5 tips for a colourful spring garden

After a long winter, everyone could do with some colour in the garden. With a few well-considered choices you can make sure your garden flowers from the very first days of spring, and keeps going well into summer. Here are our five favourite tips.

1. Start with bulbs
Crocuses, daffodils and tulips are the first messengers of spring. Plant them in autumn in large, loose groups (better 15 bulbs together than scattered about) for the best effect. Deliberately choose early, mid-season and late varieties so that the flowering follows on nicely.

2. Combine flowering periods
A garden that stays colourful all season depends on a good mix of early bloomers (such as hyacinths and forget-me-nots), spring bloomers (such as ornamental cherry and forsythia) and summer bloomers that take over just as the first flowers fade.

3. Think in layers
Combine bulbs with perennials that will grow over them later. That way the border stays interesting after the bulbs have finished flowering, and the leaves of, for example, hostas or ornamental grasses will naturally hide the fading bulb foliage.

4. Feed the soil in good time
Give the border a dressing of compost or garden manure in early spring, before everything starts to grow. This gives plants a flying start and produces a sturdier, fuller result.

5. Choose structure as well as colour
Alongside flowering plants, evergreen structure is at least as important: a border with only flowers looks bare in winter. A few evergreen perennials or a low hedge keep the border worthwhile all year round.

Not sure which combination suits your garden best? Feel free to visit us in Milsbeek; we’re happy to think along with you.