Once you’ve bought your plants, don’t just shove them into the border any old how, but think about each plant’s relationship with its neighbours.

The mixed garden: A planting scheme is like a recipe. You need the correct balance of ingredients — trees, shrubs, perennials and ground cover — to make it work.

Planting in layers: Most urban garden borders run around the plot’s edges — usually with a lawn in the middle. Most are too narrow, so make your borders as wide as you can.

Traditional tiered planting can be used to good effect against a fence or a wall. Trees, shrubs and perennials should be mixed together to give more than one season of interest.

Taller plants go at the back, then medium-sized shrubs and the bigger herbaceous perennials, with small, ground-hugging plants in front.

Form and function: All gardens need plants that will give it “weight” or “backbone”. These are almost always evergreen because their function is to provide a backdrop for other plants throughout the year. Evergreens (including conifers) come in numerous colours; they don’t have to be dark. Gardens aren’t only summer affairs — with these heavyweights you will have something to appreciate in winter, too.

It is not just evergreens that act as the garden’s skeleton: bright winter stems and bark, architectural form, berries and brilliant autumn foliage shouldn’t be neglected at times when flowers are rare.

Box and yew topiary is particularly suitable for tiny spaces as it provides form and greenery all year round. A row of clipped balls or cones near the front of a perennial border will provide interest when the show behind them is over.

Now add some deciduous shrubs to the mix, choosing those with a range of flowering times for continuity of display throughout the year.

Repeat, repeat, repeat: Excluding show-stopping specimens, most plants look better when they are planted in threes or in any odd number.

Avoid the common mistake of buying one of everything that takes your fancy, because your scheme will look messy. Better to group plants together and, if you have the space, to repeat that grouping elsewhere in the border; this makes for a rhythmic composition.

Once you have bought all your plants, play about with their arrangement and see for yourself. The visual effect you’re after is one of harmony, not a dog’s dinner.

Colour-wise: Don’t get too hung up on what colour goes with what. Green foliage acts as a buffer to the most outrageous combinations. Some of the most successful planting schemes use a cacophony of colours.

Common errors:

1. It might seem like a good idea to have fast-growing shrubs, but the downside is they will need a lot of hacking back.

2. Borders that are too small. Unless you have a tiny garden, if you can’t be generous with a border — and the minimum width should be 5ft — don’t bother. Thin borders look mean and, more importantly, won’t accommodate many plants.

3. Overfilling the garden. Accept it: there are going to be gaps in the first couple of years after planting. This is a time to use annuals.

4. Climbers that are too vigorous. If they go on the rampage, they can damage other plants or even the fabric of your home.

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