My __garden is too green
After 20 years here, our west-facing __garden is full of trees, hedges and slightly exotic foliage plants of various shades of green. Hydrangeas and rhododendrons work, but the garden still desperately lacks colour.
Despite attempts at improvement, the soil is badly drained concrete in summer that turns to mud in winter. I need to inject some fail-safe colourful thugs. What would you suggest?
Jane Griffin, Sussex
Given the overwhelmingly all-green canvas, fail-safe, colourful thuggery is going to need planning and work, but there is a lot you can do this autumn to start. First, take a look at the garden from key aspects and work out ways to open up your over-green forest: you could raise tree canopies to let in light, selectively thin lower branches of evergreens to create glimpses beyond – and you should even contemplate removing anything that is dark and overbearing....
