FOR A LARGE PLOT

Using colour in a big garden is a luxury few of us have, but one that needs to be embraced on a grand scale – no point thinking small here. Here, large blocks of colour can be used, which means lots of plants are needed. Unless you’re a millionaire, propagating your own plants is the best solution. Those millionaires don’t know what they’re missing!

Choosing plants that clump up quickly is a winning policy and using a range of plants with diverse habits, heights and deportments helps, too.

Gertrude Jekyll planned some of her borders as a spectrum travelling through the rainbow, though blue and indigo never met; they were at either end of the border. This is just one idea.

You need to deal with succession. It is not a problem, but an exciting adventure to think about how plants will follow one another and the different stage one plant will have reached when its neighbour begins its best display. Nothing is static – colour in any garden changes from week to week, month to month, season to season.

In a big garden there’s the opportunity to be adventurous; you also get the chance to create the kind of mood and effect you want and perhaps that should be the starting point for the colour that will predominate. Plant in big drifts, but not of the same size. Edit the varieties you use, rather than turning your garden into a collection, and limit the colours you use. Repeat plants at different intervals to establish rhythm.