London - When planning the perfect garden, you’d think your watchwords would be water, sunshine – and luck.
But if you really want your pride and joy to make the neighbours swoon with envy, your mantra needs to be... sex and death.
Experts say these buzzwords could help you spruce up your garden into one worthy of the Chelsea Flower Show.
Award-winning garden designers Ann-Marie Powell and James Alexander-Sinclair have revealed their top tips for green-fingered magic in the latest edition of the Radio Times.
Under the heading ‘Remember sex and death’, RHS judge Alexander-Sinclair wrote: “Gardens are about sex, death and deliciousness. The sex bit is how the plant attracts the bees and pollinate it and then the garden grows. Eventually everything dies.”
He adds: “My advice is to ignore what garden advisers tell you and do what makes you happy. You need to enjoy your garden, not worry about it.”
The two experts, who present BBC coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show, suggest the key to a perfect garden should include large plants, lots of flair, bold arches, and even some wildlife.
Chelsea gold medal winner Powell added: “Plants that add flair – and that have worked very well at Chelsea in the past – are the ones that, in many ways, have been forgotten.
“Peonies, irises and lupins are all back in fashion now and they are the ones that get people talking.” Adding large plants can “lift the eye up” – and planting a tree can brings “excitement and glamour to a garden”.
Alexander-Sinclair recommends overriding an age old rule of gardening – that tall goes at the back and short at the front.
Instead, gardeners should try putting something “tall and gauzy” at the front, like allium hollandicum. Meanwhile, Powell warns garden enthusiasts not to “play it safe” – but instead try to use every space of the garden to create a “journey”.
Both also recommend creating a garden like an “outside living room”. Alexander-Sinclair urges people to take into account the style of building your garden is attached to, while his co-presenter suggests matching the flooring inside the house with the paving outside.
Adding a wow factor could be as simple as adding models of penguins or seals, or simply going for a more traditional arch or obelisk.
And if space isn’t at a premium, you could simply add smaller decorations, such as small containers on tables.
But if you have plenty of room at your disposal then bigger can be better – and elements like large Belgian stoneware pots can really improve the design.
Both presenters are among Britain’s top garden designers. Alexander-Sinclair has presented coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show since 2008.
Powell won the gold medal at Chelsea in 2010.
Daily Mail