Enjoy year-round colour the easy way
Planning and planting ideas that will fill your garden with flowers 365 days a year. We bring you inspiration for every day
Texture, form and structure are key elements when designing an outdoor space, but colour is a vital component. It catches the eye, raises the spirits and creates a particular mood. While it’s easy to create a space that’s a riot of colour for several months in summer, a well-crafted garden has different hues woven through the design, providing interest in some form every day of the year. Flowers tend to be the first port of call when thinking about colour in a garden but foliage, stem colour, tree bark and berries can all contribute and are essential for those cooler, out-of-season months. The key is to use every opportunity to layer seasonal colour throughout your planting schemes (see overleaf). Narrowing down your colours to a handful that combine well makes it easier to plan a succession of interest, especially in smaller spaces, and will also prevent the planting from looking a bit hotchpotch. Some colours are easier to carry through the seasons. Pastel tones, for instance, are common throughout the year with flowers in a variety of shapes and forms, whereas darker colours such as reds and oranges can be hard to find in early to midsummer. It’s important in a small garden to grow plants that provide colour over a long period or that have different points of interest for more than one season. For example, a small crab apple tree has beautiful white spring blossom followed by attractive autumn foliage and colourful fruits, while Japanese
Creating 12 full months of interest is the holy grail of gardening. Louise Curley has some good advice
maples such as Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ provide sparkling spring leaf colour and fiery red tones in autumn. Consider stealing space from your lawn to create wider borders. A general rule of thumb is that borders should be as wide as the height of a boundary wall or fence to create a visually pleasing sense of proportion and, more importantly, plenty of space for colourful plants. You could even replace a lawn with winding paths between deep borders to maximise planting space. Focus on providing continual colour in the most prominent and well-used areas of your garden, and don’t forget to provide a colourful welcome in the front garden too. Seasonal containers are particularly useful for injecting colour where you need it.