It’s time to put texture back in your garden

Peter Dowdall laments the bad summer but takes a positive approach and looks to other plants to add colour form and a sense of structure to the garden over autumn and throughout the wintertime.

As the colour lessens in the garden and the exuberance of the summer bedding and patio plants fade into the autumn, or get consigned to the compost bin — and as the perennials start to show signs of tiredness and lack lustrous growth — it is time to look at the other touches that can bring interest and life to the garden.

This year those self-same bedding and perennials really never got the chance to shine with all the wind and rain.