My Garden

Planting plan for a small Parterre

Last post 07-10-2009 11:32 PM by Lady P. 4 replies.

• 07/09/2009 04:57 PM

  Hilary Location: Herts Joined on: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

  Reply | Contact I want to create a small, simple parterre in my front garden (which runs straight onto a country lane no pavement) so the hedge will give me a boundary. I have no clue as to a planting plan, do I go for successional planting as in my 'normal' flower beds, or do I go for structural plants rather than flowers. It will be about 8 metres long and 4 metres wide edged with Japanese Holly to about 20 cms and maybe 2 diagonal lines corner to coner. Regards H

• 08/09/2009 11:05 PM

  In reply to

  richardpeeej Location: Leicester Joined on: 22 May 2009 Posts: 807

  Reply | Contact Hi Hilary I must admit I had to look up what a parterre was - now I know. have a browse through this link the pics look good but of a larger scale to yours - anyway you may get some inspiration- good luck with it. It  would be nice to see a picture of your Parterre when its finished (if possible) cheers Richard http://images.google.co.uk/images?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&rlz=1T4GGLL_en-GBGB331&q=parterre%20design&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Richard

• 09/09/2009 09:18 AM

  In reply to

  Hilary Location: Herts Joined on: 04 Sep 2009 Posts: 3

  Reply | Contact Thanks Richard these are a great help. Ii suppose knot garden is the other name altho I don't want the shape to be as intricate as a knot garden. These pics and articles are excellent, just what I need, I've even learnt what parterre stands for from them - 'partitioned earth' which is exactly what it is! It will be a long haul, we are busy clearing rather large shrubs and trees and trying to get rid of huge roots before we get down to the lovely job of planting. Will keep you posted! Regards Hilary

• 07/10/2009 09:48 AM

  In reply to

  James Gardner Location: Cambridgeshire Joined on: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 29

  Reply | Contact Hi, Sounds like a great project, IO'm always pleased when people take an interest in there fron gardens as that benifits the whole community and makes a better environment for us all. Parterres usually work best with a backbone of structural plants to tie the design together throughout the seasons and then infill with seasonal colour or even use herbs and vegetable to create a 'potager' garden. Good luck. James Gardner

• 07/10/2009 11:32 PM	In reply to
  Lady P Location: West Sussex Joined on: 26 Apr 2009 Posts: 13	Reply | Contact James' suggestion of herbs works really well - I created a small knot garden (not too many knots though!) for a customer and used roses and herbs.  No pics I'm afraid and not due back for another few weeks, but would happily upload some if that's of interest?  Good luck with the project