Garden Guru: Bold is beautiful

Brassicas serve to make a strong statement. Photo / Supplied

We tend to decorate our gardens as we furnish our houses - there are those full of frills and ornaments, and then there are minimalist bachelor pads.

Yet outside you can have the best of both worlds, dressing the garden with billowing froth - flowers, bulbs, grasses and perennials for summer - and enjoying a much sleeker outlook after all the softer ingredients have been chopped back by June.

I love this undressing, which brings such a contrast to my plot. Right now I relish swathes of bare soil under the roses and the strong and simple shapes of key evergreen shrubs and subtropicals, the winter backbone that holds the garden together.

Simple, clipped evergreen shrubs such as coprosmas, box and pittosporum make dependable, neutral solid slabs. If you cut them well before the weather turns cold, the growing tips will not get burned by frost.

More importantly, now that the bones of the garden show, they will look groomed and sleek rather than fuzzy and indistinct.

But against these monoliths, it's good to throw in some heavyweight leaves, chunky plants to add boldness and body. In colder climates, bold foliage is trickier to find. However, there are a few evergreens that are perfectly hardy and will stay with you through winter such as fatsias, rhododendrons or low-growing bergenias with great glossy elephant ears.

In mild areas you can really go to town with all manner of imposing evergreen foliage. Natives are a good place to start. Puka (Meryta sinclairii) is a reasonably reliable native performer.

A smaller alternative is the little-used Griselinia lucida, which has much bolder leaves than the hedging variety and grows naturally as a semi-epiphyte.

Flax (Phormiums) are perfect for their muscular good looks but it pays to go for one really strong and broad-leaved form rather than a jumble of varieties. One of my favourites is ligularia, especially Ligularia reniformis. Plant it where it will get afternoon shade.

The heavier native ferns include all the tree ferns, black ponga (Cyathea medullaris) being the most imposing.

The King Fern (Marattia salicina) however is just as impressive in a semi-shaded and well-watered place and even the common kiokio (Blechnum novae-zelandiae) looks dramatic if encouraged to luxuriate.

Ferns are essential because they don't mind being shaded by summer plants and when you reveal them at the end of the season they still look slick and fresh, and also blend into bold subtropical schemes and traditional gardens with equal ease. Too many fat paddles of leaf can look monotonous so go easy with taro-like plants. I prefer the simple solidity of the giant green taro (Alocasia odora) because it doesn't run about all over the place.

Most of these bold brutes need a high nitrogen diet to keep their foliage plump and fresh. Apply blood and bone in spring when growth starts. For now though, it's enough to simply preen them - strip them down and allow them to wrestle in your borders to their hearts' content.

Could do this week

* Try to finish planting spring bulbs this month. If you have tulip bulbs cooling in the fridge, check on the right time to take them out. Six weeks is plenty.
* Feed auriculas and primulas with dried blood and bone for better coloured blooms through winter and into spring.
* If you have ordered bare-root roses, wet the roots and store them in a bucket with damp compost or bark until you are ready to plant them.
* Add a handful of Epsom salts around daphne bushes to boost their health and reduce the yellowing of leaves.
* If the weather and soil is not too cold and wet, continue to plant trees and shrubs.