Whether you live in the cooler north or the sunny south, evergreens are the perfect choice for adding colour, texture and structure to your outdoor areas throughout the year.

Below is our guide for choosing the right plants for creating an evergreen border.

Evergreen plants are an important part of any garden. Without Evergreen plants, our gardens would look bare and twiggy during much of the year.

Evergreens add volume and structure to borders and add interest throughout the winter.

Start by choosing your Evergreens, try to contrast the colour, height and texture for an interesting display.

Make sure your soil is in good condition, add lots of organic matter but avoid mushroom compost because of its alkaline.

Plant in the same depth as they were in their pots. This scheme works best if the ground is raked over to create some simple contours before placing and planting.

This border plan can easily be applied to a smaller garden.

If you already have an Evergreen to use as a focal point, it’s even easier! Simply reduce quantities of the plants we use in mass for the larger design above.

If you’re lucky enough to have a large garden why not try and add some rarer species to your Evergreen border.

You can even add some deciduous shrubs for autumn colour and winter scent.

Other flowering ground cover plants, such as hardy geraniums which can be planted to add lots of colours to the evergreen framework.

Keep on top of your border throughout the year. Evergreen plants will look their best during the next few months and no maintenance is required. In spring new Evergreens should be planted as early as possible.

The same applies if you move any of your Evergreens.

Water regularly before they are fully developed and after that, they won’t take much maintenance.