ABSTRACT
Ornamental planting is an important part of the landscape, not just in parks and gardens but in streets, squares, car parks, recreation facilities, residential, health, education, industry, business and retail complexes: in short, anywhere that people can use and enjoy it. The character and scale of ornamental planting varies from extensive areas of mass shrub planting to the most intensively planted beds and containers. There are some technical implications for the shape of planting areas that need mention. In public areas, planting is vulnerable to trampling by pedestrians and overrunning by vehicles. The key to ornamental planting areas, just as to effective structure planting, is to fully exploit the available ground area, by making use of the vertical arrangements the canopy and the seasonal rhythms of plant growth. Ornamental planting can also be very effective in specialized habitats like ponds, boggy ground, gravel and boulder screes, rockeries and drystone walls.
