- Use coloured pots in a cohesive palette to not only look intentional but add colour whilst flowers are dormant. Consider using outdoor paint to paint your own and create a colour palette that works for you and your outdoor space.
- Colour is not only found in flowers, petals and leaves but also on branches. Consider how your plants change through the season and pick a few that provide colour even once all the leaves have dropped. Some great examples that we love and often use in our designs at Dig include Cornus ‘Midwinter fire’ and Acer palmatum ‘Sango Kaku’
- Lighting may seem obvious but it really can make all the difference in a garden in winter. Lighting can be used to either light up an entire area in your garden, potentially where you mostly socialise such as a seating area, or can be used to uplight plants from below to great effect. We really like the selection of outdoor lighting at our friends Cox and Cox. Trace a welcoming light path through your garden or even create whimsy using twinkly lights through the trees and shrubs.
- When it’s not raining and textiles can be used outside, adding colour with your seating pillows, as well as a warm blanket can make the space more inviting and cosy as you sit and admire the beauty of winter in your garden.
- Furniture doesn’t always need to be the normal silver metal, black iron or brown wood. Outdoor furniture comes in all sorts of colours, materials and interesting shapes. Consider adding colour and interest using an interesting design of chair in a bright colour to draw your eye as the focus in your garden in winter.
- Using paint can be a great way to add instant impact into your space too. Paint a fence in a new colour, or paint the frame of your greenhouse or a bench in a bright colour to contrast to the green, grey and brown tones of your garden. For an extra layer of synergy, choose colours that work well with your summer flowering plants, to help remind you of your summer garden as well as tying in everything throughout all seasons.
- Just because it’s winter, it doesn’t mean you still can have flowering plants, there are many winter flowering plants such as Cyclamen, Violas, Sarcococca, Hellebore and winter flowering honeysuckle that all add a beautiful pop.
- Another impact of light can be firelight, nothing is more warm and cosy than sitting around a firepit in the evening. Pair this with your warm textiles and some lights strung around your trees for an extremely cosy and inviting space to enjoy during the winter. Remember to source your seasoned logs from an eco-friendly, sustainable supplier! There’s plenty of eco-fuels to choose from nowadays – from logs made of biomass sawdust, to logs made from coffee grinds.
- Use silver leaved plants such as Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’, or the frosted fern: Athyrium niponicum f. metallicum, to add some sparkle into the garden
- If you’re feeling very adventurous, consider having a go at your own personal topiary to create interesting shapes and forms with your evergreen shrubs. The RHS has a great guide on how to start here.
