Creating a successful planting scheme, is based on the exactly the same principles which determine the success or otherwise of an interior home design, a sculpture, a painting or the outfit to be worn for a social event. A person who knows how to dress, should theoretically, be able to "dress" the garden well too. However, it's very common to find people whose home is a model of fine taste and whose dress is impeccable, and yet for some reason, when it comes to the garden, seem to jettison their more finely tuned instincts and even design knowledge, in favor of the "anything goes" attitude. However, the more disciplined the approach, the likelier the chance of achieving a balanced, harmonious, intriguing garden composition. This means as with dress or designing a sitting room, that the number of different type of elements - in the case of the garden - plants, should be relatively restricted.

Many of the world's great gardens were formerly private estates, but are now open to the public, as is the case in the U.K. A common feature is for the garden to be divided into rooms, where in each, a certain motif dominates. There can be a "white" garden, or a "blue" garden, an ornamental grass, and a rose garden amongst others. This preoccupation with finding a clearly defined motif, should in no way be confused with the theme park syndrome, suitable for Disneyland or perhaps some rock stars. The point is though, that the principle characteristic that makes these gardens so wonderful, is the definition, the restriction, the narrowing down of the options available.

Naturally the sub-division into separate units is inapplicable to a small, suburban plot, and as a result, the tendency is to try and cram as many different species as possible into the small space. So we end up with the "must have" garden - the obligatory rose bed, herbaceous border, rockery and fruit tree or two, the water feature and in hot climates, the tropical corner. All this within 100 meters square! An alternative approach, one that may appear at first to be conservative and cautious, but can in fact be far more daring, bold and interesting, is to aim for the "only" garden. This could mean for example, choosing only species that have a certain leaf texture in common, or only plants within a certain color range. It takes considerable courage to go down this route, if for no other reason than it goes against the grain and against what most home owners may consider the norm. So here are some ways of achieving a composition that is both unified and varied, simple but intriguing.

* One possibility, albeit an extreme one, is to choose every specimen from one plant type only. An example, admittedly not to everyone's taste, would be a conifer garden. There are so many varieties of Juniper, encompassing every form, size, habit and color conceivable, that a whole garden could be composed from this one genus alone.

* A certain genus or plant type could dominate, but it could be combined with other plants which share a common characteristic. An appropriate example would be mixing the shrubby Chrysanthemum, C. frutescens, with Junipers, because on the one hand, the Chrysanthemums' leaf texture is very similar to that of the Juniper, while on the other, the formers' flowers will provide contrast to the Junipers' foliage.

* A more relaxed approach is to choose the main landscaping plants from genera belonging to a single botanical family. Species of Grevillea, Banksia and Hakea (Proteaceae) from Australia fall into this category. They could also be mixed with a small number of "outsiders", that are of course similar in most of their features to the main group, such as Rosemary for instance. Much can be done by combining bushes and trees of the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) such as species and varieties of Melaleuca, the beautifully elegant Syzygium, Metrosideros, and the fruit yielding bushes, Pitanga and Feijoa.

One word of caution though. While reducing the number of species is desirable from a design point of view, it should be borne in mind that bio diversity is necessary from the angle of natural pest control.