How to transition garden borders for winter – 5 easy ways to plant up a beautiful garden filled with colour, texture and blooms

What if I told you that you don’t have to put your garden to bed until spring? There are so many ways to transition a garden border for winter – by adding colour, texture and structure, you can easily turn it into a space worth admiring.

To do that, you’ll need a mixture of evergreen shrubs, winter-flowering perennials and other accessories that can give your garden border the lift it needs to look beautiful all winter. If you transition your outdoor living space for autumn and winter, too, you could end up spending a lot more time in your garden over the winter months.

This time, though, we’re focusing on ways to make your garden border look beautiful throughout winter. These are the best ways to do it.

What you'll need

1. Plant for texture

Bare twigs are wintry, it’s true, but they’re not a very cheerful sight during the colder months. To compensate, it’s worth planting evergreen plants for borders that provide structure and texture when deciduous plants die back.

‘A perennial like Astelia retains its sword-shaped leaves, with silver varieties like ‘Silver Spear’ boasting arching silver-green leaves that reach up to 1.5 metres in height,’ says Lucie Bradley, gardening and greenhouse expert at Harvst.

Evergreens aren’t the only candidates, though – some plants put on a beautiful show after they’ve shed their leaves.

‘Shrubs such as dogwood have bright, colourful stems which provide structure once their leaves have fallen, with varieties such as ‘Baton Rouge’ displaying vibrant scarlet-red stems during autumn and winter,’ says Lucie.

You can order a 5-litre pot of Astelia ‘Silver Spear’ from Gardening Express, and Cornus alba ‘Baton Rouge’ from Thompson & Morgan.

2. Include flowering plants

An interesting winter border is a colourful one. Winter-flowering shrubs and perennials keep a garden looking beautiful in cold weather, and often boast striking foliage, too.

‘Hellebore varieties such as ‘Anna’s Red’ have decorative variegated evergreen foliage with pink veins and will produce rich, maroon-coloured flowers from December onwards,' says Lucie.

Helleborus niger (available in pots from Gardening Express) is also known as the Christmas rose because white flowers appear around the festive season. It’s one of the most popular hellebore varieties out there.

There are several other winter flowers you can plant now for stunning cold-weather blooms. Climbers like winter-flowering honeysuckle, which you can order from Crocus, produce fragrant flowers.

3. Don't forget about pots

You might not have a traditional garden border with planting space, and that’s where you’ll need to play around with a few container garden ideas.

‘Pots are a great way to keep gardens looking tidy and attractive during the colder months, particularly when borders start to lose their colour,’ says Luke Jeffery from Mims Pottery. ‘Glazed pots like our Mulberry Planter are particularly good for adding colour to the garden during autumn and winter. Even when the plants are not in flower, the pots themselves can provide a lovely splash of colour.’

If you do already have a chock-a-block garden border, Luke recommends positioning a few pots around it to introduce colour and structure without having to completely replant them.

I'm a big fan of this Verve Glazed Blue Marble Clay Plant Pot from B&Q, too.

4. Keep wildlife in mind

It’s also important to consider wildlife while you’re transitioning your garden border for winter. You might want to nestle bird feeders or a bird bath like this metal bird bath from Amazon among your border plants, or plant bird-feeding plants and other wildlife-friendly varieties.

‘More long-term, natural solutions involve including shrubs like cotoneaster, berberis, firethorn and holly, which will not only provide a natural supply of berries, but also add gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows into your garden border when there are less plants in flower.’

Planning a garden border that looks beautiful and caters to wildlife is crucial as temperatures drop. The cotoneaster in my mum’s garden has been a long-standing favourite of visiting wildlife, and you can plant Cotoneaster horizontalis (available at Thompson & Morgan) now.

5. Add structure with obelisks

Evergreen plants aren’t the only way to add structure to garden borders – you could invest in an obelisk or two for extra ornamentation and height.

I think this twin pack of decorative obelisks from Argos is an absolute steal for £22 – or, you could invest in a more glamorous style like the rust Fleur de Lys Obelisk from Crocus.

‘Obelisks give you the opportunity to add evergreen climbing plants, including winter-flowering clematis such as Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’.’

Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ is available to order from Thompson & Morgan in various pot sizes.

6. Make use of groundcover plants

Don’t overlook groundcover plants that suppress weeds and protect your garden border from frost. Besides those perks, they’re a great way to introduce front-of-border colour and texture to your planting scheme.

‘Protect the ground from harsh weather and weeds by adding evergreen groundcover plants such as Vinca minor with its glossy green foliage, or bugleweed, which has varieties like ‘Burgundy Glow’ with variegated foliage,' suggests Lucie. 'They’ll add gorgeous shades to your border, as well as lush foliage and texture.’

Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow' is available to buy from Crocus.

There's so much room for creativity when it comes to transitioning a garden border for winter. Colour, texture and structure are key!