March 28th, 2021 - Tips and inspiration

A new colour in early Spring

Here’s a way to introduce a new colour in a cottage garden in early Spring.

Plants can’t always provide you with enough colour, other than lovely green of course.

In February I bought one yellow chair and put the pots of Jetfire narcissi around it.

 

All winter the splash of colour had been this blue chair and table but simply changing the chair colour has made a big difference.

Colour attracts your eye

Looking out the back door suddenly your eye is stopped by the new colour right outside,  an instant change which I wouldn’t get from planting at this time of year.  Having seen how the yellow was just right, I then went mad and got a matching tiny table.

It’s because of the daffodils that it looks such fun.  When they are over, something contrasting in a pot on the table will look great too.  Maybe one of the pots of tulips I have around the place and later on a few pelargoniums in a coral shade.  Even some green ferns would look nice.

Just right for a chilly morning coffee.

For a few weeks yellow will be the predominant colour.  Then when the daffodils are finished the chair will still be there but may not be the stand out colour.  It’s the same mid tone as the the blue pots and the coloured chairs.  Not pastel, not neon but a mid tone.

Yellow and red/blue/purple

At my front door I perch on this red chair to sit in the sun.

It’s not level but it’s safe enough.  I also swap the chairs around, sometimes a purple one and sometimes a blue one.  I realise you have to spend money on the chairs in the first place but what an investment, so mobile, flexible, useful and long lasting.  Plants have a habit of dying sometimes but a chair never dies.

A pot in a new colour

Lastly I injected a totally new colour in the front garden simply by buying a small royal blue pot for some early daffodils and placing it on the purple table.  Look how the purple, blue, yellow and green look right together.  Again, all mid tone colours, not too harsh and not too pale.

Here’s a snapshot of the back garden. You can see working backwards the yellow narcissi, red pot, blue table, yellow chair, purple trug and even the yellow walls in our kitchen.

 

I hope this has given you some ideas for flexible new colours in the garden.  I’ve written more about it in a previous blog How to use colour in the cottage garden style

My yellow chair is made by Fermob, a French company but you can buy them and many similar easily online.

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