. The seed heads can be dried and used in curries.

It’s a great barrier plant because it’s so tall, but ephemeral and light.

Rudbeckia

For a touch of the ornamental, these are fun and bright and bring a touch of lightness (especially if you already have a lot of purple populating your garden).

Rosemary

This is a real must: it’s got a sensory element and it’s useful in cooking. Its flowers are so pretty – also in mythology it was said to would keep bad spirits away if you grew it by a gate!