Adding colour to your garden on a budget

Summer is here and for a few short months, our gardens provide us with additional living space. There are unique pleasures to spending time outside – exposure to sunshine releases serotonin, food always tastes better when eaten al fresco and children are always happy when they have a sprinkler to run through or creepy-crawlies to watch.

After the drabness of winter and the promise of spring, summer is the time of year when gardens look their most colourful. However, there are more ways to add colour to your garden than applying lawn feed or buying garden gnomes. These are some of the best ways of filling your garden with colour, without spending a fortune…

Plant colourful trees

Many people are familiar with acers, whose leaves range from orange and yellow to scarlet. Often referred to as ornamental trees, you can expect months of colour from California lilac, foxglove, Chinese redbuds and magnolia trees. Blossom trees add short-lived bursts of colour while fruit trees bring subtler shades. Plum, pear, apple and cherry trees will all grow in Scotland, though not in full shade. Even conventional trees add interest if their leaves turn orange in the autumn. Buy saplings to save money; with care, they should last a lifetime.

Consider installing hedging

Hedging makes a wonderful addition to any garden. As well as boosting privacy and muffling sound, a mature hedge provides a home to nature and offers a nicer outlook than wooden fencing. Deciduous hedges like copper beech change colour without looking bare in winter, but some evergreen hedges change colour through the seasons as well. Spiraea japonica goes through an entire rainbow of hues, while cherry laurel and lemon thyme add delicate shades that work well beside a stronger Photinia Red Robin or tricolour Buddleia.

Choose tasteful additions

We mentioned garden gnomes earlier, but there are far more tasteful ways to inject colour. These can be as simple as a pebble bed or trough decorated with shells and stones foraged from the beach, gradually building into a free collection of happy memories. Outdoor clocks and metal sculptures often turn up in antique stores at knockdown prices, while storing your wellies upside down on wooden poles adds a splash of brightness at minimal cost. Even creosoting a fence changes your garden’s dynamic if you choose a green or brown hue.

Buy or make hanging baskets

Hanging baskets are eye-catching, they attract birds without being invaded by slugs and they don’t need to be repositioned before gardening. Garden centres and DIY stores sell ready-made baskets – the latter surprisingly cheaply. Alternatively, create your own by surrounding an alpine or small shrub with pansies, violas, begonias or petunias. Bulbs and seeds are the cheapest way to start a new basket, where you should aim to blend trailing plants with upright ones. Bees adore lavender bushes, while vanilla plants smell even better than they look.

Attract insects

Urban sprawl and pollution harm insect populations, but low-cost tweaks in your garden can ensure dragonflies, butterflies and bees all bring their own splashes of colour. Buy or build a bug house and secure it somewhere near grass or hedging. Install a colourful water feature or top up a bowl of water every day. Insects attract larger animals who themselves add character, like hedgehogs and birds. Similarly, buying or creating a fence-mounted bird table with fat balls attached to it could attract flying visitors within minutes.

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