7 creative GARDEN TWEAKS

The sap has risen; blossoms abound and new leaves are unfurling. Enjoy the gentle beauty of spring and tackle the usual spring chores with renewed vigour but, also think of new ideas to tweak your outdoor spaces and to intensify the pleasure that your garden gives you.

- Anna Celliers

1. Colour in a jiffy 

If you were a bit lax with your planting programme for spring and early summer, and are missing out on colour around you, relax. Nurserymen did all the work for you during winter and their display areas will be filled with colour pots or bags with annuals, bi-annuals and early flowering perennials already in flower to give you a quick fix.

2. Plug in some fleabane

Erigeron karvinskianus is one of those groundcovers that one can stick into nooks and cracks and will maybe forget about until it starts flowering (which is seldom not the case!).

If your old garden steps have become a bit worse for wear, or you have nooks and crannies to fill up, use fleabane. In this scene they have turned ordinary steps into flowering, romantic steps.

3. Keep it simple 

A large ball cut plant or any other spherical form makes a statement as a focal point where one is needed. If you have access to any type of stone which can be used like this, give it a try. Just packing it neatly will be therapeutic and the result will please you. A stone dome like this one, would be great between grasses or in a succulent garden.

4. Create a mono culture patch