When the UK’s John Brookes visited the Toronto Botanical Garden recently, it was a rare opportunity for midtown gardeners to learn from one of the world’s foremost garden design experts.
Over the course of two lectures and a four-day class, Brookes led aspiring designers through his creative process and shared his personal favourites from among the hundreds of gardens that he’s designed around the world.
After his final lecture we asked Brookes and Paul Zammit, horticulture director at Toronto Botanical Garden, for some tips on how local greenthumbs can design their own gardens at home.
Begin with a simple design, and don’t try to make it all happen at once Brookes emphasizes keeping it simple.
“It doesn’t have to be fancy,” he says. “If you don’t know your plants, just work with big clumps of those that you do.”
Zammit, who spent nearly 20 years as a garden centre manager before joining the Botanical Garden six years ago, suggests basing a design on certain factors, such as the amount of sunlight in a given location (edible plants need the sunniest space). If preparing a shaded space for children, don’t plant trees where they’ll block your best light.
“Know what the garden’s role is going to be,” Zammit says. “Then start with one portion at a time.”
Invest in your infrastructure
“Include decent pavings,” Brookes says, and Zammit agrees. “Good hardscaping not only provides structure, form and shape, but is also key for maintaining the garden,” Zammit notes.
Effective paving leads visitors through your garden, showing them where to look, and facilitates access for the gardener too.
“I have maintenance paths to get to my bed, and they all lead back to the composter,” Zammit says.
Which leads to gardening infrastructure’s other half: investing in soil is critical too. Zammit encourages aspiring gardeners to compost.
Consider your plants carefully
Brookes and Zammit differ on this one, with Brookes emphasizing choosing plants you’re familiar with, while Zammit encourages home gardeners to visit public gardens, find out what appeals to them and choose a combination of plants that provide year-round interest.
Ornamental grasses such as feather reedgrass and fountaingrass look as beautiful in the winter as they do in summer, but Zammit does recommend knowing whether you want high-maintenance or low-maintenance plants, and planning accordingly.
Include the odd raised bed or container
Ceramic containers add height and dimension to a garden, and allow plants to grow in places they otherwise wouldn’t, such as on a patio.
Raised beds — 12–16-inch wooden support beams used to create a foundation of soil where none existed — can also be useful, and are often used by urban gardeners to grow vegetables.
They can also raise the level of a garden, which is useful for people with mobility difficulties.
Involve every member of the family
“Have something the kids might enjoy growing as well,” Brookes says. “Lettuce or radishes — something simple.”
Zammit agrees, saying that growing vegetables is a good way to encourage children to learn about where their food comes from.
“Kids are more likely to eat peas they’ve grown themselves than if you buy them,” he says.
Vegetables aren’t the only plant that can be a hit with kids, however. Butterfly bush is one that not only attracts the eponymous
insects but comes in a variety of bright colours, like orange, pink and red.
“Recognizing that your act of gardening is not just for aesthetic value, but also includes environmental value, is a great message
to teach children,” Zammit says.
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