Winter doesn’t have to mean a dull, lifeless garden. Even when temperatures drop and daylight hours shrink, there are plenty of ways to bring vibrant colour and interest to your outdoor space. With the right plants, accessories, and layout choices, your garden can look just as charming in January as it does in June!
Here are some of the best ways to add a splash of colour to your winter garden.
Add Evergreen Structure
Evergreens provide the backbone of a winter garden, giving shape, colour, and texture when deciduous plants have dropped their leaves.
Good evergreen options for UK gardens:
- Holly (with red berries for extra winter sparkle)
- Box (Buxus) for neat, sculpted hedges and topiary
- Heathers – especially winter-flowering varieties like Erica carnea
- Pittosporum – many cultivars have variegated or purple-tinged foliage.
For instant impact, you can buy ready-made, but more costly, topiary – expect to pay around £25 for a 30cm box ball!
Use Colourful pots and containers
If your borders look too bare, brighten things up with bold, weatherproof pots! Head to the garden centre and pick out new favourites, or get crafty and decorate them yourself for something truly unique.
Deep blues and greens will compliment frosty foliage, and bright reds or yellows wil create a bold contrast against winter greys. Fill your pots with hardy plants like winter pansies, ornamental cabbage, skimmia, or dwarf conifers.
Choose Winter Friendly Hanging Baskets
Hanging baskets don’t have to be just for summer. Winter displays can be surprisingly colourful. Fill your winter baskets with Ivy for a trailing texture, winter violas, heathers, mini cyclamen and small evergreen shrubs like Euonymus.
Build a Bug Hotel
There’s nothing better than a project that makes your garden more interesting and benefits wildlife. Bug hotels can be simple or fancy, and of any size… Think nooks and crannies!
Small holes make ideal hibernating homes for ladybirds and lacewings, so cut bamboo canes into short lengths with the hollow ends exposed. Set them into an old wooden box, or forget the frame and simply tie them into a small bundle. Leftover lengths of wood can be drilled with holes to do the same job, and if placed on the ground then beetle larvae will feed on the decaying wood.
Brighten it Up With Simple Lighting
In winter, we often come home in the dark and miss seeing the garden altogether. Outdoor lighting can bring it back into play and transform the view from windows that would otherwise be dark, reflective panes. Try a few tea lights in clear jam jars to add seasonal twinkle for special occasions and solar lights to provide a few hours of decorative light.
Fairy lights are fun draped in a tree and there’s a wide range of lighting kits on offer that are quick and easy to install. Be sure to switch lighting off before going to bed, to minimise disruption to wildlife.
A Complete Garden Renovation
If you’re making the most of the winter months to do a complete garden overhaul, then the team at Rosewood can help. Our landscaping team can completely transform your garden, by installing new fencing, a brand new patio, erecting a pergola, laying new turf or planting new flowerbeds.
Get in touch with the team today to see how we can help you freshen up your garden for the new year!