When garden designers are creating planting plans, it is not just a random selection of plants that will enjoy the conditions, there are myriad factors to consider. At a basic level, garden designers will be thinking about soil pH, soil moisture levels, light and shade levels and exposure to the elements. However, from a cosmetic point of view, one of the most intruguing theories is the prospect-refuge concept originally propounded by Jay Appleton in 1975. If you are searching for garden designers in Glasgow, you will hopefully find a knowledgeable designer who is able to really think through your planting - especially your trees and hedges.

Garden designers in Glasgow and elsewhere will always have the ultimate size of herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees in mind when creating planting plans and garden designs for their clients. In slightly more ‘robust’ climates such as we have in Glasgow (compared to the rest of the UK), some plants will not reach their full potential however, and this is where a degree of horticultural knowledge comes into making sure planting plans are accurate when creating garden designs.

Garden designers and landscape gardeners often choose plants by thinking about how many seasons of interest they give. As a garden designer and landscape gardener based in Glasgow, I often choose the likes of Malus ‘Evereste’, a crab apple, as it gives three seasons of interest - spring flowers, leaves in the summer, and yellow foliage (and orange fruits!) in the autumn.

Bulbs are key to garden designs, be they for your Glasgow garden or elsewhere. Spring bulbs are really useful for garden designers and landscape gardeners looking for an impactful start of the season. September onwards is bulb planting time, and time to think about what your garden is going to look like through the winter too. With some thought, you can make sure a garden is looking good throughout the year. Some simple measures includes spring bulbs, ornamental grasses, shrubs with architectural frameworks, and herbaceous plants that die back gracefully enough to hold a winter frost in an attractive fashion. Don’t be tempted to cut everything back en bloc at the end of the winter as you can be losing a lot of winter interest that way. The winters can be long and hard in Glasgow, but some careful thought now can ensure you have a nice garden to look out upon through the upcoming months.

For people looking for garden designers in Glasgow or elsewhere, one of the first areas of confusion is the difference between garden designers and landscape architects. As a general rule, landscape architects tend to look after commercial scale projects often in the public realm, whereas garden designers tend to look after residential garden designs.

Autumn is a busy time for gardeners and garden designers, with only a few weeks left of long days our minds are focused on the winter nights ahead. Glasgow has experienced a couple of mild wet autumns and winters of recent, so it will be interesting to see what happens this year. Despite the occasionally inclement weather I have to say that this is my favourite time of the year for working in the garden, and for garden-owners, you can consider autumn to be the best time to set the ball rolling on new garden designs and planting plans.