Take your garden in a new direction with these must-have accessories

The simplest accessory is the humble plant pot. Planting in a pot means you have the flexibility of moving your greenery around – perhaps popping a scented sun-lover into the shade but next to a seated area for a social occasion to conjure up a fragrant atmosphere. Pots also create different levels of interest – even a small pot brings your planting to a different height and a collection of different-sized pots grouped together creates a multi-layered focal point.

Added to that some plants thrive better in pots. Agapanthus, for instance, flowers more prolifically when its root system is slightly restricted. Hostas can be lifted away from the threat of slugs and mint is better confined in a pot than rampaging all over the garden.

Hanging baskets can help to draw the eye upwards and create tiers of interest. Much like pots, there are plants which thrive in hanging baskets – trailing plants, such as trailing begonias and lobelia in particular, are attractive and benefit from the height to show off their best advantages.

Trellises are another accessory which can help your garden grow and help you to create interest and depth. A trellis is a framework for plants to grow up so is designed for creepers, such as clematis, roses and sweet peas. Its structure also makes it ideal for adding architectural shape to your garden. Add privacy with evergreen creepers, soften walls or other boundaries by adding a trellis on top, divide sections to create “rooms” or contrasting spaces or use it as a parameter in itself – a trellis really is your flexible friend in the garden.

All three of these garden accessories can be combined with a fourth option – a pergola. A pergola is a framework of vertical posts supporting an open lattice of crossbeams for a roof. While they are bigger and fixed in place unlike pots, they don’t have to take up a huge amount of room – in fact, this pergola from leading manufacturer Dunster House is just 2m by 2m. And the big advantage, because your plants are growing vertically, is that you get a lot more foliage per foot of garden!

Again, it’s the climbers who are your friends here; jasmine, honeysuckle, roses, clematis and wisteria. Plant them near a post at an angle, leaning towards your pergola so the plant can grow towards the structure as quickly as possible. Tie stems loosely to the posts as they grow to direct them where you want them. Run rust-proof wires across the open roof spaces to help vines curl themselves around the structure to make a leafy, living canopy overhead.

Hanging baskets can be suspended from the beams, pots arranged in clusters at the foot of posts and trellis attached to the sides of the pergola to help more delicate climbers get a grip and create more of a “garden room” effect, creating many different levels of interest.

And while many people do use a pergola as an outdoor room, taking advantage of the beautiful scents from many of the climbers to create a seating and socialising area, they can be sited in many places in the garden – to create a shaded walkway for instance.

One important tip to remember is that is that once your climbers really get going they will add a lot of weight to your pergola – choose a good quality product to begin with and prune regularly, once a year, to stop your climbers getting tangled or too heavy or overcrowded.

To find out more about Dunster House and their products click here.