The winter months really tell the truth about how and usually when we planted our gardens. Most of us get intoxicated with the spring and venture to the garden centre to fill up on colour and barely think twice about what foundation of structural planting we have. Some gardens have very few evergreen shrubs or no deciduous trees that exhibit a good winter form. These plants form the bones of the garden that bring us through the winter and provide the support to whatever flowers develop through the season.

I spent Saturday with The Hardy Plant Group for a day of lectures and learned from Bill Cullina  the simple trick of looking at a planting in black and white to ensure the garden is designed with enough interesting forms to read strong without the crutch of colour. It is such an effective way to reduce the distraction that colour brings to a planting. Often we are blinded by the beauty of colour and fail to see that it would have even more impact being displayed as a part of a strong design utilising form and texture as a foundation. Colour and flower are often the first priority for gardeners often at the expense of form. As always balance is the ideal, so to create a beautiful garden make sure you have enough structure to support all that colour and enjoy your garden for all of the year.