Which plants suit your garden best?

Selecting the right plants is key to a successful garden. It takes more than a casual walk through a roadside nursery to get the right plants for your landscape scheme.

There are three things to consider: The plants themselves and their growth requirements, your site conditions and how well they will suit your design intentions.

The process starts with the design. You will first need to decide where you need a tree, shrub or ground cover. Then down the road you have to decide the best plants for each category. Here are some tips to help you make the right choices.

Plant needs vs site conditions

All plants require a certain set of growing conditions to thrive. A plant that is adapted to grown in cool and wet conditions may not thrive in the hot and dry savannah conditions of Kitengela or Kajiado. Thus the condition your site will determine what plants will grow well there.

Soils too vary greatly in acidity, drainage, and fertility. Sandy soils are usually well-drained, while clay soils may become water-logged. Few plants do well in either situation. Fortunately you are unlikely to find a site that has purely clay or sandy soils. There is always a mix.

It is important to do a soil test in order to understand your soil conditions and make informed decisions based on the analysis when selecting plants. Of course, you can always amend your soils to suit certain plants but it is always better to select plants for your soil, rather than try and change the soil.

Plants also vary in their sunlight requirements. For example, the Japanese yew does well in shade, but junipers need full sunlight to grow well and look their best. As you evaluate alternative landscape designs, consider shade patterns created by buildings and existing plants.

Design considerations

Plants have different forms, or growth habits. Vertical plants such as ashoks and palms grow upright and narrow and are usually used sparingly as accents or to provide height in the design. Horizontal forms such as that of the Brazillian pepper tree are used to provide width and to ‘tie’ tall structures to the ground. Weeping plant forms such as the weeping bottlebrush are mostly used to provide accents while rounded forms are suited for massing, borders or enclosures.

The size of a plant’s leaves, twigs and branches determines its texture. Fine-textured plants have small leaves and twigs, coarse-textured ones have large ones, and medium-textured plants are in between. You may want to select plants of all three textures.

Often through, the size of a landscape space will determine what texture is appropriate. A small space, for instance, will seem larger with fine-textured plants than with coarse-textured ones.

Dominant colour

The dominance of one colour helps provide harmony in a home landscape as well as throughout an entire neighborhood. For most people, green foliage creates a restful landscape. But you may want to select plants with a particular fruit, bark and leaf colour to serve as accents and to create variety across seasons.

You may also want to consider some native plants in your planting design. Native plants are just as beautiful as non-native ones and are often better adapted to local growing conditions. They also attract local birds and butterflies to your garden and are resistant to local pests and diseases. Find out from your local nursery which native plants are in stock.