The art and science of plant arranging

5 tricks to decide which plants make good neighbours

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Hello readers old and new!

There are a lot of lists of cottage garden plants online and - happily - many of the plants in these lists can be grown successfully in Perth. That’s all well and good. You probably know what plants you want to grow. But that only addresses one half of the problem, the other half is: WHERE should you put them?

Knowing how best to arrange you plants is just as important as picking plants that thrive in your environment. You can be growing the happiest, healthiest plants in the world, but if they’re all smushed in higgledy piggledy, your garden probably won’t really pop.

As a true plant hoarder who refuses to choose a garden colour palette or stop collecting unusual plants on a whim (with no real idea where I’m going to put them), I have spent the last decade experimenting with ways to make my eclectic garden feel cohesive and beautiful. I still tinker and tweak constantly and there are always pockets of the garden that I’m itching to rework or revise. But there are a few rules of thumb that have really helped me over the years when deciding where to put my plants. So here are my 5 favourite tricks for plant arranging. I hope you find it handy!

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The art and science of plant arranging

These 9 tricks really all boil down to one thing - you want a garden that looks like it makes sense. That doesn’t stress you eyes out when you gaze over it, like a chaotic Where’s Wally picture.

psst… he’s behind the flower

Basically we are trying to find ways to create the loose, rambling cottage garden aesthetic, while avoiding a descent into chaos. The following 9 tricks help you do that by making it easier for your eyes (and brain) to make sense of your garden scene.

Arrange smaller plants in clumps of 3 or 5

Clumping smaller plants gives them more presence in your garden - your eye takes in each clump as one bigger chunk of garden, instead of getting overwhelmed by a heap of tiny, individual and discordant plants. Aim for odd numbers of plants in your clumps - it looks more natural.

This works well for: pansies, violas, cornflowers, sunflowers, petunias, yarrow, lamb’s ears, most bulbs and, generally speaking, most plants that grow less than about 60-80cm wide. If you feel like a section of your garden just isn’t working, often the first, simplest thing to try is clumping like with like - shift your smaller plants of the same species so they are all next to each other - and see if it helps.

Create contrast between neighbouring plants

One reason clumping plants helps make your garden nicer to look at is that clumps of plants are usually easy to distinguish from their neighbours, while lots of individual small plants just turn into a sea of chaos. The takeaway is that anything you can do to help differentiate your plants from their neighbours typically makes the scene more aesthetically appealing. So the next way to do this is by pairing contrasting plants side by side. Here are 5 ways to create contrast:

• Pair small blooms with large blooms - see how the red poppy jumps out at you in the photo below? The big poppy blooms create a lovely contrast with the small, fizzy parsley blossoms, each accentuating the other

• Pair horizontal blooms with verticals - try thinking about your plants in terms of whether their flowers bloom on a horizontal or vertical plane. Horizontal blooms include yarrow, fennel, carrot flowers and Queen Anne’s lace. Vertical blooms include oyster plants, hollyhocks, delphiniums, foxgloves, aloes and echium. There are other kinds of blooms to consider too, like alliums (leeks, garlic, onions), which have ball-shaped blooms. Just start trying to categorise your plants in terms of their flower shape, and experiment with making sure neighbouring plant clumps have different shapes.

• Contrast foliage size and colour - it also helps to contrast foliage in your garden, making it simultaneously more interesting and less chaotic. Pair plants that have deep, burgundy leaves with those that have silvery leaves, and avoid planting things with very similarly shaped or sized leaves directly next to each other. Here are a few combos to try: