Keep your garden looking great all year

As gardens become smaller and new technologies make outdoor living easier, increasingly people see their gardens as an integral part of their living space. And why wouldn't you want to benefit from a beautiful garden every day of the year? Luckily, there are many ways to do this.

Combine different textures and colours of evergreen plants

• Gold: Carex ‘Evergold’, Choisya Sundance
• Silver: astelia, Brachyglottis ‘Sunshine’, stachys (Lamb’s ears)
• Blue: Festuca glauca, eucalyptus
• Variegated or patterned: phormiums, ivy ‘Midas Touch’, Acorus ‘Ogon’
• Bright green: Fatsia japonica, griselinia
• Red and orange: Photinia ‘Red Robin’, phormiums, heucheras

Ivy ‘Midas Touch’

Eucalyptus

Carex ‘Evergold’

Stachys

Fatsia japonica

Photinia ‘Red Robin’

These shine out all the more against a dark background such as a holly hedge or a conifer like Thuja ‘Brabant’. Mixing coloured-leaf evergreens can create vibrant and long lasting displays, as bright as any flowers.

The Foliage Garden at RHS Garden Rosemoor looks fantastic all year

Evergreens look great when covered in frost

Use strong structural elements like pots, sculptures or topiary

Topiary looks great all year round

Structural elements such as hedges, sculptures, large pots and topiary can form the ‘bones’ of a garden. They look good all year round; in summer giving background to the fullness of growth, then in winter they come into their own as the focus of attention.

Consider a punch of colour

Colour can come from both man-made and natural elements.(2018 RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Outside no.39) 

Pick plants with more than one season of interest

Amelanchier in spring...

... in summer

... and in autumn

Many plants have multi-season interest. Amelanchiers have lovely spring blossom, wildlife-friendly (and edible) berries in summer, and fantastic autumn colour. The Tibetan cherry, Prunus serrula, is another good bet, featuring lovely shiny

Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.

Install some garden lighting

Lighting can hugely extend the amount of time you can enjoy your garden

There’s more low-voltage and solar-powered garden lighting available now than ever before, which means it’s easier and cheaper to install yourself. Garden lighting makes a massive difference to the amount of time you can appreciate your garden, and not just on warm summer evenings. Even on cold dark winter nights, a few discreetly-placed lights can mean the garden can be appreciated from indoors – especially if you can see them from the kitchen window or through French doors.