Designing a Flower Border with Jo Thompson in Four Sessions - February, April, June and September

Designing a Flower Border with Jo Thompson - In Four Sessions.

If you have ever wondered how to go about designing the planting for a flower border in your own garden, join us here at Water Lane for this series of 4 workshops through the year. Our friend and Water Lane’s Garden Designer, Jo Thompson will be taking us along on a journey through planting design, explaining methods and sharing tips and tricks as well as border designs she has worked on over the years. We’d advise that if you can, you join all 4 workshops, which will be a mix of talks and practicals as we’ll also be going outside to work on the design for Water Lane’s own Melon House border which is being re-designed and re-planted over the course of 2023. The Melon House border at Water Lane is near 30m long and some 3m deep.

This first session in February considers a seasonal approach to planting design as Jo looks at how to go about starting from scratch with an area or existing border, taking stock of what’s already there, looking at the soil and the conditions in order to select the best possible plants for the site. We’ll be looking at that all-important plant structure and the idea of Spring interest.

In April, for the second session, we’ll be getting together again to check on the border’s progress, and to look at choosing those important fillers – annuals and summer bulbs – and how we use them to create different effects. We’ll also be going  outside to show you how to set out plants to achieve the best possible effect. 

The third workshop in June, will look at the flowering shrubs that will have started to flower, and we’ll be looking at height and volume in the border, as well as harmony and atmosphere. We’ll be looking at how we can extend the border interest so that there’s something to look at all the way through to September. All the while looking at the progress of the Water Lane Melon House border.

September is the last session, when the border will have been fully designed and planted. We’ll be looking at how winter interest can be combined as well as thinking about tulips and other Spring bulbs, in order to create your bulb shopping list. Jo will be sharing favourite varieties and combinations, and will also be looking at the practical side of bulb planting. In this final workshop of the series, Jo will reflect on the how the Melon House border has evolved over the 8 months since the work began and share some of the successes (and failures) as well as look at how to make improvements (and correct any mistakes) for the following year.

This is an exciting series in which you get to see how a new border is conceived and come to life over the course of the year.

To gain the most from these workshops we recommend booking all 4 workshops. 

Individual workshop price £45 or make use of our Special Offer - Book all four dates at once and receive a £20 off*.

Session one - Thursday 23rd February

Session Two - Thursday 20th April

Session Three - Thursday 21st September AM

Session Four - Thursday 21st September PM

Workshops include light refreshments.

(*Discount only applicable when you select the 'All Four Stages' option above.)

Why not book lunch in our restaurant after your workshop. Click here to make a restaurant booking.