A workmate asked me recently about landscaping. She wants to change out overgrown shrubs and install a new landscape, and she is intent on doing it her way. Ahh, that speaks to me loudly!

            She admitted that she doesn’t know lots about horticulture, but she knows what she likes. Wildlife and scent for starters. She is trying to avoid the ubiquitous scenario of foundation plantings that often stretch out in never-ending lines across suburbia. “I look down my street and it’s house after house of the same shrubs – carbon copies,” she said. Rather than relying on shrubs and low maintenance plantings, her new garden is to be full of perennials and lots of flowers. And especially those that attract birds, butterflies and perfume the air.

            Definitely a gardener after my own heart! This is what the garden should stem from. And this is my basis for design: what do you want it to do for you?

            Never mind the cookie cutter, same old, tried and true repeats. Originality is what a garden should be – for better, for worse. Amendments are expected along the way. This is not to say that you don’t map things out before heading off to the nursery.

            Every successful garden should have a plan, whether it’s a window box, a vegetable bed or a front-of-the-house border. There are some rules of thumb to follow, but there is a lot of room for creativity.

            The main thing in planning a garden plot is that you plan it as you imagine yourself in it. Since it is you who will live with it and walk past it daily and presumably work in it, the decision-making should ultimately be yours. You will be the one looking out the window or walking the garden path. It’s only right that you shape your small patch on the planet. I understand there are those who do not want to govern such a world and prefer to let a landscaper make their choices. This column is not for them. It’s for the person who needs a bit of guidance and who doesn’t mind making mistakes.

            First, define your intentions. What’s this garden supposed to say? What is its purpose? Is it to be a floral border – and if so, during which seasons will it be viewed? Do you want to attract wildlife? Or is it a vegetable plot or a formal bed, or perhaps a kitchen garden? A cross between practical and whimsical? Is it to be low-maintenance or require daily attention?

            If you have a blank lot, then you also need to assess it before choosing a location. Look at the existing land features, those that might be played up or obscured. How are vistas beyond your space affected? Since sunlight determines the kinds of plants you grow, examine where it is throughout the course of a day.

            “Just as it makes sense to live in a house before undertaking major architectural changes, so it makes sense to live in a yard before turning it into a garden to consider structural decisions, to study the light and to discover where you find yourself hanging out,” writes Cheryl Merser in her book, “A Starter Garden: The Guide for the Horticulturally Hapless.”

            After pinpointing and preparing the site, plants can be selected. This is the fun part, and undoubtedly, you’ve already been visualizing your garden plants and design. Ms. Merser compares it to planning a wardrobe.

            “The basic items are those that will carry you through most of the year; in plant terms that usually means evergreens. Adding in and around the evergreens, you put in seasonal touches, the shrubs that reach their flowering glory once a year. And as with a wardrobe, you will inevitably make some impulse purchases.”

            She advises anchoring the garden with several of the same shrubs grouped together. The result will be soothing and harmonizing. “Tempting as it is to buy one of each kind of shrub, you want to avoid having your garden look like a sales rack.”

            Think about how your selected plants will mingle. If you’ve established a color scheme in your mind’s eye — such as soft yellows, creamy white with splashes of mauve and lavender — then test it on paper with colored pencils or watercolors. Computer programs are also available. My friend has one that shows how the scheme will progress into maturity.

            Bloom time is another major consideration, along with what happens to the plants in the winter. Nantucket Hydrangeas may flaunt their beautiful blue blossoms in the summer, but by winter the shrub is reduced to a mass of sticks and shriveled bouquets.

            Ornamentation isn’t restricted to the perennial border. You can have as much fun with a vegetable plot. Vegetable gardens can be beautiful if you introduce some patterns with paths and beds. The French are well known for their handsome culinary gardens.

            Grouping different bulbs, annuals and perennials within the garden framework of trees and shrubbery is the most creative process of gardening. How will they cohabitate? Will one upstage the other or will they be equals? How would a boxwood look in a rose garden, or the birch tree beside the fringe tree? What is the best partner for a peony, or do they need the stage to themselves? Things often don’t turn out the way we plan. The accidental elements of gardening give our outdoor rooms charm and individuality.

One final word – that I learned from the late great horticulturalist Allen Haskell: don’t forget the element of time and growth. My friend’s landscaper didn’t consider this when he installed arborvitae within a small geographic area. And I also stand guilty as when I planted a birch tree many years back. It towered over a rose garden – causing it to go from sunshine to mostly shade in a matter of a few years. Luckily, I’m as adaptable to change as the garden.

            “A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches entire trust.” – Gertrude Jekyll.

The Seaside Gardener

By Laura McLean