Opinion: How form and texture makes your garden come together

For much of my life, I thought that colour was the most crucial element to any garden. I felt that if people could look at my garden and see colour year-round, I was acing it. It's only been in the last couple of years that I have realised that form and texture are equally important when designing your garden and contribute to its overall success and enjoyment of it. Let's look at how they are important and how you can use both in your garden to create balance and attractiveness to your eye.

Plant texture in your garden refers to the surface elements of your garden as well as the individual plant creating this for you. When designing your garden consider what your overall goal is - do you prefer a formal or informal outlook or maybe even a relaxed wild look. Textural elements help achieve this. 

Textured plants are normally bold or fine. Bold texture makes me think of big scrappy plants with nice and wide strong leaves or maybe even the flower creates the edgy focal point that you were after. Bold plants like the Ligularia reniformis with its tractor seat like leaf or the Leptinella Platts Black which have an impressive striking leaf. Bold plants work really well together to create a hedge or screen but too many in one area may look overwhelming. Fine texture makes me think of delicate wispy with lots of flow plants. These plants are fantastic planted in mass together as they often get lost if planted on their own. I like to plant them along hard edges to soften the area. Fine plants like the Gaura Sparkle White or Lavender Hidcote can create this atmosphere in your garden.

Plant form in your garden refers to the basic structure and shape of the plant or area that you are looking at. Forms create different effects within the area that you are planting. I often look around at how plants work well with each other and this gives me an idea of the texture and form that I want to plant together. You will soon develop an instinct on what shapes work well together.

The main plant forms that you will know well are upright or columnar and round. Different forms create different looks. The upright or columnar look gives the effect of height so when looking at this plant your eyes are drawn to it and you then instantly look upwards. These plants like the Thuja Smaragd or the Thuja Pyramidalis look great against tall houses or wider landscapes. Round plants draw your eyes downwards and to create this look I love to use Buxus Balls or the Pittosporum Frankies Folly.

Researching about a plant’s form when it reaches full size is very important when designing your garden with texture and form. Whatever your garden style make sure you take advantage and enjoy all that nature gives to us in the way of texture and form. And remember there is no right way to do it. It’s your garden, not anyone else!