Ensuring freshness even in formal designs

Formal design has as its base a strong permanent framework, yet good designs should cater for the supporting planting to be changed every three or four years.

The permanent framework in this garden is the pleached hedge, the parterre, the yew hedges, the rope and post borders, the rosebushes and the paved areas. The long borders in the lower photographs are chosen for plant shape, foliage and flower colour - and for the fact that they will be changed on a regular basis.

This allows for deep soil cultivation, the combating of weeds and the introduction of young plants. It also allows different compositions to be tried.