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Garden design drawing in progress

New styles of planting

The mixed border of shrubs and herbaceous plants used to be everyone's idea of an attractive composition.

This kind of planting still has a place in the garden, but in recent years new ways of using plants have been developed.

Example of the new planting style in Wells, Somerset

New plant introductions allow me to be more imaginative with grasses, bulbs and herbaceous plants.

This used to be a piece of rough grass: green but with very little interest to wildlife or people. It marks the transition from 'garden proper' to the Chew Valley landscape beyond …

Example of the new planting style at Chew Magna, near Bristol, Somerset: garden before it was redesigned
Example of the new planting style at Chew Magna, near Bristol, Somerset: garden after it was redesigned

… so the planting here is a carefully chosen mix of wild and 'old-fashioned' flowers as can be seen in this detail.