Emulate Mother Nature, says TV gardening guru

“I love trees, but it is the plants that grow under them, the woodlanders, that really seduce me. They may be little flowers, but they have giant charisma,” she writes in her latest book, Making a Garden: Successful Gardening by Nature’s Rules.

“Woodlands are magical and they are nearly always intimate. It’s all about what’s behind the next tree and what’s at your feet and I love it when the canopy fills in overhead.”

Few of us may be lucky enough to have a woodland area in our garden but it’s amazing what we can grow in our own gardens where shadows are cast if we look at how Mother Nature deals with similar circumstances, she says.

“Even if you just have a tree in your garden, the conditions under that tree are going to be similar to those that you find in a woodland,” she explains. “It’s worth trying to emulate it and to go with the flow.”

Woodland plants shouldn’t be overfed – just add leaf mould to the ground and don’t try to improve the soil greatly, she advises.

“When you are planting things, just add compost, don’t add lots of bonemeal. Natural rules apply. And if you’ve inherited a garden, be careful when you prod around because lots of woodlanders are dormant until the spring. They tend to be Cinderella plants, coming up and then going back to sleep again.”

Snowdrops are Carol’s favourite Cinderella plants. “Everybody can grow them," she says. "They will grow best if they are reasonably damp, not too dry, and they love shade.”

She recommends Galanthus nivalis ‘S. Arnott’, which has a powerful scent, along with wood anemones, which you can grow well in the shady garden, and they are great fun to increase and colonise, she says.

“The native ones are lovely and there are pale blue ones including Anemone nemorosa ‘Allenii’ which has pale blue-grey flowers. I love the way they follow the sun. They’ll hang their heads on a cloudy day but as soon as there’s a lot of sunshine, the flowers open wide and follow the path of the sun.”

Once spring is over and the Cinderella plants have disappeared, don’t do much tidying up, she advises. Snowdrops may look untidy but you have to let all the goodness go back into the bulbs and it doesn’t last very long.

“You should keep on top of weeds but a lot of woodlanders are colonisers anyway. We don’t get vast invasions of weeds because there isn’t enough light.”

Trees are important and if you don’t have a huge amount of space, small trees which pack a punch include any of the flowering cherries, which also have autumn colour, and crab apples, which are a magnet for wildlife.

“If I had light, sandy soil I’d probably plant a rowan or two. Birch, whose vernacular name is ‘Lady of the Woods’, gives you this lovely dappled light but it’s better on a lighter acid soil than it is on heavy clay.”

The way you plant is also extremely important in a woodland setting, she explains.

“It isn’t a question of creating little cameos like you might in a perennial garden, or even making a big, clumpy statement, plonking everything together. It’s much more a question of planting little colonies and letting them intermingle, so you can underplant with bulbs. I’d use bulbs hugely but always go for types which come from that sort of setting.”

Klein has lots of hellebores which adore dappled shade, and ferns for dense shade. “I think ferns are just the most phenomenal plants,” she says.

Other plants which may suit shady, woodland areas include hardy geraniums, many of which love shade, which can take the show on further, while autumn is also a big window of colour when Japanese anemones come into flower and trees become the focal point.

It’s the time when the leaves of one of Klein’s favourite trees, the katsura, change to amber and soft pink, as its perfume fills the air.

Other parts of the garden may be set ablaze by brilliant crimson stems from dogwood, while the UK native spindle turns to cerise and vivid pink.

She is adamant about following in Mother Nature’s footsteps.

“When we are not sure about something, if we look at what Nature does – how she behaves and what she decrees – and we try to emulate her, we are well on the way to success.”

Making a Garden by Carol Klein (Photographs by Jonathan Buckley) is published by Mitchell Beazley, priced £25. Available on September 3

BEST OF THE BUNCH: SEA HOLLY (ERYNGIUM)

THIS upright, prickly herbaceous perennial provides colour and structure for the garden from midsummer until early autumn.

Tall candidates, which grow up to 120cm (48in), are ideal for the middle of a border and their steely blue shades are good partners for orange lilies or white-flowering perennials.

Good varieties include E. x tripartitum, which bears branching stems of violet-blue flowers with narrow, grey-blue bracts which are good for drying, and basal clumps of shiny dark green leaves.

Sea holly does best in full sun in poor, dry, gritty soil.

It may need to be protected from excessive winter wet in cold and exposed gardens.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT: GARLIC

Autumn is a good time to plant garlic, as it needs a period of cold weather to do well.

Buy bulbs which are specially cultivated for planting and plant them in a sunny site in well-drained soil.

If you have heavy soil add grit to help drainage.

Break each bulb into individual cloves and plant each one 10cm (4in) apart, with 30cm (24in) between rows.

Alternatively plant it in modules, choosing a tray with large cells to accommodate the cloves, and keep them in a cold frame over winter, before planting them out in the ground in spring.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

BORDER carnations and pinks layered in July should have rooted and can now be severed from the parent plant and planted into a prepared bed or overwintered in a frame

• Encourage outdoor tomatoes to ripen by giving them a light dressing of sulphate of potash
• As the days start getting shorter, buy lawn seed for sowing in autumn
• Pot alpines raised from cuttings in spring
• Sow hardy annuals to be overwintered outdoors and in the greenhouse
• Plant out spring-flowering biennials including wallflowers and forget-me-nots in their flowering positions to allow them time to establish before winter
• Plant prepared bulbs in bowls for indoor display at Christmas and early next year
• Plant new border perennials and water the plants in well
• Pick apples and pears as they ripen and store the excess
• Remove shading from the greenhouse to allow maximum light in as days get shorter