911±¬ÁÏ

James Lawrence, 911±¬ÁÏ Principal Horticultural Advisor, has designed this simple, attractive, and most importantly, sustainable border design for you to try at home, with plants that are easy to grow, widely available and look good together.

This simple sensory planting design features a combination of dwarf shrubs and perennials

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. that will provide extra sensory stimulation with a variety of textures. Once established, they will thrive together in your garden and provide sensory interest throughout the year. 

James Lawrence

The main function here is to provide a range of plants that, once established will provide a variety of textural sensory interest throughout the year.

The Pinus has a rigid, slightly prickly feel, whereas the Cryptomeria is soft and feathery, along with the grass flowers. The Stachys is soft and furry, the Hylotelephium is fleshy and waxy and the Deschampsia is wiry.

In addition, the Stachys helps to cover bare soil, protecting the soil surface, suppressing weeds and reducing soil moisture loss by reducing soil surface evaporation.

Using an organic mulch , preferably homemade compost , while the plants establish can help to provide the same benefits. Mulches should be spread when the soil is already moist to help trap some of that moisture before it dries out in summer.

1 - Pinus x schwerinii ‘W¾±±ð³Ù³ó´Ç°ù²õ³Ù’ is a slow-growing dwarf conifer with long, light green needles with silvery undersides, and blue resinous cones that mature to a darker brown.

2 - Verbena bonariensis is a tall herbaceous perennial

Perennials are plants that live for multiple years. They come in all shapes and sizes and fill our gardens with colourful flowers and ornamental foliage. Many are hardy and can survive outdoors all year round, while less hardy types need protection over winter. The term herbaceous perennial is used to describe long-lived plants without a permanent woody structure (they die back to ground level each autumn), distinguishing them from trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. with branched clusters of small lilac-purple flowers held atop tall, upright, sparsely leafed stems from summer to autumn.

3 - Cryptomeria japonica ‘Elegans Compacta’ is a bushy evergreen conifer with soft, tactile blue-green young foliage that turns purple in winter.

4 - Deschampsia cespitosa ‘G´Ç±ô»å²õ³¦³ó±ô±ð¾±±ð°ù’ is an evergreen grass with dark bluish green leaves. It has long-lasting golden-yellow flowers with a silvery sheen from late spring to summer.

5 - Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Stand Up Comedian’ is a herbaceous perennial with red-brown steams bearing foliage consisting of pairs of serrated leaflets, and a profusion of hanging, bottlebrush-like, fluffy white flower-heads from late summer to autumn.

6 - Hylotelephium x mottramianum ‘H±ð°ù²ú²õ³Ù´Ú°ù±ð³Ü»å±ð’ is a herbaceous perennial with fleshy, waxy green leaves and large flat terminal clusters of starry pink flowers that dry out to brown seedheads that persist through winter.

7 - Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’ is an evergreen ground cover perennial that forms a dense mat of very soft, velvety grey-white ‘Lamb’s Ear’ leaves.

Sensory planting is designed to stimulate the senses of smell, sound, taste and touch, as well as sight. It tempts a visitor to view plants at close range, to reach out and touch, to inhale a fragrance, to listen to gentle sounds, and to actively experience the garden with all their senses.

After experiencing plants by touch always ensure your hands are washed.

By choosing plants that are good for senses, you can improve mood and a general wellbeing of visitors. The sensory attributes of these plants allow people to engage with the environment around them in a way that is meaningful and beneficial to their mind and body.

Using the ethos of ‘right plant, right place’ to create a sustainable planting combination is great for the environment. It helps avoid waste and the use of products and practices needed to try and help ailing plants, such as the application of fertiliser. It also creates robust, long-lived planting that benefits soil health and garden biodiversity

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems. . For more information about sustainable gardening, please see the 911±¬ÁÏ Sustainability Strategy .