THIS month we had a packed house for Katie Rushworth’s second visit to Wharfedale Gardeners’ Group when she came to talk about garden design. Having worked alongside Alan Titchmarsh on ITV’s ‘Love Your Garden’, she honed her professional skills, putting design ideas into action.

Katie took us through her no-nonsense approach to designing, planning and revitalising our gardens. Sometimes working with clients all over the world, she discovered during lockdown that garden design advice could also work online. She is able to deliver affordable, do-able projects that can either be done by a professional team or be done by yourself, as and when you have the budget, the time and the energy.

She began by suggesting that a simple revamp can do wonders with a simple whizz round with a jet washer to remove mould, brightening paths and patios in an instant. Then, painting sheds and garden furniture to inject colour and refresh dull and dreary wooden structures. An assortment of mismatching garden fences can be unified by being painted them all the same colour, preferably in a darker shade, to allow the greenery to shine Katy’s bugbear is tiny pots scattered around the garden. She recommends buying only larger pots, mainly for aesthetic purposes and for retaining more water during the summer. Small pots, she says, are a trip hazard.

When creating a seating area, perhaps to catch the morning or evening sun, she suggested setting rather than pushing it up to the boundary, allow an enclosing background of plants and shrubs to create more privacy and a wrap-around feeling of security. Adding structural shapes of planting gives a solid base, even during the winter. Use box or pittosporum topiary, small trees and trimmed shrubs then infill with grasses for movement interspersed with flowers and bulbs for spring to autumn colour.

Her ‘bomb-proof’ plants are easy to grow, need little care and guarantee success in almost every garden. Favourites are Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, Hakonechloa, the Japanese grass (sways beautifully in a breeze), Erigeron (Mexican fleabane) which reseeds itself in any nook and cranny. Often seen in the Chelsea designer gardens, is Verbena bonariensis popping up amongst the beds along with most Hebes, Choisya, Kniphofia and Nepeta. Hardy Geraniums, are easily split to make more plants and it is always good to have the same plant repeated across the garden, a designer trick she uses often. One particular favourite is burgundy flowered Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘September Spires’, dotted through shrubs and grasses.

Katie’s enthusiasm and energy has encouraged us to take a fresh look at our plots with renewed vigour, whether large or small, new or well established. One of her favourite pastimes at this time of year is sitting on the sofa thumbing through bulb catalogues, it is a relaxing way to think about the riot of colour to come. Perhaps over the winter we shall all enjoy this diversion and be making plans to revamp, rejuvenate and redesign our own gardens.