My planting scheme for RTE Super Garden 2024

Above is my planting for the show, illustrating my planting choices and positioning within the design. Each was specifically chosen to serve a purpose, stimulating at least one of the senses.

• Festuca glauca ‘Easy blue’

Chosen for texture and form, a spiky blue grass, growing to 30cm in height

• Thymus x Citrodorus ‘Lady D’

Fragrant and edible, with lemon scented foliage, growing to a height of 30cm.

• Thymus serpyllum

Fragrant and edible with clusters of purple flowers in summer. It will grow to a height of 10cm and spread of 50cm.

• Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead'

A great pollinator blue-purple flowers in mid to late summer, and chosen due to its incredible fragrance. I created a lavender hedge alongside the path leading to the boardwalk so it can be brushed when walking past to release its fragrance. Grows to height of 40cm and spread of 1m,

• Cedrus atlantica. Glauca Pendula

An impressive small, weeping tree with glaucous, blue-green spiky textured foliage. A perfect tree for a small garden due to its weeping form. This tree has been trained to an arch shape, offering shade to sit under on a warm sunny day.

• Hydrangea Aspera ‘Hot Chocolate’

Great for pollinators, with clusters of pink ruffled fragrant flowers which have an unusual sweet liquorice scent. The textured hairy leaves are attractive throughout the year, dark purple when young and with burgundy-red undersides.

• Panicum virgatum ‘Squaw’ and Panicum virgatum Northwind. I used a selection of ornamental grasses throughout my design, also including Anemanthele lessoniana, Stipa tenuissima Pony Tails, Pennisetum alopecuroides, Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln', Carex comans 'bronze form’, Festuca glauca ‘Easy blue’, Miscanthus sinensis Red Chief, Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Silberspinne' and Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'. Ornamental grasses are a must for any sensory garden due to their sound and touch. They also create a habitat for wildlife and provide seeds for birds and nesting material.

• Fargesia Jiuzhaigou

When choosing a bamboo for the garden it's very important to choose a variety which is clump forming, as other varieties can be invasive and spread like wildfire due to their underground shoots of bamboo (called rhizomes).

I choose this variety to surround the sensory swing and provide movement and a relaxing sound when blown by wind. It also reaches a height of 3m, so eventually it will encase the swing and create a sensory escape.

• Fatsia japonica Spiders web

I choose this Fatsia for its unusual texture, which appears like its name, a spider web across the large foliage. It's also good for pollinators in the winter months with clusters of white flowers in autumn, followed by black berries. Grows to a height of 2.5m, but can be pruned smaller if needed.

• Verbena bonariensis, 'Lollipop'

I am a huge fan of Verbena and love including it in my sensory designs due to its aromatic foliage, elegant flower heads and how it's a great pollinator. 'Lollipop' is a dwarf cultivar with a height and spread of 1m, and great for planting schemes.

Planting scheme including:

• Erysimum 'Bowles's mauve'

Great for pollinators with its nectar/pollen rich flowers, and has a beautiful parma violet scent.

• Salvia microphylla 'Glacier'

Salvia have small fragrant leaves so they're a great addition to a sensory bed. Great for pollinators too with its white lipped flowers from summer to autumn.

• Echinacea purpurea & Echinacea purpurea Alba

Pink and white varieties of the coneflower, which grows to 1m in height. Another great pollinator and the flowers smell amazing.

• Nepeta × faassenii Junior Walker and Six Hills Giant

Also known as cat mint, Nepeta are a great addition to a sensory space with their very fragrant leaves and lavender-blue flowers from early summer to early autumn. It's also a great pollinator, so win win!

• Blechnum spicant

I used many different varieties of ferns within the Super Garden planting scheme including Dryopteris affinis, Matteuccia struthiopteris, Polypodium vulgare,

Ranging in size, evergreen and deciduous, they were chosen for their texture and filled the shady locations within the garden, not to mention, it's a popular plant on Love Island! Some are even edible such as the Matteuccia struthiopteris, and provides a habitat for wildlife in the winter months.

• Rosa 'Arthur Bell Floribunda'

A fragrant upright bush rose

with glossy bright green foliage and clusters of fragrant, cupped, yellow double flowers. With a height and spread of 1m, I placed it to the back of the bed due to the thorny stems however included it due to the sentimental value the yellow rose has with the family. I also used a yellow climbing rose, Rosa 'Golden Gate' for the two rose arches. The yellow rose really popped from the scheme, standing out against the green foliage throughout the garden and purple, blues and whites of the various flowers.

• Trachelospermum jasminoides

I used this vigorous, evergreen, woody climber for the pergola posts and over time, they would create a canopy along the roof beams of the pergola. It also has clusters of very fragrant, white flowers in mid to late summer.

• Trachycarpus fortunei & Chamaerops humilis compacta

I used various sized Trachycarpus and also Chamaerops humilis compacta to provide a mediterranean feel to the garden, and along with the tall grasses, worked extremely well agains the cyan blue wall giving that holiday feeling. I potted the Trachycarpus in bright white pots topped with marble chippings, and placed in various points of the garden including either side of the seating area of the pergola.

Other plants included in the scheme:

• Agastache 'Blue Fortune': An upright, deciduous perennial with aromatic leafy stems. From summer to autumn, there are small spikes of small, violet-blue flowers growing to a height of 1m. Great for pollinators too!

• Philadelphus × lemoinei: Known as mock orange, this deciduous low maintenance shrub has open white blooms in the summer which give off an amazing sweet scent and attracts an abundance of butterflies and bees!

• Hydrangea paniculata 'Grandiflora' Half Standard: Prolific showy blooms in mid-summer lasting into the autumn. It has strongly scented flowers appearing in cone-shaped clusters which are also great for bees.

• Penstemon Sour grapes: Grows to a height of 75cm, Sour Grapes is a great pollinator with rich purple flowers from July to August and is very fragrant.

• Lavender angustifolia 'Essence Purple': Another lavender used within the bedding scheme and worked well alongside Nepeta and Verbena.