Heller Greenhouse260-238-4040

I have just tided my back garden up and have taken up all the summer bedding plants that have just gone over this last week. However, it now looks empty and I was wonder if anyone could suggest suitable plants to fill in the gaps until next year?

I think you have a bit of a problem if you live in the UK and you want to plant things now which are going to be removed in Spring to make room for more summer bedding. With hindsight, you could of course have planted spring bulbs, such as narcissi, anemone blanda, miniature iris etc, and if you do this next Autumn they will be coming up by January. At the moment you could also plant some spring-flowering heathers, which will flower from January through to April and will grow into neat little bushes if you prune the flowers off when they are finished, and will live and improve for many years. However, I think the question really comes down to what structure you have in the garden that is there all the year round, so it doesn’t look bare when the annuals are finished. You might consider planting some small shrubs with silver or variagated leaves, for instance, such as curry plant, lavender, euonymus, or cotton lavender, or perhaps small trees with red bark, such as cotinus or coral bark maple, which will look lovely in winter and will also give height, bulk and shape to your summer plantings. There are hundreds of smallish shrubby plants which would cope well with the sun in a southfacing garden in a hot summer, as well as retaining attractive foliage in winter. If you just rely on summer bedding, your garden will look bare for a large part of every year, but with a little care, it can be interesting to look at all year round, and also less expensive and labour-intensive.