Simple tip using colour to add style to garden borders

Here is a simple idea to help add style to your garden borders. Take one colour and use different plants of that colour to create a bold effect by running this ribbon of colour through the border. This has a more coherent look than separate blocks of colour scattered throughout the bed.

 

You can run your line of colour from side to side or from front to back, but choosing several different species of a similar colour will visually link them together and make them stand out. In the picture above I have a bronze Berberis at the back of this bed, and seeing its translucent glow in the sunshine made me realise what I needed to plant in front of it. 

I planted Heuchera "Fire Chief" in a drift of three plants running from the front of the bed diagonally across in front of the Berberis, making a swathe of reddish brown rather than just a splodge.

 

It has the effect of drawing that bronze tone through from the back of the bed to the very front. Of course you can try this with any colour scheme, and any plants, so this is something you can try in any garden, anywhere.

 

Why not give it a go? Please use the comments box below to tell us about the combinations you use and the results.