ESTABLISHING A FABULOUS FRAMEWORK
Alice Ferguson (@alice_ferguson_), who trained at the London College of Garden Design, imparts advice on getting a balanced and beautiful landscape with evergreens
CHOOSE ASYMMETRICAL PLANTING The art of creating a structural framework with evergreens is key in anchoring the looser, natural-style planting fashionable at the moment. In borrowing wabi-sabi principles from Japanese culture, which appreciate the incomplete and imperfect, beauty can be found in balanced asymmetry.
LIMIT THE NUMBER OF SHRUBS Balanced evergreen structure can be achieved without being formal or grand. Keep to a palette of no more than two or three types of shrubs for balanced rhythm. I love Myrtus communis, Osmanthus x burkwoodii and Daphne bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ where space allows. For a more clipped style, I choose Ilex crenata or Taxus baccata. A dwarf camellia, such as Camellia sasanqua ‘Dwarf Shishi’, is great for blooms in winter.
PLANT IN LOOSE CLUSTERS Position your evergreen plants in natural clusters with a hierarchy of size, allowing low evergreens to spill onto paths. Avoid a scattering of evenly spaced, evenly sized evergreens. Rough out your planting then step back and take an overview to check the balance works.
MIX WITH PERENNIALS Close-clipped or textured evergreens provide contrasting texture and form to softer herbaceous planting. Use perennials like Gillenia trifoliata, Thalictrum delavayi and Verbena bonariensis to rise up through structural planting. Underplant and soften shrubs with low perennials like Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’ and Astrantia ‘Roma’ to complement evergreens.
“I LOVE USING EVERGREENS TO CREATE A GREEN STRUCTURAL PATTERN. AN EVERGREEN FRAMEWORK PROVIDES A RHYTHM TO THE GARDEN”
ALICE FERGUSON, garden designer