As the time for planting has arrived it's worth considering colour choice in your garden beds. This is an important decision and the main variable in determining your choices is the style of garden that you have initially opted for.

Colour can come in two forms; flowers or foliage. If your colour comes from flowers then you need to consider some planting options as flowers will only last a season and leave the plants bare for the remainder of the year.

Flower Colour

The first option is to grow plants that can be staggered in their flowering seasons. As many plants, especially most annuals, flower in spring your garden will look gorgeous through this season but you will also need to choose plants that flower through winter (many early bulbs are a good choice here), summer and autumn.

I find the best way to do this is to get a picture of the plants you are hoping to grow and arrange them on a piece of paper. Have one piece for each season attaching the plants that flower predominantly through that period. This will give you a good view of the garden and allow you move the plants location so that colours don't clash. You may even find that some transparent paper may be a better idea as the you can also see where you have situated your other seasonal plants.

Foliage Colour

The difference with foliage colour is that in most cases the foliage remains the same through all seasons. This allows you to plan your garden knowing that it will remain fairly consistent throughout the year.

To bring some dynamic effect into this colour choice you could opt to add a deciduous tree where the foliage changes colour in autumn, is bare in winter, lighter foliage in spring with a deeper mature foliage in summer.

Many tropical gardens rely on foliage for their colour using bromeliads, palms and bamboo trunks to mesh together creating a sea of colour that is devoid of flowers (noting that some bromeliads do flower).

It may be worth contemplating that your garden colour choice also says something about your personality so feel free to share with the world who you are.