Keeping the colour coming

Ruth’s tips and plantings for year-round garden interest

- Ruth

ACHIEVING year-round interest in the garden is the holy grail of horticulture, and while most people think that winter brings the drabbest days, this point of the summer can also create a ‘colour gap’.

The spring colours are fading and we are still a week or two away from summer's boisterous riot of colour. So, what can we do?

An immediate solution is to plant a container of ready-flowering plants or pop a few bedding annuals into your borders, but such a piecemeal way of gardening isn’t ideal.

The most sensible option is to design your garden as a whole rather than area by area, so you get a seamless run of colour and interest.

Focus on the gaps in the borders, see what is growing around them and plan plants according to their height (shortest at the front, tallest at the back/centre) and flowering period.

Think about when plants should be planted or sown each year (annuals in spring, spring bulbs in autumn, perennials planted in spring and autumn when the soil is warm and damp, and so on) so you can start creating your seamless palette straight away. However, for this summer the challenge is to keep whatever colour you have going until the next phalanx of flowers is ready to take over.