Autumn: Coaxing Colour to Stay in Your Garden

Autumn is the time when gardens tend to lose their rampant summer flowers, lovely colours and flush greenery and start to wind down ready for the coming icy weather of winter. But if you’ve prepared ahead for autumn you’ll know that there are still some autumn flowers ready to grace your garden with their blooms. If your garden is looking bare already, then you might want to consider the services of your local professional gardener so that next year you will have the best garden on the block.

Flowers are not the only things to give colour in autumn though. There are all those wonderful seedpods, berries and autumn leaves that can provide colour in the autumn garden. And what about those plants like the Japanese maple, whose leaves fall in the autumn? The stems glow in vibrant colours all winter long, until their new spring flush of growth hides those twigs.

Other shrubs and trees have branches and trunks with subtle colours of grey, pink, blue-green and mauve or russet that makes them almost as attractive as they were when in full leaf or bloom. These kinds of plants do double or triple duty in the garden because they provide something beautiful to look at even on the bleakest of days.

To make the best use of plants and coax colour to stay in your garden all year round, the services of a professional may be needed. He will know exactly what plants give the best value for the time and space given to them. You can have plants with fresh green growth in the spring, flowers throughout summer, pretty autumn leaves, berries or seedpods in the autumn and attractive bare branches during the winter.

In some cases the seedpods remain on the branches throughout the winter, providing hungry birds with something to eat. In this case you’ll have a garden of living things to watch as birds happily come and go. But what trees or shrubs give such great value? It’s not always easy to find them, even if you do know what to look for. But a professional gardener will be able to advise you what to get and how to look after it.

Some trees cannot be grown close to buildings or pathways due to their invasive root system. Others may become too tall and drop leaf litter on your roof and in the guttering. Others have berries that are poisonous. To avoid these problems get in contact with a professional to help you choose what is safe to grow in your garden.