How to create winter garden structure with evergreens

Introduction

in garden centers up and down the country there are many questions asked a member of Staff outside of do you work here where the toilets and have you got a cafe I’m talking about questions that specifically relate to plants having a purpose within the garden over and above just looking good how can I explain that well pets for instance if you’ve got a dog you can have a dog as a pet but you can also have a working dog and a working dog may help with security maybe work for the police it may also Round Up sheep for the shepherd they’re working dogs opposed to just being pets and there are plants that have got that same sort of purpose they have an active involvement of achieving something within the garden now it doesn’t split to particular varieties in some cases conifers can be doing a similar job as shrubs it’s the nature of how the plant grows that makes them so unique and have a purpose and I’m going to go through different purposes within a garden and then relate it to plants that can achieve that purpose it maybe you want some Vandal proofing you want some hedging ground cover climbers spot for shade and things like that well let’s start with blank spaces we’ve all got walls garages fences the back of the house and also maybe you know wheelie bins you wish to hide and that is a very common question people coming into Garden Center saying I’ve got an area I

Climate

want to cover now climate is the best section to go to in a garden center for that and there are lots of different types things like the honeysuckle are really good if you’ve got wheelie bins or you’ve got a blank wall you can put up a bit of trellis they twine around so you need something to be able to support them and they will clad and hide an ugly wall or or an eyesore that you’ve got a bit of trellis or wire around to be able to do that I mean clematis is is a difference as well you get this beautiful one and this one’s it’s just simply called Joe it’s a it’s a beautiful uh clematis with these sort of like masses of white flowers that come across and they’re really good for masking and hiding so the climber section is the best place to go into a garden center if you’re looking for something to change something that’s a um that has more of a practical appearance and you want it to become a feature in itself climbing section is a really good one for that now if you’ve got slopes or if you’ve got areas that you want to be quite low maintenance then what we call ground cover now instead of growing up and out these plants grow and spread and in the Conifer section there’s quite a few plants that tick the the Box this particular one here is a juniper it’s called blue carpet uh juniperous squamata as it’s known as a squamata means small scale like leaves I think they’re beautiful see the new foliage just coming out it’s the lighter green which laterally turns to blue and silver and it’s a really great suppressor so if

Periwinkle

you plant that in an area it spreads out you get that all year round color of course in addition to that it stops a lot of the weeds underneath going through and another very good one is the Periwinkle um this one’s vinca minor mine are smaller leaves vinca major are larger leaves and you get these beautiful purple flowers as well it’ll grow in sun just as much as in shade although it will flower more in a sunnier position but that is a really good low ground spreading plant suppressing weeds underneath if you’ve got an embankment that’s starting to fall way putting in plants like this the roots will hold it into position and they spread so that’s

Berberus

that’s really ground cover now if you’ve got an area that you want Vandal Proof you’re worried about I don’t know some of the local kids come in and sitting on the wall uh people taking shortcuts across your property or you want a really good impenetrable hedge so no suspect burglars can come anywhere near berberus ticks the button so there are plants that are specifically good because if you take a a closer look you see the Thorns that are in and amongst the stems there they are vicious you can grow this as a hedge trim it into position this is berberus than Bergie eye there’s lots of different berberus is there Evergreen verbalists this is the Deciduous one meaning it loses its leaves during the winter but it forms a very good dense hedge if you trim it into shape great for nesting because it protects the little birds in the nest within it the Thorns the cats certainly won’t like climbing through but if you’ve got that planted at the front or areas where you don’t want people to go it’s living barbed wire it does a very good purpose so climbers Vandal Proof spreaders some people often

Hostas

say I’ve got a really shady damp area you know it’s either they’ve got a courtyard Garden at the back and there’s an area that doesn’t get much sun or you’ve got areas underneath the trees what plants are really good for for bringing a bit of color into into a dull spot well hostas do particularly well and grown in containers in urban areas or underneath trees containers will give you the opportunity to protect against slugs so you can put top of tape around the outside maybe some eggshells slugs don’t like Crossing that but hostas are really good for shady positions as are ferns you know humans we can see more variant shades of green than almost any other color and these combinations work well so for shadier spots you can go to garden centers and they’ve got plant beds just for shade but if you haven’t hostas and ferns will be my advice now the sun really bright sunny locations

Mediterranean plants

Mediterranean plant like Rosemary is a very good choice lavender as well of course they grow in the Mediterranean they’re used to being open out for quite a while and you get all the beautiful fragrance with it you get the flowers which is perfect for the pollinators and they do well heebies are another plant that are particularly good for sunny locations look at the vibrant color of this one here this is called Magic summer wow what an explosion of colors and the thing with hibis is they change at different times of year so you get all year round color but sometimes you’ll get flour you also get some winter effect but you get Evergreen as well so these type of plants

Winter interest plants

Mediterranean plants and plants like he bees are very good for pollinators and Incredibly good during the summer nuns now on the other side winter interest there are many different types this is commonly known as Harry Lord as walking stick Coralis and it’s a contorted look at that contorted Hazel and you get get that effect throughout the winter months often used by florists you get masses of foliage during the during the Spring and Summer you get catkins later on in the

Summer interest plants

winter as it turns into spring and it just adds something really interesting and of course not forgetting Heathers as well now this is a summer flowering header and it’s got new foliage at the top lovely textured plant as well but it gives an element of Interest earlier on in the spring see you don’t need to have flowers all the time sometimes just the effect of the stems and the foliage make a difference now finally I need to talk

Fragrance plants

about fragrance a lot of questions in garden centers are I’ve got a patio area I’d like something that really smells good and of course roses come instantly to mine but there are other varieties like in winter this is a a Daphne here Daphne Missouri oh that is such a Heavenly scent there it’s just coming towards the end because it flowers really before the foliage comes out and the foliage comes later but these are a few of the flowers left I couldn’t resist bringing it from the garden center to show you uh that’s

Combining fragrance plants

really smart and of course if you wanted to combine a few things of course you can get fragrance in so many different ways this is a star jasmine so it climbs just like the climbs we spoke at the beginning these lovely white Starlight flowers with a Heavenly scent and of course there’s so much fragrant foliage as well oh this is a citrus thyme beautiful like that one key thing that is asked for a lot is hedging and

Hedging

hedging there are many different varieties this one I choose for hedging this is a viburnum tiredness it’s a beautiful flowering shrub that can be left as an informal hedge really where it grows quite loose but still creates a barrier or it can be trimmed into a tighter shape but there are many traditional uh hedging plants like beets like hornbeam and conifers and the like they’re all working plants that have a purpose in the garden so whether you want something to hide the wall whether you want ground cover the best thing to do is to photograph the area in the garden that you need to find plants to solve the purpose take it into your local Garden Center and have a chat we’ve got some of the best garden centers in the world here in Great Britain loads of very talented educated staff that work in the planter viceat yes visit them and choose the right plant to solve something in your garden and have a office for more helpful gardening videos like this please subscribe to my YouTube channel and like and share this video for more great information visit my website daviddomoney.com