BRING SOFTNESS TO A CONTEMPORARY SCHEME

Throughout the summer, country verges, hedgerows and fields are full of umbellifers, cranesbills, old man’s beard, thistles, lady’s mantle and columbines. These plants were once excluded from formal settings but, increasingly, garden designers – including those Harriet and Ben have worked with – are using them for contrast and softness in contemporary landscaping.

It’s important to start with a good structure – from box hedging, topiary, specimen trees and gravel or stone paths – and then overlay meadow plants for a really striking effect. Floaty white umbellifers, including Ammi

majus, Ammi visnaga and Orlaya grandiflora, can be threaded through meadow geraniums, such as the strikingly marked Geranium

pratense ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’, and columbines including

Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Lime Sorbet’ and spiky eryngiums. Run a Clematis vitalba (old man’s beard) up through trees or along a fence, and edge your border with the bountiful lady’s mantle, Alchemilla

mollis, for a gorgeous display.