beginners attempt at garden design

[eastybeasty]

soooo.....i seem to be pickling my own head and would like anyone elses thoughts!

i have made a post already about flower suggestions and have now made a list of potential plants for the garden.

ive made wee drawings of the front and back garden in an attempt to work out what i should put where.

im not sure if im making this too complicated for myself, ive got short ones on my list like aster carousel and alyssum for the bedding areas, lilies, alstromeria, aster super princess etc for cut flowers, snapdragons, freesias for scented plants and corncockle, borage and phacelia for insect friendly plants. ive made myself a table with their height, sun preference and sowing times and im now trying to work out how best to factor these and a couple of others into the garden so they get their required light, they wont look out of place heightwise and generally looks pretty good overall. i dont have any experience of deliberately trying to plan an aesthetically pleasing garden. i had flowers last year that i more or less planted in ways that were made up as i went along and it didnt look too bad in the end. maybe im overthinking this but just dont want to end up with a garden that either looks daft or looks like the flowers have just been grown and shoved in at random places.

organisation doesnt come easy to me! how did you all start off planning your flowers and positions in the garden? :)

[eastybeasty]

[Digeroo]

Sounds fab.  You have a great selection of flowers.  I have never had success at freesias, they do not seem to like my soil.   Corncockles are poisonous. not sure whether you have children, not sure how poisonous they are.   One of my children was big on eating anything she could reach so we had to be very careful.

[Deb P]

I planned my back garden around around colours, white to yellow/orange on one side, pink to purple/ blue on the other, which looks harmonious however you plant it up.. I plant in bold blocks of at least nine plants, with some foliage plants which remain green breaking up the blocks, and use small topiary balls and pyramids to give some structure (bargains from Costco, Ikea and Aldi!). I grew most of my shrubs from seed as it was the cheapest way of doing it but now need to have a bit of a restructure as they are full size now!

[eastybeasty]

thanks for the heads up about corncockle, no kids so that isnt a problem. hmm hadnt thought about planting similar colours together, thanks for that tip, that at least would give me somewhere to start from! too many flower ideas and not enough space / planning ability! hehehe. im also giving this "just plant stuff places and hope for the best" approach some more thought, although i do have the slight worry that if i do that the garden will look like ive done just that! its still work in progress at the mo :) hehe

[GrannieAnnie]

The few things I've learned over the years for what it's worth:
Groupings of 3 or 5 of same plants together looks less spotty than one here and there (unless they are huge plants or shrubs that can make "a statement"

Or group same colors together of different species

Using a lot of white flowers seems to help everything hang together better. Your alyssum might do that especially if you use it in many places. I'm doing that with alyssum, daisies and white petunias and some white-edged flowers. Also the white shows up well towards dusk.

Post a picture when you're done for those of us who are nosy!