Garden typically look their best for just a few weeks in summer, when the flowers are in bloom and there is colour throughout the garden. However, it does not have to be that way.

With creative and considered planning and planting, you could achieve year colour throughout the year. Read on to find out how you can create year-round colour in your own garden.

Choose a Colour Scheme

When wanting to add colour to your garden, it can be easy to get carried away by adding all sorts of plants in a variety of colours. This is great if you are wanting to create a natural-looking, wild garden. However, for a more professional-looking garden, and to avoid it looking cluttered or overwhelming, it is best to try and stick to a colour scheme.

It is a good idea to pick colours based on the type of atmosphere you are trying to achieve. Vivid reds, oranges and yellows are exciting and stimulating, whereas soft shades of blue, green and purple are more calming.

Pick Suitable Plants

For a thriving garden, it is imperative that you pick plants that are suited to your garden. To be able to do this, you need to know what type of soil and conditions you have in your garden.

Different plants grow best in different types of soil, and some plants prefer lots of sun whereas some thrive in a shaded area. Observe the desired planting location at different times to see how much light or shade it gets in order to help you pick suitable plants.

If you plan to plant in containers such as baskets or planters, then you can pick your plants first then get soil to suit, or vice versa. You will just need to make sure that all of the plants in the container are suited to the same type of soil and environment.

Add Shrubs & Trees

Having evergreen shrubs and trees in your garden will help to ensure that there is foliage and colour in your garden year-round.

For the best results, opt for shrubs and trees which produce flowers in spring, such as azaleas, and colourful foliage in autumn, such as fuchsia magellanica or hibiscus syriacus.

Spring Gardening Tips

You must prune any shrubs that will flower in the current year’s growth, during early spring. You should also mulch your borders before planting - this will help to retain moisture in the soil and provide nutrients for plants.

Spring is a great time for planting perennials. Opt for perennial plants that respond well to dead-heading or being cut back to produce more flowers, such as dahlias, forget-me-nots, and peonies, which flower in summer.

Towards the end of the season, you will need to prune any spring-flowering shrubs that flowered in the previous year’s growth. If they are not pruned, or you prune them later, then it is unlikely that they will flower next year.

Summer Gardening Tips

Your garden is most prone to heat and dry spells in the summer, so it is important that you keep your plants well-fed and watered to ensure the colour of your summer blooms last.

Plant some biennials and perennials, as well as some hardy annuals and winter bedding throughout summer to provide colour later in the year. Cornflowers, pansies, foxglove, and delphiniums can be planted in summer.

Summer is a great time for collecting seeds and cuttings which you can save for planting.

Autumn Gardening Tips

Many summer-flowering plants will continue to flower into autumn, and sometimes even throughout autumn into early winter. To ensure they continue to bloom for as long as possible, it is important to keep on top of deadheading.

You should stop deadheading and cutting back some plants, such as sunflowers and thistles, towards the end of autumn to allow them to produce seed heads. As well as some being highly ornamental, seed heads provide seeds for birds.

Try to get into a habit of dividing congested perennials that are no longer flowering in autumn. This will help to regenerate plants and ensure that they thrive.

Autumn is the ideal time for planting most spring-flowering plants. Plant alliums, daffodils and tulips in autumn for a colourful garden in spring. You can also plant some winter-flowering plants in autumn, including snowdrops and crocuses.

Winter Gardening Tips

Many people associate winter gardens with a lack of colour. Undoubtedly, there is less colour in winter, but it is entirely possible to see colourful blooms and foliage in winter.

Pruning is crucial to ensuring that many plants remain healthy throughout winter and grow back beautifully later in the year, so be sure to carry out any necessary winter pruning.

Other than that, there is not much that needs to be done in winter. Many plants are dormant during the winter months so very little weeding and watering will be required.

We hope that with these tips you will be able to achieve a garden full of colour all year round and for many years to come.

For professional advice on selecting the best bulbs for your garden, please contact our knowledgeable team at Boston Bulbs by calling 01775 769333, or email us at sales@bostonbulbswholesale.co.uk.

The Boston Bulb Company has over 40 years of experience in supplying only the finest quality horticultural products from farmers and growers throughout the UK and Europe.