Colour for every space

In the final part of her series, Carol Klein shows you how to put colour theory into practice no matter how tricky your plot

Everyone has their own colour sensibility, their own preferences, their own taste. Who knows whether or not our common colour language actually equates to the same colours perceived. Let's hope it does. We use a common language to talk about it and share an enthusiasm for using it, though every one of us has our own colour sense and our own way of applying it in our gardens.

Colour plays a vital role in all our gardens, whether it is cunningly conceived or accidentally achieved, the first impression that we receive, be it in our own gardens or anyone else's, is of colour. As our intellect gets to work and takes over, other aspects take on greater significance.

Our brains may register form, pattern and stature, but perhaps colour has the greatest effect. So how do you use colour in different locations to manipulate the space or respond to the specific conditions? Can colour make a small garden look bigger? What colours work best in a shady spot? Certainly food for thought.

"You need to deal with succession. It is an exciting adventure to think about how plants will follow one another"

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.