Plant a fragrant garden

Summer means you’ll be spending lots of time outdoors in your garden. Imagine your garden smelling fragrant and wonderful. Why not add a few special fragrant plants to those areas where you spend most of your time?

The beautiful smell of flowering shrubs or climbers will add a new dimension to your garden.

Here are some tips to get you started:

• Concentrate on planting in those areas where plants will have the most impact. Focus on the front of garden beds, along garden paths, next to windows and doors, and around outdoor patios.
• Fragrant herbs can be wonderfully uplifting and energizing for areas close to your kitchen,or outdoor dining areas. Try planting basil, thyme, garlic chives, rosemary and lavender in pots on kitchen windowsills or on an outdoor dining table.
• Fragrant climbing plants work well on outdoor pergolas or at entranceways. Try Chinese wisteria, jasmine, honeysuckle and clematis “Traveller’s Joy”.
• Line pathways and prominent garden beds with fragrant shrubs like lavender, frangipani, gardenia, butterfly bush, viburnum, magnolia and syringa.

Bonus tip: Give all your fragrant plants a good spray of water just before guests arrive. This will ensure they really come into their own and release their wonderful scents.