Garden Design

Written by Garden Designer Mark Fenton.
For more information please visit his web site.

When designing an area of planting one of my main aims is to produce a plan which has a strong sense of coherence and harmony. One of the ways in which this can be achieved is through the repetition of plant material.

For a scheme to be balanced only a limited number of plants may need to be repeated. When choosing these it is important to consider whether their visual merit lies in their form, foliage or flowers. The decision of what to repeat will also depend upon the client brief and intended style. Below is a brief discussion of some planting styles and how repetition has been used to achieve a pleasing scheme.

The mixed planting style of Gertrude Jekyll (b. 1843) had a cottage garden exuberance. This was achieved through her use of a variety of plant material, with the main emphasis being upon flowers. By repeating plants of the same flower colour and tone she avoided a disjointed effect that would have been particularly noticeable in the large scale borders for which she was renowned. It is not essential that just one colour of flower or foliage is adhered to, although this can be attractive (for instance the White Garden at Sissinghurst - pictured above), Jekyll gradually worked along borders by the use of material with complementary colours.

Read more: The Importance of Repetition