Peter Dowdall discusses summertime jobs in the garden

As high summer approaches, Peter Dowdall dissects the seemingly effortless look of the cottage gardens seen in the summer’s shows.

Its high summer, it’s official. Next weekend is the longest day of the year and it has that habit of creeping up unannounced.

So many jobs and so much I want to get done before we land in summertime but here we are, time once more moving like a steamtrain hurtling forwards.

Summer is the culmination of all the year’s efforts and the time to really enjoy the garden.

It’s during these months that we live outside, grabbing sunshine days with both hands — dining alfresco, playing with the kids and grandkids, and making memories.

When you look back at old family photographs I bet most of them are outside in the garden and taken during the summer, not on a dreary day in November.

Perennials are coming into their best from now on and if you enjoyed one of the recent flower shows either in person or on television then you will have seen perennials — herbaceous and evergreen — taking centre stage.

As a group of plants, they are very much en vogue at the moment. In particular Salvias, Scabiosa, Nepeta, and Digitalis seemed to find their way into nearly every show garden in Ireland and England this summer.

And some other old favourites beginning to re-emerge as popular choices, such as Leucanthemums, Lupins, Delphiniums, Phlox, Hostas, and Astilbes.

These are all plants synonymous with traditional cottage gardens and you will have seen them planted in drifts, swathes, and en masse in Mallow, Bloom, and Chelsea over the last month.

There’s something so enticing about a well-tended, well-planted cottage garden, but how does it work? How can a garden with so many different plants but so little apparent design and structure work so well?

There are several things to look at when answering these questions but, for me, the most important is structure. There is a very fine line between informal and chaotic.

All of the best cottage-style informal gardens which may look like they have just happened or developed nearly by chance, have all been carefully planned.

That’s not to say that every single plant has been positioned from the drawing board but certainly thought has been given to certain plants and plant combinations.

One very easy way to create balance and structure in a mixed planting is by repetition. Repeating one or more plants through a planting scheme will give your eye some balance and will be restful to look at.

A garden which is just a collection of many different plants simply won’t work visually as your optic nerve is overcome with too many different forms and shapes and no balance. There is nothing restful about it.

If you study closely any garden or area of a garden that you like and examine the thought that has gone into planting, I would wager that it is not actually an unplanned collection of plants more a collection that have been worked around a feature plant or combination of plants that are repeated several times.

Stop and think for a moment the next time you see a garden that you like or you look at a photo in a book or magazine and just try and break it down into exactly why you like it and you may be surprised to see that a certain plant has been used several times throughout.

It can often go largely unnoticed. This feature plant doesn’t have to be the showiest plant in the garden.

No, it can be very simple, but it may occur in several places giving a feeling of continuity. Other things that make for good garden design and planting schemes are colour and often forgotten, texture.

Ornamental grasses bring a very definite texture to the garden, graceful, flowing and airy and Anemanthele lessoniana, also known as Stipa arundinacea or pheasant grass, offers such lovely movement and sound, it is a great addition to any bed or border.

I saw it at a show garden in the Mallow Garden Show last week where it was mixed with the blue leaves of Hosta Bressingham Blue, one of my favourite of the Hostas.

The effect was striking not so much because the colours mixed so well but more that the texture of the grass contrasted so well with the broad flat leaf of the Hosta.

The pheasant grass turns a lovely rich autumnal brown as the summer moves into autumn — unusual for an evergreen plant to offer such seasonal change. It will however die back for the winter if the season proves too severe.

Stipa will grow to about a metre in height and will spread to about the same so it does require some room, but give it the space that it requires and it will repay you with a colour that changes with the seasons and foliage that catches the wind and sunlight to create the perfect foil to any plant around it.